Inside the Pentagon highlights

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

1. Pentagon acquisition chief Ellen Lord, after a controversial failure earlier this year, is again approaching defense contractors to get a range of perspectives on the potential for performance incentives, while simultaneously launching a massive "clean sheet" rewrite of government procurement policy.

Full story: Lord again talks performance incentives with industry amid AQ policy rewrite

2. While President Trump has ordered the re-establishment of U.S. Space Command, according to a White House memo, multiple sources tell Inside Defense the Pentagon is still working through key details of those plans, including where to locate the new combatant command.

Full story: Trump orders re-establishment of SPACECOM, but key details unknown

3. Military facilities responsible for protecting Ballistic Missile Defense System technical information did not pass muster, according to a Defense Department inspector general audit that identified more than half-a-dozen security shortfalls on classified networks critical to the $180 billion program to develop and field a defense against Iranian and North Korean long-range rockets.

Full story: IG turns up numerous failings by U.S. military to protect BMDS tech info

4. Defense Department officials say their "continuous evaluation" program has already helped pare down the security clearance investigations backlog, and they plan to scale its use across all cleared personnel as the Defense Security Service takes over the federal government's background investigations mission.

Full story: DOD scales up continuous eval effort as it takes over background checks