• Raytheon, a division of RTX, announced its new upgraded radar for hypersonic missile defense.
• The company said on Monday it delivered the radar to the US Missile Defense Agency.
• Hypersonic weapons are fast with unpredictable flight patterns that challenge current missile defenses.

Raytheon has given the US Missile Defense Agency a new radar, the most advanced of its kind, that it says can support the difficult mission of defending against hypersonic weapons.

The radar is one of the latest examples of how the US is working to strengthen its air defenses against more advanced threats like hypersonic weapons, which are nearly impossible to intercept with current systems.

Raytheon, an RTX Corporation business, announced on Monday the delivery of its first upgraded AN/TPY-2 missile defense radar featuring a Gallium Nitride (GaN) populated array.

These radars are able to detect, track, and discriminate ballistic missiles in multiple phases of flight. The latest upgrade improves the sensitivity and range of the radar and expands its surveillance capabilities.

"The radar also features the latest CX6 high-performance computing software that offers more precise target discrimination and electronic attack protection," Raytheon said in a release.

Some experts have noted the game-changing use of GaN semiconductor technology in enhancing radars, radio frequency sensing, and other communication platforms. Multiple big players in the defense industry have been working on GaN-based capabilities, especially for upgrading sensors and weapons systems.

Last fall, Raytheon began production of the GaN-empowered Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense System (LTAMDS) with the Army, designing it to ultimately replace the current Patriot missile defense system radars.

Raytheon's new version of the AN/TPY-2 is the most advanced it's built, said Sam Deneke, president of Air and Space Defense Systems at Raytheon, per the release. "As demand increases for missile defense of the homeland, the AN/TPY-2 radar is ready to meet the mission."

US military officials have been pushing for more capabilities to defend against hypersonics for years now. They're daunting weapons due to a hypersonic missile's ability to fly low, fast, and maneuver along unpredictable flight paths that make them far more difficult to intercept than already challenging ballistic missiles that fly the predictable parabolic arcs.

Both China and Russia, key US rivals, possess hypersonic missiles in their arsenals.

US-made air defenses have defeated Russia's advanced Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missile, sometimes questionably touted as hypersonic weaponry. But defending against weapons more accurately identified by that name, such as China's DF-17 missile equipped with a hypersonic glide vehicle or Russia's Zircon scramjet-powered hypersonic cruise missile, could prove more difficult, though Ukraine has claimed to have defeated the Zircon.

Though the weapons may not be unstoppable, they represent a much more challenging threat, and this technology is continuing to advance.

China's expansion of its missile arsenal has raised concerns about the vulnerability of US forces and strategic allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region. Washington lawmakers and US military leaders have repeatedly said that American forces lack the active and passive defenses needed to defend against a substantial Chinese missile bombardment that could include hypersonic weapons. But efforts are underway to strengthen these defenses.

Last year, for instance, the US and Japan announced plans to jointly develop a hypersonic missile defense system as part of a Glide Phase Interceptor (GPI) Cooperative Development (GCD) Project Arrangement that aims to intercept a hypersonic weapon in its glide phase of flight. 

And more recently, the Trump administration began pursuing a new "Iron Dome for America," now called the "Golden Dome," because, as the president said in a January executive order, "the threat of attack by ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles, and other advanced aerial attacks, remains the most catastrophic threat facing the United States."

• Lululemon's 2-in-1 maxi dress has become massively popular overnight.
• The stretchy garment is more suited for casual outings, unlike the brand's athletic wear.
• Some shoppers, however, have argued the dress is overpriced and basic.

It's a gown. It's a skirt. It's $148 and strangely controversial.

I'm talking about the 2-in-1 maxi dress from Lululemon, which, in all fairness, you might not have ever noticed.

The garment is extremely understated and more ideal for a walk on the beach than a workout class. There's a good chance you've scrolled past it while shopping for new leggings on the brand's website.

Fashion fans, however, can't seem to talk about anything other than the stretchy shift right now.

Lululemon sells everyday clothes. You just might not have noticed.

At its core, Lululemon is an athletic brand. Its Align leggings brought the company fame, and its sweat-repelling pieces have become massive in different sports communities.

Even its everyday staples, like the belt bags teens carry instead of purses and the ABC joggers professional men wear to the office, can be used for sport.

