The INSIDER daily digest -- April 17, 2018

DOD innovation, the Joint Strike Fighter program, revamping the Pentagon bureaucracy and more highlight this Tuesday INSIDER Daily Digest.

The House Armed Services Committee held a hearing this morning on promoting innovation in the Defense Department:

Pentagon tech chief sets sights on ambitious developments, including space-based lasers

The Pentagon's chief technologist says he wants to develop space-based lasers for missile defense within the next decade, an ambitious goal under a new pair of modernization tracks at the Defense Department.

Document: House hearing on DOD innovation

The key to the new F-35 management structure is making sure the government can keep the price of the jets down:

Services provide feedback to Lord on the future of the F-35 JPO structure

The Marine Corps along with the Air Force and Navy is providing feedback to the Pentagon acquisition executive on the future F-35 joint program office management structure, according to an official.

The head of the House Armed Services Committee wants to revamp a sizeable part of the Pentagon bureaucracy:

Thornberry moves to cut DOD agencies, migrate DISA to CYBERCOM

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-TX) has drafted reform legislation that would eliminate a host of Pentagon agencies and migrate the functions and facilities of the Defense Information Systems Agency to U.S. Cyber Command.

Document: Thornberry's DOD reform bills

The Army Capabilities Integration Center is working on a number of efforts focusing on the Multi-Domain Battle concept:

ARCIC designing robotics 'roadmap' to Multi-Domain Battle

The Army will by June complete its "Unmanned Systems Roadmap through 2035" that will serve as a plan to "migrate" its unmanned systems portfolio to where it needs to be by that year, according to an official.

The Defense Department this week posted a second request for proposals for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud services program:

Pentagon declines to provide rationale behind single cloud award

The Pentagon will not yet make public the rationale behind plans to award a single contract for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud services program, despite appeals from contractors requesting a slew of additional information on the controversial acquisition.

Document: Second draft DOD JEDI cloud RFP

The head of the Missile Defense Agency weighed in publicly for the first time recently on the need for an East Coast national missile defense installation:

MDA ranks new technology over East Coast interceptor site, director says

Iran does not present a sufficient enough threat to the United States to warrant investing billions of dollars in an East Coast missile defense site, according to the head of the Missile Defense Agency, who said he would prefer any additional funding Congress might provide be directed into the U.S. military's sensor network to improve threat detection and tracking.

Inside Defense recently obtained the Selected Acquisition Report for the Joint Direct Attack Munition program:

Air Force again crafting new acquisition baseline estimate for JDAM

The Air Force is updating its acquisition baseline for Boeing's Joint Direct Attack Munition program for the third time after it again overran expected procurement costs, according to a December 2017 Selected Acquisition Report recently obtained by Inside Defense.

Document: DOD SAR on the JDAM program