The Insider

The Navy is requesting $1.5 billion in unfunded priorities with the bulk going to ship maintenance, according to the service's fiscal year 2019 unfunded priorities list.

The service is seeking $176 million for shipyard investment acceleration for public shipyards and $121 million for a graving dry dock repair.

The request "funds an upgrade to the existing Naval Base San Diego graving dry dock to accommodate the DDG-51 class," according to the document. "Upgrades include the addition of a SONAR PIT, dry dock electrical and de-watering modification and dredging of the channel to accommodate the ship's draft."

Other highlights include an additional two E-2D Advanced Hawkeyes to accelerate the planned buy for $340 million and $109 million for EA-18G Growler cognitive electronic warfare "transitioning reactive electronic attack measures." The E-2Ds will enable the early transition of two Carrier Airborne Early Warning Weapons School E-2Cs in Fallon, NV, giving them the needed assets to develop advanced tactics, which supports the National Defense Strategy.

The Growler funds include a special mission pod, which is a new-start acquisition program to address emergent U.S. Pacific Command operational gaps, according to the service.

Here are some must-reads from this week's edition of Inside the Pentagon:

1. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-TX) said Wednesday he is confident Congress will honor a bipartisan budget commitment to spend $716 billion on defense in fiscal year 2019, but added that lawmakers will likely grapple over a variety of "adjustments" in funding to specific programs, like shipbuilding.

Full story: Thornberry: Congress set to make 'adjustments' to Trump's FY-19 defense budget

2. The Pentagon -- citing a need to "safeguard critical defense information" -- will no longer provide advance information about Ballistic Missile Defense System tests, a policy change that departs with a long-standing practice of routinely publishing both test schedules and test objectives.

Full story: DOD now treating missile defense flight test plans -- once public -- as classified

3. The Pentagon is moving too slowly in its pursuit of a space-based sensor system for missile defense, the head of U.S. Strategic Command argued today, as the Missile Defense Agency's latest budget forecasts plans to spend billions more on ground-based radars instead.

Full story: Hyten: DOD taking 'way too long' to develop space-based sensor

The next Air Force One, a new missile defense radar for the Pacific region, SM-3 Block IIA missile delivery delays and more highlight this Wednesday INSIDER Daily Digest.

A Boeing official told Inside Defense this week the agreed-upon price for a presidential aircraft replacement includes work to develop and build two jets with unique Air Force One features:

Air Force One deal matches FY-19 R&D projection, but no evidence of further PAR changes

Boeing has reached a $3.9 billion agreement with President Trump for two 747-8 jets that will serve as the next presidential aircraft fleet, capping off a period of tumult for the program after Trump in 2016 tweeted it was too expensive and should be canceled.

The Homeland Defense Radar-Pacific is one element of two new persistent discrimination radars for the Ballistic Missile Defense System:

MDA unveils new, billion-dollar radar program to shore up Pacific sensor network

The Missile Defense Agency is proposing what is effectively a new, billion-dollar radar program beginning in fiscal year 2019 to shore up sensor coverage over the Pacific to protect the nation from long-range ballistic missile threats, seeking funds to begin surveying potential sites for what is called Homeland Defense Radar-Pacific.

Deliveries of Standard Missile-3 Block IIA interceptors are being held up:

Raytheon holding SM-3 Block IIA deliveries pending failure review

Raytheon is holding in abeyance planned deliveries of the newest variant of the Standard Missile-3 -- the Block IIA interceptor -- pending the outcome of an investigation into the cause of a failure during a major ballistic missile defense flight test last month, according to company officials.

A Navy field test is utilizing a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) human resource management (HRM) system, Oracle PeopleSoft, that is hosted on the cloud via Amazon Web Services:

Navy testing Amazon Web Services usage amid Pentagon cloud push

While the Pentagon grapples with migrating its operations to the cloud, the Navy is in the middle of field testing a personnel system hosted on similar technology.

House Armed Services seapower and projection forces subcommittee Chairman Rob Wittman (R-VA) told Inside the Navy recently the 30-year shipbuilding plan does not "get to where we have been emphatic about where the nation needs to be":

Navy never reaches 355-ship fleet size in new shipbuilding plan

The Navy never reaches its 355-ship fleet goal in the 30-year shipbuilding plan recently sent to Congress, leaving naval analysts and others disappointed in the service achieving its inventory objective.

Document: Navy's 30-year shipbuilding plan for FY-19

The first Virginia-class attack submarine contract to incorporate the Virginia Payload Module (VPM) will be awarded in October:

Virginia Payload Module schedule nearly derailed by 'anomalous material'

Only months before the Navy is scheduled to award its first attack submarine construction contract incorporating a highly anticipated new module, the service and that module's vendor corrected a problem that stood to delay production if it remained unaddressed.

