The INSIDER daily digest -- Aug. 27, 2019

By John Liang / August 27, 2019 at 1:17 PM

This Tuesday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on the Air Force's Distributed Common Ground System, the Pentagon's JEDI cloud competition, the Navy's Knifefish unmanned undersea vehicle and more.

The Air Force's Distributed Common Ground System won't be getting a new contract:

AFMC abandons effort to award new $500M contract for DCGS agile requirements

The Air Force will not award a new contract for agile software efforts to improve the performance of its primary intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability -- the Distributed Common Ground System.

A recent appeal by Oracle America challenges a federal court's ruling in July denying the company's protest of the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud services solicitation:

Oracle appeals Court of Federal Claims ruling in JEDI cloud case

Oracle America is appealing a U.S. Court of Federal Claims decision that rejected the company’s protest of the Defense Department's pending enterprise cloud contract.

Here's more cloud computing news from our colleagues at Inside Cybersecurity:

Former CISO Touhill supports DOD backing of FedRAMP for cloud services

The Pentagon's Defense Information Systems Agency has issued blanket approval for contractors to handle certain data on cloud computing services approved by the government-wide FedRAMP security system, a move that has attracted the support of a former federal chief information security officer as a way for the Defense Department to leverage civilian agency cybersecurity services.

The Navy has awarded General Dynamics Mission Systems a $44.6 million low-rate initial production contract for the Knifefish unmanned undersea vehicle:

Knifefish achieves milestone C, contract to GD for five systems awarded

The Navy today announced a medium-sized, unmanned undersea vehicle program developed to hunt mines has cleared the milestone C acquisition hurdle, paving the way for a low-rate initial production contract to be made to prime contractor General Dynamics Mission Systems.

Pentagon acquisition chief Ellen Lord spoke on a variety of topics during a Pentagon briefing this week:

Pentagon reveals new acquisition initiatives to block China

Pentagon acquisition chief Ellen Lord today revealed a series of new reforms and initiatives aimed at blocking China's influence on the U.S. defense industrial base, including the establishment of a new congressionally directed intellectual property regime.

MDA to brief industry this week on draft NGI solicitation as Lord criticizes RKV acquisition

The Missile Defense Agency is launching the Next Generation Interceptor program with a "Kick Off Industry Day" this Thursday, moving quickly to begin a follow-on to the Redesigned Kill Vehicle project terminated last week as a senior Pentagon official today issued a rebuke of the acquisition strategy behind the failed $1.2 billion RKV program.

Document: DOD transcript of Lord's briefing at the Pentagon

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