So, Lululemon's maxi dress might seem like an anomaly. It's designed simply to be worn as part of a cute outfit, not an active ensemble.

"I still can't comprehend how this dress is from Lululemon," one TikToker captioned her video about the garment.

It's really not an outlier, though. Lululemon has been selling maxi dresses and other casual staples for years. They're just sleeper hits.

This specific strapless dress can be worn as a skirt when its top is folded over the hips. It's sold in four colors — light ivory, black, lava cake, and raceway green — and sizes between XXXS and XL.

Many of the sizes are now sold out across colorways, and it's unclear if the brand will restock.

Representatives for Lululemon didn't respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Cute, but costly

As is the nature of the internet, the very existence of the simple dress has been debated. Over the past two weeks, dozens of videos tagged #lululemondress have been posted to TikTok.

Many have raved about its soft texture, saying the dress contours your body and fits like a dream. Its versatility is also a big draw.

Others, however, said its design is way too basic and overpriced, retailing for $148.

Though the dresses are made from a mix of fabrics, including silk and Lenzing Modal, they also contain nylon and Lycra elastane, which some shoppers dislike for being unsustainable and plastic.

"It's not that it's ugly, it's just not $150 type of cute," one TikToker wrote.

"Ok but if you saw it at Walmart, would you buy it??" another TikTok user said.

Some people are so bothered by the dress that they've even compared it to a "thneed," the fictional, trendy garment mentioned in "The Lorax." The comparison has made the dress even more viral, with shoppers debating if Lululemon's garment fits the bill.

I'm here to tell you that comparison is not accurate at all.

After all, Lululemon's dress does not look like a stretched-out sweater, like a thneed does, and it can't be worn as a sock, hat, or sweatshirt, like a thneed can.

Now, is the dress worth $148 of your hard-earned money, or the time and effort it will take to find one in your size right now? That's for you to decide.

President Donald Trump went to Capitol Hill to get Republican lawmakers on board with his multitrillion-dollar bill proposing significant tax cuts.

• Elon Musk challenged Bill Gates' criticism of DOGE's USAID budget cuts.
• Gates has claimed DOGE's cuts could cause "millions of deaths" but Musk demanded evidence.
• Musk defended DOGE's moves and slammed Gates' comments at the Qatar Economic Forum Tuesday.

Elon Musk clapped back at Bill Gates when asked about his criticism of the Department of Government Efficiency.

In response to Gates' remarks to CNN and other publications earlier this month that DOGE's slashes to the US Agency for International Development would lead to "millions of deaths," Musk asked his fellow tech billionaire to show proof.

"I'd like him to show us any evidence whatsoever that this is true. It's false," Musk told Bloomberg's Mishal Husain onstage at the Qatar Economic Forum on Tuesday.

With Musk as its de facto leader, DOGE has taken an aggressive approach to making the government more efficient — including cutting over 80% of USAID's programs, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. DOGE was effectively "feeding USAID into the wood chipper," as the Tesla CEO put it in an X post on February 2.

Musk told Husain that parts of USAID "that were found to be even slightly useful" were preserved and moved to the State Department. On January 28, Rubio announced that the US would issue a waiver allowing "life-saving humanitarian assistance programs" to continue their work.

Musk previously called USAID a "criminal organization," and he said Tuesday that it hasn't been able to provide evidence of the children it's helping.

"'Like, where are they? If they're in trouble, we'd like to talk to them and talk to their caregivers,'" Musk said.

Neither Musk nor representatives for Gates immediately responded to Business Insider's request for comment.

Gates, the cofounder of Microsoft, committed his over $100 billion fortune and the resources of the Gates Foundation to aid in global health over the next 20 years. He told CNN that DOGE's bold approach to cutting government spending is "a mistake."

USAID distributed nearly $32.5 billion in aid in 2024, devoting over $2.3 billion to fighting AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis around the world. It also spent about $290 million on making vaccines and immunization more widespread.

According to the United Nations, the US funds 70% of the global response to HIV/AIDS, saving more than 26 million lives since the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) was created in 2003.

"He's the one who cut the USAID budget. He put it in the wood chipper," Gates told The New York Times Magazine of Musk. "The world's richest man has been involved in the deaths of the world's poorest children."