The INSIDER daily digest

We start off this Thursday INSIDER Daily Digest with coverage of the National Commission on the Future of the Army's final report, released today, plus more.

The commission thinks the Army National Guard should get to keep some of its Apache attack helicopters:

Army commission recommends that some Apaches to stay in the National Guard

An expert commission chartered by Congress has recommended that the Army National Guard be allowed to keep some AH-64 Apache helicopters in its ranks, a proposal that would throw a wrench into Army plans to move all such helicopters into the active service in an effort to save money.

More on the commission's report:

Congressional advisers recommend cutting two infantry brigade combat teams

The Army could shed two infantry brigade combat teams to fill out understaffed positions elsewhere in the service, according to a just-released report by the National Commission on the Future of the Army.

Document: National commission on the future of the Army's final report

(Stay tuned for more coverage in next week's Inside the Army.)

Defense contractors' earnings season continues to roll on:

Defense contractors look to international sales, new technology for growth

Some of the largest contractors, reporting generally flat sales in 2015, say they continue to pursue international sales and spend on research to find future growth.

(Need more defense business news? Check out our Notification Center, where you can sign up to receive email alerts whenever a related story is posted.)

Don't miss the Navy's ongoing effort to develop more autonomous, more capable UUVs:

Chief of naval research outlines service's contributions to Third Offset Strategy

The Navy's development of unmanned underwater vehicles, cyber capabilities and electronic-warfare applications are among the service's primary contributions to the Third Offset Strategy, the Pentagon's new initiative to pursue leap-ahead warfighting technologies.

On the flip side, DARPA is looking for ideas to defend against enemy underwater drones:

DARPA seeks ways to protect naval operations from underwater drones

The Pentagon's advanced research arm is seeking industry's input to find ways to protect U.S. naval operations in the open ocean from adversarial unmanned underwater vehicles.

Document: DARPA notice on OOCUUV study

Keep an eye out for a Pentagon body armor industrial base sustainment strategy:

DOD working hard body armor industrial base sustainment strategy

The Pentagon is crafting a sustainment strategy to address perceived risks to the hard body armor industrial base, according to a recent report labeled "for official use only" and signed by Defense Department acquisition chief Frank Kendall.

MDA is scheduled to conduct a GMD flight test this week:

Missile defense flight test to evaluate six years of remedial work on GBI kill vehicle

The Missile Defense Agency plans a flight test of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system to evaluate six years of remedial work that aims to resolve engineering problems that have bedeviled the program since 2010 -- triggering schedule delays and developmental cost growth of more than $1.7 billion for the weapon's Capability Enhancement II kill vehicle.

Don't expect a joint task force in the Western Pacific to be set up anytime soon:

Harris: U.S. will not establish joint task force in the Western Pacific

The commander of all U.S. forces in the Pacific, echoing his predecessor, does not want to establish a joint task force for the Western Pacific.