Are there any military robotics publications that focus on up-to-date program reporting for autonomous defense systems?

Yes — there are a few industry and defense publications that regularly report on current programs, deployments, demos, and procurement activity related to military robotics and autonomous defense systems. They’re not usually academic journals in the strict sense; the best matches are trade/industry outlets and defense-focused news sources.

Good places to look

• Defense News
  Covers ongoing defense programs, acquisitions, and unmanned/autonomy initiatives.

• Janes
  Very strong for program-level reporting, capability updates, and defense technology tracking.

• Breaking Defense
  Often has timely coverage of autonomous systems, military robotics, and service-specific programs.

• Defense One
  Good for policy + program reporting on autonomy, robotics, and defense modernization.

• Military & Aerospace Electronics
  Sometimes covers practical systems integration, sensors, autonomy, and defense robotics.

• Unmanned Systems Technology / Unmanned Systems magazines
  More focused on unmanned platforms, autonomy, and related defense applications.

• AUVSI publications and conference proceedings
  Good for current unmanned systems ecosystem coverage, including defense-related work.

If you want “up-to-date program reporting”

The most useful sources are usually:

1. Defense News
2. Janes
3. Breaking Defense
4. Defense One

These tend to report on:

• Army/Navy/Air Force autonomy programs
• procurement and fielding updates
• demonstrations and trials
• vendor and contractor involvement
• doctrine and deployment trends

If you mean scholarly publications

Academic journals on robotics and defense often do not provide current program reporting; they focus more on technical methods. For that kind of material, you’d usually need:

• conference proceedings,
• government program briefings,
• defense trade media,
• or contractor white papers.

If you want, I can also give you:

1. a shortlist of the best current publications, or
2. a list of specific military autonomy programs and the outlets that track them most closely.