Sunday, March 16, 2025
Sunday, March 16, 2025
This Tuesday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on the Defense Department's Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program, Senate appropriators wanting DOD to show its work on blocking R&D contracts to Chinese entities and more.
We start off with the latest on the Pentagon's Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program:
Pentagon considers alternative approaches to establishing CMMC requirements in contracts
The Defense Department's proposed rule for acquisition purposes proposes alternative approaches to implement its Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program, while explaining why the Pentagon is moving forward with its preferred option.
Senate appropriators, in a report accompanying their version of the fiscal year 2025 defense spending bill, pointed to reviews from the Defense Department inspector general and the Government Accountability Office that reveal shortfalls in government systems used to track contracts and grants, impeding oversight into DOD-funded research activities that "could benefit Chinese defense entities":
Lawmakers want DOD to show its work on blocking R&D contracts to Chinese entities
The Senate Appropriations Committee wants to know what actions the Pentagon has taken to mitigate concerns that U.S. defense research and development funding is being exploited by China.
The Office of Strategic Capital, according to a new Federal Register notice, "must collect comprehensive information from entities seeking funding" through a new loan program via an application process:
OSC seeks tech company applicants for new loan program
The Pentagon's Office of Strategic Capital, which aims to catalyze private investment in emerging defense technologies, is formally requesting information from companies seeking to participate in OSC's new loan program.
The Air Force is taking an idea used during the Cold War and repurposing it for a future conflict in the Indo-Pacific:
Air Force unveils REFORPAC exercise for summer 2025
The Air Force's plan to test its new organizational structure in a large-scale, multicombatant command exercise in the Indo-Pacific next summer now has a name: REFORPAC.
York Space Systems and Terran Orbital subsidiary Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems will each build and operate 10 prototype Tranche 2 Transport Layer-Gamma variant satellites, which are expected to launch by the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2027:
SDA awards $424 million to two companies for Tranche 2 Gamma satellites
The Space Development Agency today awarded a total of $424 million to two non-traditional defense contractors for the Tranche 2 Transport Layer-Gamma variant satellites for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture.