Inside the Pentagon highlights

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

1. The House Armed Services Committee is set to authorize a defense spending increase beyond what the Trump administration has proposed for fiscal year 2018 when the committee drafts its version of the defense authorization bill next week, and will likely do so as the GOP remains mired in negotiations over a broader budgetary blueprint.

Full story: House authorizers poised to increase FY-18 topline, while GOP budget blueprint is MIA

2. The Defense Department is seeking new ways to strengthen counterintelligence capabilities, looking beyond simply spending more money to defend against "insider" threats and seeking "new approaches" to the challenge of managing massive stores of sensitive data in an age where an individual can, in one fell swoop, make off with a "staggering scale" of state secrets.

Full story: DOD advisory task force seeking 'new approaches' to CI mission

3. The House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee is advancing legislation requiring the Pentagon to shift acquisition authority for operational missile defense systems from the Missile Defense Agency to the military departments.

Full story: House authorizers aim to shift procurement away from MDA

4. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-AZ) on Tuesday questioned the corporate ties of President Trump's deputy defense secretary nominee Patrick Shanahan, and threatened to block the former Boeing executive's nomination if he continued to "duck" questions on the threat posed by Russia.

Full story: McCain questions Shanahan's Boeing ties; threatens to block nomination