The INSIDER daily digest -- April 15, 2020

This Wednesday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on a recent hypersonic flight test and more.

The Navy Strategic Systems Program office considered an East Coast trajectory for Flight Experiment-2 of the common hypersonic glide body that would have used launch facilities at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia:

Navy eyed NASA's Wallops Island launch facility for hypersonic test over Atlantic

The Navy last month considered launching a long-range experimental hypersonic flight test over the Atlantic Ocean toward target areas in the open sea more than 2,000 miles from Virginia, including points northeast of the South American coast and another roughly midway between the U.S. eastern seaboard and Western Sahara.

In the absence of continued funding, the Air Force's Gray Wolf program is still set to end once testing is completed:

Air Force planning captive carry, launch flight tests for Gray Wolf program through summer

The Air Force's short-lived Gray Wolf program -- intended to create a networked cruise missile capability -- is planning up to two captive carriage flights and two launch and missile flight tests with a Northrop Grumman-built truck over the next several months.

The "industry portal" that Air Force Ventures created was originally intended solely for that service, but has now been picked up by the Defense Department's COVID-19 Joint Acquisition Task Force to solicit potential solutions on behalf of the other military branches too:

AF Ventures soliciting proposals for DOD's COVID-19 national response

Air Force Ventures has teamed up with the Pentagon's industrial policy office to collect ideas on unique ways to help the COVID-19 national response effort and has already received a number of unexpected pitches, like drones that can support logistics missions.

In case you missed it yesterday, here's our look at the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on nontraditional defense contractors:

Experts say Pentagon progress with nontraditional contractors at risk during coronavirus outbreak

Analysts say the ongoing economic crisis spurred by the coronavirus pandemic could hurt the Defense Department's work with nontraditional contractors.

Inside Defense this week obtained a memo from the head of Naval Sea Systems Command regarding the establishment of a new cyber directorate:

NAVSEA creating new cyber directorate in response to recent issues

Naval Sea Systems Command chief Vice Adm. Thomas Moore is establishing a new directorate within his agency in response to "significant cyber issues" for which he said the command was not prepared.