Welcome to today's Defense Business Briefing, your weekly roundup of the latest defense industry news.

Senate signs off on SBIR reauthorization, setting up House vote

The Senate quietly approved a bipartisan plan to extend the Small Business Innovation Research and complementary Small Business Technology Transfer programs by three years on Sept. 20, teeing up a possible House vote in the coming days.

Defense groups seek flexibility, mappings to other NIST publications in CUI series update

Two large defense groups are urging NIST to consider how to align its four-part publication series on controlled unclassified information to other frameworks, while also suggesting potential changes related to the Pentagon's Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program.

Audit finds lack of 'systemic approach' for tracking tens of billions of dollars of OTA awards

A congressional audit of more than $24 billion contracted by the Defense Department using other transaction authorities (OTA) found the Pentagon does not have a systematic approach for tracking which consortia receive awards, limiting the ability of contracting personnel to make informed decisions on how and whether to use consortia-based OTAs.

Oshkosh wins contract to provide upgraded tank trailers

Oshkosh Defense won a $260 million contract to provide the Army with an enhanced heavy transport trailer capable of hauling Abrams tanks, which have grown increasingly heavy in recent years as they have been upgraded.

Borkey named HII's new chief technology officer

HII announced that Todd Borkey has been promoted to be the company's next executive vice president and chief technology officer.

Northrop Grumman promotes Roeder to lead defense systems sector

Northrop Grumman announced that Roshan Roeder has been promoted to corporate vice president and president of the company's Defense Systems sector, effective Oct. 17.

The week ahead

Senior defense officials are slated to speak at several events this week. Meanwhile, Congress must pass a stopgap continuing resolution to ensure federal funding or the government will shut down after Friday.

Revised F-35 price tag now $416 billion; O&S cost estimate worsens from $1.1T to $1.2T

The estimated price tag for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program pierced the $400 billion mark in a new report to Congress, an upward revision that accounts for related funding previously not tallied in the acquisition cost and a reminder of how far the project has strayed from the original 2002 promise to deliver the stealth fleet for $199 billion.

Army pours another $2 billion into IBCS; development cost 215% above original estimate

The Army committed an additional $1.6 billion in research and development funding to rectify the floundering Integrated Air and Missile Defense program -- including the IAMD Battle Command Systems (IBCS) -- raising total start-up funding for the project to $5.1 billion, more than three times the original 2009 promise of $1.6 billion.