The INSIDER daily digest -- April 16, 2019

By John Liang / April 16, 2019 at 2:24 PM

This Tuesday INSIDER Daily Digest has an analysis of the Navy's effort to retire one of its Nimitz-class aircraft carriers early, plus a story on acquisition reform and more.

We took a deep dive into the Navy's effort to retire one of its nuclear-powered aircraft carriers instead of undergoing a lengthy refueling process:

Navy faces Capitol Hill blowback on carrier retirement plan

Defense officials are facing an uphill battle to convince Capitol Hill they've made the right choice in seeking to retire a nuclear-powered, Nimitz-class aircraft carrier more than two decades before the end of its life expectancy.

The top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee will soon release two bills intended to ease the backlog on a number of acquisition reforms:

Defense industry hopes Thornberry can break Pentagon's acquisition reform backlog

Defense industry advocates say they are waiting for the Pentagon to implement more than 150 acquisition reform measures passed into law several years ago, and they hope new legislation being drafted by House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Mac Thornberry (R-TX) will do something to break up the bureaucratic logjam.

The Navy is competing a contract to procure 130 TH-XX aircraft, also called the Advanced Helicopter Training System, which will be based on a commercial-off-the-shelf helicopter:

Navy seeking information from contractors for TH-XX training

The Navy earlier this month issued a request for information to identify contractors capable of providing ground-based training for the service's new training helicopter, dubbed TH-XX, according to a Federal Business Opportunities notice.

Inside Defense recently chatted with Brig. Gen. Anthony Genatempo, Air Force program executive officer for weapons and director of the armament directorate:

Weapons PEO: Air Force exploring Next-Generation Aerial Target options

The chief of the Air Force's weapons portfolio is surveying industry options for a Next-Generation Aerial Target that mimics adversaries' newer technology.

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