The INSIDER daily digest -- Dec. 14, 2018

By John Liang / December 14, 2018 at 3:41 PM

This Friday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on the ever-fluid military budget, future Navy shipbuilding, the Air Force's GPS constellation and more.

The Pentagon's No. 2 civilian spoke about the military budget at a defense industry event this week:

Shanahan: 'We're looking at numbers above $733B'

Deputy Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan has confirmed the Pentagon is building a new version of its fiscal year 2020 budget that accounts for more than $733 billion, despite having been told by the White House in October to plan for $700 billion.

The Democratic lawmaker who could wind up being chairman of a key House defense subcommittee recently spoke with Inside the Navy:

Courtney: Sea power, air power are key to national security, should drive hard budget choices

The significance of sea and air power should drive the conversation about the Pentagon's topline budget, a congressman likely to lead oversight of Navy shipbuilding next year told Inside the Navy this week.

A key upgrade to the legacy GPS Operational Control Segment has been delayed:

GPS OCX contingency capability delayed until next spring or summer

The Air Force said today Lockheed Martin is several months behind on delivering a key upgrade to the legacy GPS Operational Control Segment -- a modification that was designed to mitigate the impact of delays to the Next-Generation Operational Control Segment.

DOD officials were on Capitol Hill this week talking about background investigations:

Pentagon plans to scale up continuous evaluation program as it takes over background investigations

Defense Department officials say their "continuous evaluation" program has already helped pare down the security clearance investigations backlog, and they plan to scale its use across all cleared personnel as the Defense Security Service takes over the federal government's background investigations mission.

The Pentagon inspector general isn't impressed with the U.S. military's efforts to protect Ballistic Missile Defense System technical information:

DOD investigation turns up numerous failings by U.S. military to protect BMDS technical info

Military facilities responsible for protecting Ballistic Missile Defense System technical information did not pass muster, according to a Defense Department inspector general audit that identified more than half-a-dozen security shortfalls on classified networks critical to the $180 billion program to develop and field a defense against Iranian and North Korean long-range rockets.

Document: DOD IG report on BMDS technical info protection

The Air Force shed some light into why a sensor for the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle has been delayed:

Global Hawk's MS-177 operational testing delayed until March

Operational testing for UTC Aerospace Systems' MS-177 multispectral sensor has been delayed by more than a year because issues with other programs impacted the sensor's developmental test schedule, the Air Force told Inside Defense this week.

The Congressional Budget Office has some ideas on how to reduce the nuclear triad:

CBO cooks up cost-saving options that include reducing nuclear triad and canceling ICBM replacement

The Congressional Budget Office has produced a range of cost-cutting scenarios that could be explored to trim the federal deficit over the next decade, including possible reductions to the nuclear triad and potential cancellation of the program intended to replace the intercontinental ballistic missile.

Document: CBO report on 'options for reducing the deficit: 2019 to 2028'

Northrop now has a contract to modernize the aircraft sensors that tell pilots when they're being targeted by enemy missiles:

Northrop Grumman nabs potential $450M contract to modernize U.S. military's threat emitter systems

The Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman a potential $450 million deal to modernize the Defense Department's inventory of mobile air-defense threat simulators to prepare pilots -- including operators of the fledgling F-35 Joint Strike Fighter fleet -- to recognize and counter advanced enemy missile and artillery threats.

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