Military to Lease Base Land for AI Data Centers

The Air Force is offering more than 3,000 acres of land on five military installations for private companies to lease for AI data centers. Two-thirds of the land is at Edwards Air Force Base in California. (US Air force photo)

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The US Air Force wants to lease land at five bases to companies to use for their private AI data centers, reports Air Force Times. The department posted a solicitation online Tuesday asking for proposals to develop “underutilized” land at Arnold Air Force Base in Tennessee, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona, Edwards Air Force Base in California, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey, and Robins Air Force Base in Georgia.

The US Army is concerned about its near total reliance on local power grids to energize its most critical installations. Many of the service’s installations will have operating nuclear microreactors starting in the fall of 2028 if the Army’s Janus program moves forward on schedule. Jeff Waksman, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment, said the addition of nuclear power will diversify the energy sources available on military bases. “What resilience means to us is that we have power, no matter what, 24/7,” he said.

The Pentagon is racing to integrate artificial intelligence into military operations, with the Defense Department investing $100 million to accelerate AI adoption across autonomous weapons systems and battlefield command decisions, reports Military Times. The main driving force behind the US military’s recent AI focus is China’s investments in the technology in recent years.

The US military killed six people overnight on Thursday in the Caribbean in the 10th reported strike on a boat alleged to be involved in drug smuggling, reports The Washington Post. The ninth strike Wednesday — and the second in the eastern Pacific — against an alleged drug-carrying vessel, killed three people, reports Military Times. This followed another strike Tuesday in the Pacific that killed two people, The New York Times reported.

The USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group has been ordered to the Caribbean as the US continues to target suspected drug smuggling vessels there, reports The Hill. The Ford is currently deployed to the Mediterranean Sea along with three destroyers.

DefSec Pete Hegseth has ordered Pentagon officials — including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — to obtain permission from the department’s legislative affairs office before they have any communication with Capitol Hill, reports Navy Times. Previously, individual agencies and military branches were able to manage their own communications with Congress.

Rep. George Whitesides (D-CA), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said the move to clamp down on military interactions is unlikely to be received well on Capitol Hill, reports Breaking Defense.

Eight months after Hegseth fired the Air Force’s top lawyer, the judge advocate general tasked with those duties has stepped down, reports Defense One. No one has yet been nominated to fill either of those top legal jobs for the service.

Ninety-nine small Maryland companies were awarded ExportMD grants to help promote their products and services in the global marketplace, the state’s Department of Commerce reports. The grants, awarded from August 2024 through August 2025, boost businesses by helping finance the costs of marketing internationally including trade show fees and travel expenses. Three St. Mary’s County companies – Naval Systems Inc., Parraid LLC, and Platform Systems Inc. – were among the recipients. A complete list of recipients can be found here.

A deal for Ukraine to secure 25 Patriot air defense systems from the US is nearing completion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, reports The Hill. “The difficulty lies in the production queue — a line of countries that have signed relevant contracts. We will be receiving these 25 systems over the years, with different quantities each year,” Zelensky said.

Ukraine is eyeing Swedish Gripen fighter jets as part of its quest to acquire the fourth-generation aircraft type, reports Defense News. The two countries have signed a letter of intent for the export of up to 150 aircraft jets to Kyiv, which could provide the country with an advantage against a wide range of electronic-warfare and missile threats.

US Army soldier enlistments will be extended by 45 days because of shutdown, reports Army Times. The shutdown is leaving soldiers unable to complete necessary procedures prior to leaving the service because of a shortage of administrative personnel.

A federal judge has ordered that five schools for military children must return library books that had been removed for review, reports Marine Corps Times. The initial removal was to comply with the administration’s efforts to scrub diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts from federal agencies.

Members of the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions criticized Boeing last week for cutting health care to 3,000 striking St. Louis workers, reports NBC5 KSDK. “This is a company whose planes have literally been falling out of the sky in pieces in recent years,” US Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) said. “Why is that? … Because they won’t commit to safety standards. They won’t pay their workers well, but they pay their CEO and their C-suite more than ever before.” US Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) echoed Hawley’s criticism, saying the company’s “union busting is a threat to aviation safety.”

Boeing’s MQ-28 Ghost Bat collaborative combat aircraft will take steps in its development when it tests its ability to conduct combat and then later collaborate with another jet fighter, reports National Defense. The test is scheduled to autonomously fire an air-to-air missile from the MQ-28 by the end of this year.

Lockheed Martin and RTX predicted strong profits for the rest of 2025 as their results benefited from a demand for arms from conflicts in the Middle East and the Russia-Ukraine war, reports Reuters on MSN. Missiles, munitions, and air defenses were important drivers for both companies, while Lockheed has been awarded a $12.5 billion contract from the Pentagon, for a total of 296 F-35 jets.

Lockheed Martin aims to conduct an on-orbit demonstration of at least one space-based, anti-missile interceptor design no later than 2028, reports The War Zone. Interceptors deployed in space have been billed as a key element of the Trump administration’s Golden Dome missile defense project. In July, Northrop Grumman had separately disclosed the existence of an active competition for Golden Dome’s space-based interceptor component.

Los Angeles-based Apex — the latest company to unveil plans to prototype technology that could contribute to the Golden Dome initiative — said it plans to launch a space-based missile interceptor demonstration next summer, reports Air & Space Forces Magazine. The satellite manufacturer said it will demonstrate an interceptor host platform called Orbital Magazine. For the mission, one of the company’s Nova satellite buses equipped with a software-defined radio will transmit and receive communications and provide power, heat, and environmental support for the interceptors.

Israeli-US startup Stardust Solutions announced a fundraising round for any company that aims to cool the Earth by spraying particles into the atmosphere, reports Politico. Stardust Solutions’ plan to limit the sun’s heat raised $60 million from a coalition of investors that included Silicon Valley and Italian companies. Stardust claims to have created a particle that would reflect sunlight in the same way debris from volcanic eruptions can temporarily cool the planet.

Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 542 (VMFA-542), operating the F-35B, returned from a historic five-month deployment to the US Central Command, marking a major milestone in Marine Corps aviation and joint force integration, reports Seapower Magazine. VMFA-542 conducted Close Air Support, Armed Overwatch, and Defensive Counter-Air missions. The unit, from MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, flew more than 1,099 combat sorties and accumulated over 4,736 mishap-free flight hours.

Netflix released a trailer last week for “Marines,” a four-part documentary series on the US Marine Corps, reports Air Force Times. The four episodes are scheduled to air on the service’s 250th birthday, Nov. 10.

The Cost of Living Adjustment for 2026 will be 2.8%, a few ticks higher than the 2025 COLA, Social Security Administration officials announced, reports Military Times. The announcement sets the rate of increase for Social Security beneficiaries, but also for military retirees and people receiving veterans benefits. The increase goes into effect in January.

Contacts awards are not being published during the government shutdown.