The INSIDER daily digest -- August 8, 2022

This Monday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on the Pentagon's contracting processes, a new Navy hypersonic anti-surface missile and more.

We start off with a deep dive into how the Pentagon pays defense contractors:

DOD still wrestling with 'third rail' contract financing and impact on industry cash flow

The Pentagon is conducting a contract financing review that could alter its decades-old approach to paying defense contractors, a convoluted subject with a controversial history that the department's pricing chief has likened to a "third rail."

The Offensive Anti-Surface Warfare Program Increment 2 (OASuW Inc 2), also known as Hypersonic Air-Launched OASuW (HALO), has received funding support from all four congressional defense committees:

Oversight committees show support for Navy HALO effort

All four congressional defense oversight committees are recommending additional funding for a new Navy hypersonic anti-surface missile, which the service wants to start next fiscal year.

A new Government Accountability Office report -- first published in classified form in April 2022 and publicly released late last week -- reviews the Defense Department's acquisition of alternative position, navigation and timing technologies:

GAO: DOD business cases for GPS alternatives incomplete

Emerging weaponry that can disrupt position, navigation and timing services has pushed the Pentagon to field alternatives to the Global Positioning System, but the business cases for many of those efforts are incomplete, according to the Government Accountability Office.

Document: GAO report on GPS alternatives

This year's Rim of the Pacific naval exercise featured 26 nations, 38 surface ships, four submarines and more than 30 unmanned systems and 170 aircraft:

Navy wraps up RIMPAC, considers lessons learned

As tensions rise in the Indo-Pacific and the annual Rim of the Pacific exercise concludes, the commander of U.S. 3rd Fleet emphasized the importance of partnerships and maintaining the rules-based order.

The latest cyber defense news from our colleagues at Inside Cybersecurity:

'CHIPS-plus' is a step but 'considerable work' remains to meet challenges from China

Enactment of the "CHIPS-plus" law to bolster semiconductor production and U.S. technological innovation is an important step, says Mark Montgomery of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, but more is needed on research, investment and workforce training to meet the security and economic challenges emanating from China.