Defense Business Briefing -- Sept. 3, 2024

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

This week's top story

RTX to pay $200M fine for allegedly exporting defense tech to China

RTX, formerly known as Raytheon Technologies, has agreed to pay a $200 million civil penalty for allegedly exporting U.S. defense technology and intellectual property to foreign countries, including China, according to a new State Department announcement.

News & notes

Pentagon withholding $5 million per tail as Lockheed delivers incomplete F-35s

The Defense Department is withholding about $5 million for each F-35 Joint Strike Fighter delivered with a truncated version of the Technology Refresh-3 software upgrade, a spokesperson with the F-35 Joint Program Office told Inside Defense.

Hanwha Systems wins first Navy maintenance contract, anticipates growth in U.S. market

South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Systems has secured a U.S. Navy contract for maintenance work on a logistics support ship, according to a company announcement, which presents the award as a leap forward in Hanwha's effort to enter the American Navy’s market for maintenance, repair and overhaul work.

DOJ sues Georgia Tech over failure to implement DOD-mandated cybersecurity measures

The Justice Department has joined a whistleblower lawsuit against Georgia Institute of Technology and affiliate Georgia Tech Research Corp. for failing to implement cybersecurity requirements for defense contractors and submitting a false cyber assessment score to the Defense Department.

What's happening

The week ahead

Senior defense officials are scheduled to speak at several events around Washington this week.

For Inside Defense subscribers

DOD innovators wrestling with bureaucracy, cultural barriers

The Defense Department's aversion toward risk and change, coupled with its tendency to cling to traditional acquisition processes, are its biggest barriers to adopting new technologies and capabilities, according to Pentagon innovation leaders.

DOD officials defend rapid experimentation projects at key tech demo

EDINBURGH, IN -- The Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve may not appear to reflect the first word in its acronym to Senate appropriators who have criticized RDER for failing to transition more weapon systems to the battlefield, but senior Pentagon officials suggest that lawmakers looking to cut the program don’t fully appreciate RDER’s challenges given the slowness of the traditional acquisition and budgeting cycle.