BWX Technologies, which builds the nuclear reactors used on Navy aircraft carriers and submarines, said this week sales in 2017 reached nearly $1.7 billion, up about 9 percent from 2016.

The company's profit for the year hit $148 million, down 19 percent from the prior year.

The company said the new tax legislation resulted in a $55 million reduction, mostly related to one-time tax asset write-downs.

BWXT's nuclear operations group, which includes its naval work, reported sales for the year of $1.3 billion, up slightly from 2016. The unit's profit was $290 million, up 8 percent from 2016.

Air Education and Training Command today lifted the operational pause on Air Force T-6 training flights, following a nearly three-week grounding due to pilot reports of unexplained physiological events.

The service will continue to investigate the root cause of the physiological episodes, but AETC said in a Feb. 27 press release it has identified component failures and degredations in the jet's onboard oxygen-generating system as a likely contributing factor. Maj. Gen Patrick Doherty, commander of the 19th Air Force, led the investigation team, which included experts from the Air Force, Navy and NASA.

"As tests, inspections and data were gathered, component failures or degredations were identified as affecting the topline performance of OBOGS oxygen pressure, flow and content, resulting in various disruptions that negatively impacted the human-machine interface," Doherty said in a press release.

"We have zeroed in on a handful of components that are degrading or failing to perform and needed to be replaced or repaired more often than the Air Force anticipated when they bought the aircraft," he continued.

T-6 pilots have reported 22 hypoxia-like events since the start of fiscal year 2018.

Instructor pilots will resume flights first to regain currencies, and students will begin flying again by the end of the week, the release states.

The Littoral Combat Ship program, a Senate hearing on CYBERCOM and more highlight this Tuesday INSIDER Daily Digest.

Inside the Navy takes a look at the changes the service wants to make to the Littoral Combat Ship program:

Navy identifies slew of Littoral Combat Ship modifications

The Navy has identified a slew of modifications for its Littoral Combat Ship program and is requesting $70 million in fiscal year 2019 to begin tackling those projects.

Adm. Mike Rogers said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that Russia and China have only become more aggressive when it comes to stealing and, in some cases, legally purchasing sensitive data from cleared U.S. defense contractors:

Outgoing CYBERCOM chief warns of need to better manage cleared defense contractors

The outgoing head of U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency today said the Defense Department needs to better manage defense contractors and risks they pose if their data is compromised by “malicious state actors” like Russia or China.

The director of aviation on the Army staff recently told Inside the Army "there is absolutely no walking away from Army aviation from the perspective of our priorities, our budgets, our emphasis, our need":

DAMO-AV chief deems FY-19 ITEP funding 'a win,' touts FVL work

A half-billion-dollar reduction in aircraft procurement funding in the Army's fiscal year 2019 budget request is "a slight dip in one year," not evidence of a diminished commitment to the branch, according to the director of aviation on the Army staff.

According to budget justification documents released Feb. 12, the Army is seeking $119.4 million in research, development, test and evaluation funds in FY-19 to support Next Generation Combat Vehicle prototyping efforts:

Army eyes funding boost to accelerate NGCV prototyping efforts

The Army aims to nearly quadruple its projected spending on Next Generation Combat Vehicle prototyping in fiscal year 2019, in a bid to accelerate the second of senior leaders' six modernization priorities.

A new bill has been introduced to improve the Navy's surface force readiness:

Wicker bill aims to improve Navy surface force readiness

An influential Republican senator is unveiling legislation today to improve the Navy's surface force readiness that includes language providing new authorities for the service's acquisition executive.

Document: Surface Warfare Enhancement Act

As part of its implementation of the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review, the Defense Department is considering putting control of low-yield, submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) in the hands of geographic combatant commands like U.S. Pacific and European commands:

DOD considers running C2 for low-yield nukes through geographic combatant commands

The Pentagon may run the command-and-control for new low-yield nuclear weapons through the geographic combatant commands, rather than U.S. Strategic Command, according to defense officials.

Lt. Gen. Paul Nakasone, nominated to be the next chief of U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, is scheduled to appear Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee for his confirmation hearing.

Nakasone is currently the head of Army Cyber Command and would also get a fourth star if approved by the Senate.

Adm. Mike Rogers, the current head of CYBERCOM and the NSA, said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday his successor will have to address Russia and China as they become more aggressive in stealing and, in some cases, legally purchasing sensitive data from cleared U.S. defense contractors.

"We find that many states now seek to integrate cyberspace operations with the plans and capabilities of their traditional military capabilities," he said. "Indeed, several have mounted sustained campaigns to scout and access our key enabling technologies, capabilities, platforms and systems as they are developed and produced by cleared defense contractors."

Other nominees scheduled to appear Thursday include Brent Park, nominated to be deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation at the National Nuclear Security Administration, and Anne White, nominated to be assistant secretary of energy for environmental management.