The INSIDER daily digest -- Feb. 27, 2020

By John Liang / February 27, 2020 at 1:22 PM

This week's House Armed Services Committee hearing on the Pentagon's fiscal year 2021 posture statement leads off this Thursday INSIDER Daily Digest.

We start off with coverage from yesterday's House Armed Services Committee hearing that featured the testimony of senior Defense Department leadership:

DOD chiefs try to sell Congress a budget that would 'divest to invest'

Pentagon leaders appeared before skeptical lawmakers Wednesday to pitch them a budget plan that would cut legacy weapons in favor of new technologies -- a tall task given Congress' traditional resistance to ambitious change and the Defense Department's checkered modernization record.

Esper: Pentagon needs to share mid-band spectrum for 5G

Defense Secretary Mark Esper has endorsed the Defense Department sharing portions of the "mid-band" electromagnetic spectrum with the commercial wireless industry in order to better compete with China on fifth-generation telecommunications technology.

Document: Esper's FY-21 posture statement

The Government Accountability Office this week released an advisory opinion dated Nov. 5, 2019 on the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program V:

GAO issues advisory opinion on Fluor LOGCAP V protest

The Government Accountability Office this week released an advisory opinion indicating it would have objected to the Army's price reasonableness evaluation for the U.S. European Command theater under the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program V.

Document: GAO's Fluor LOGCAP V protest advisory opinion

Inside Defense this week interviewed Col. Robert Barrie, deputy program executive officer for Army Aviation:

Army Aviation office seeking MDO capabilities for future force modernization

The Army's Program Executive Office for Aviation is looking for capabilities to support multidomain operations for future force modernization, including the future vertical lift modernization priority.

Last but certainly not least, here's some cyber defense news filed today by our colleagues at Inside Cybersecurity:

Pentagon acquisition CISO: Huawei ban addressed one threat, now it's time to tackle broader supply-chain risks

SAN FRANCISCO -- Pentagon acquisition Chief Information Security Officer Katie Arrington this week vigorously defended the ban on government purchases of Huawei and other Chinese-made telecom products while arguing that pieces of a more comprehensive supply-chain security policy are being put into place.

Sen. Warner cites Pentagon malware incident to push for passage of IoT legislation

The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mark Warner (VA), is calling for passage of bipartisan legislation on securing Internet of Things devices in the wake of media reports about a malware attack on a Defense Department system which was discovered and revealed by a third-party researcher.

Document: Sen. Warner's letter to DOD on cybersecurity

206622