The INSIDER daily digest -- April 19, 2018

By John Liang / April 19, 2018 at 2:02 PM

Hypersonic weapons, a new White House arms transfer policy, a slew of Army and Air Force news and much more highlight this Thursday INSIDER Daily Digest.

Lockheed Martin has won a multimillion-dollar hypersonic weapon development contract:

Air Force puts nearly $1B behind new long-range, hypersonic weapon; taps Lockheed to lead

The Air Force has established a nearly $1 billion program to prototype a long-range, air-launched, hypersonic strike weapon and Lockheed Martin has elbowed away two other competitors to win the project, the service has revealed.

The White House has released a new arms transfer policy:

New arms transfer policy seeks to promote U.S. weapons abroad, relaxes UAS export rules

The White House wants to elevate the importance of creating American jobs and boost the U.S. defense industry when considering weapons sales to foreign nations, as well as sell more American-made unmanned aerial systems to international partners, under a new conventional arms policy unveiled today.

Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville spoke recently at New America's Future of War Conference:

Army vice chief: Future systems should come with a back-up plan

The Army's second in command is cautioning against the service becoming too dependent on technology as it heads into the future battlefield.

More Army news:

Army leaders outline path to upgrade existing systems, develop replacements

Army senior leaders at an April 18 hearing informed the House Armed Services tactical air and land forces subcommittee of the service's modernization plans.

Document: House hearing on ground force modernization


Army moving fast on squad rifle replacement

The Army's soldier lethality cross-functional team is approaching a milestone B decision on the Next Generation Automatic Squad Rifle, the first variant of the Next Generation Squad Weapon.

The latest from the National Space Symposium in Colorado:

Lockheed may be only bidder for GPS III Follow-On

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO -- Incumbent Lockheed Martin is the only company to confirm its bid to develop the next generation of GPS III satellites, potentially forcing the Air Force to launch a sole-source acquisition for what was supposed to be a rigorous competition between at least three providers.

Raytheon providing OSD detailed OCX data as it implements agile software development

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO – As Raytheon continues to implement agile software tenets into the next-generation GPS OCX development program, the company is working to provide more detailed performance metrics to Air Force and Pentagon leadership.

Lockheed preparing for June survey at likely site of second Space Fence radar

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO -- Space Fence prime contractor Lockheed Martin is preparing to start a site survey in June for the second radar location that would bring the space-observing radar system to full operational capability.

"Small, disruptive businesses" are the companies the Pentagon needs to spur innovation, according to the Defense Department's research and engineering chief:

Griffin says big contractors 'are not largely the innovators you seek'

The Pentagon's chief technology officer says large contractors "are not largely the innovators you seek," but big defense companies and those representing them say they are adopting practices like agile development and helping DOD realize innovative technologies.

Document: House hearing on DOD innovation


Every Stryker vehicle stands to get an upgrade to the Double-V Hull:

Entire Stryker fleet slated for Double-V Hull upgrade, contingent on funding

Army senior leaders have decided to pure-fleet the Double-V Hull upgrade to all of the service's Stryker vehicles, though they are still working to allocate funding to support the effort.

A new Government Accountability Office report on the Air Force's multibillion-dollar KC-46 tanker program is out:

GAO highlights Boeing's efforts to mitigate KC-46 testing delays

A Government Accountability Office report released this week offers some insight into Boeing's efforts to mitigate further KC-46 delivery delays and highlights discrepancies between the company's predictions and those of the Air Force.

Document: GAO report on the KC-46 tanker program


If lawmakers really want to save defense money, they'll need to look at closing military bases:

Former DOD officials see limited budget savings absent painful politics

Former Pentagon officials agree with congressional reformers that the Defense Department could find significant savings if it eliminated some "Fourth Estate" civilian management agencies, but the big money, they said, is in base realignments and closures and other politically unpopular actions.

Document: House hearing on DOD's 'fourth estate'


The Navy admiral tapped to head U.S. Pacific Command says the organization needs more ISR capability:

Nominee: PACOM can't execute 75 percent of its ISR requirements, sees other capability shortfalls

The nominee to be the next head of U.S. Pacific Command estimates the organization's Hawaii-based headquarters has 25 percent of the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability it requires, an appraisal that points to a significant shortfall but also a marked improvement compared to an assessment PACOM offered a year ago.

Document: Senate hearing on PACOM, NORTHCOM nominees

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