The INSIDER daily digest -- Oct. 6, 2023

This Friday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on the Pentagon beginning to run low on funding to replenish U.S. weapons stocks sent to Ukraine, an Air Force Research Laboratory project on a digitally certified airplane and more.

The Pentagon will continue to use the more than $5 billion in presidential "drawdown" authority required to transfer weapons to Ukraine, though there remains only $1.6 billion to replenish what is taken from U.S. stocks:

DOD to transfer U.S. weapons to Ukraine while running low on replenishment funds

Though Congress, hobbled at the moment by House GOP intraparty dysfunction, remains divided over support for Ukraine, the Defense Department says it still intends to transfer billions of dollars in U.S. weapons to that country at a regular "cadence," despite the fact DOD is running low on the congressionally appropriated funds needed to replenish them.

On Sept. 22, the Air Force Research Laboratory awarded a $19 million contract on behalf of the AFWERX Prime program to Istari Digital for an effort dubbed Flyer Øne:

Air Force kicks off project to demonstrate major new first: a digitally certified airplane

The Air Force hopes to demonstrate a radical new industrial feat that could signal a major leap forward for the aerospace industry by designing an aircraft and certifying its airworthiness before ever building a physical component as part of a new project launched last month to prototype a fixed-wing drone from concept through Military Flight Release inside a computer.

Lockheed Martin's top executive spoke this week at the Hudson Institute:

Lockheed CEO: 'Antifragility' key to industrial base strength

The U.S. defense industry needs to invest in antifragility measures to improve resilience during this time of rising geopolitical tension, Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet said, which will require government buy-in.

The Pentagon's latest selected acquisition report on the National Security Space Launch program talks about the dual-lane approach the Space Force will use to meet warfighter requirements:

Space Force releases final RFP for Phase 3 launch acquisition program

The Space Force yesterday posted the final request for proposals for Phase 3 of the space launch acquisition program, a dual program approach with two separate contract types.

Document: DOD's December 2022 NSSL selected acquisition report

Ely Ratner, the assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, spoke at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event this week on the upcoming release of the China Military Power Report:

Senior DOD official previews risks cited in upcoming China military power report

The upcoming release of the Pentagon's annual China Military Power Report will state that Beijing has increasingly come to rely on its military -- the People's Liberation Army -- as a tool for coercion and "revisionist" aims in the Indo-Pacific amid the rapid modernization of its nuclear arsenal, according to a senior Defense Department official.