Inside the Pentagon highlights

Some must-reads from this week's issue of Inside the Pentagon:

1. The U.S. defense industrial base is increasingly at risk, specifically from China, and in need of new, direct investments at the subcontractor level to prevent single points of failure and dependence on foreign sources, according to a long-awaited Pentagon report commissioned by President Trump.

Full story: Pentagon targets China in new defense industrial base report

2. Deputy Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan, one of the chief architects of the Pentagon's upcoming budget request, provided new details this week on the modernization "retooling" required to position the U.S. military for a new era of competition against China and Russia.

Full story: Pentagon's No. 2 telegraphs big funding shifts in upcoming defense budget

3. Deputy Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan said a new aircraft readiness directive ordering the Air Force and the Navy to achieve 80 percent readiness rates for four key tactical fighter jets by the end of this fiscal year will help the Pentagon prove to Congress it is effectively spending a recent funding boost and make the case that further relief from statutory budget caps is warranted.

Full story: Shanahan: New aircraft readiness requirement will help DOD fight budget caps

4. The Defense Department has developed an "entire generation" of weapon systems without adequately considering the cybersecurity of those platforms, according to congressional auditors.

Full story: GAO: 'Entire generation' of DOD weapon systems may lack cyber protections