The INSIDER daily digest -- Feb. 28, 2024

This Wednesday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on Lockheed Martin passing a major milestone in its Next Generation Interceptor prototype effort, the Space Development Agency's Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture program, plus DOD's work on integrating AI into military systems and more.

Lockheed Martin has been cleared by the Missile Defense Agency to publicly announce the company has passed a major acquisition milestone for its Next Generation Interceptor prototype:

Lockheed clears major milestone review in NGI competition; now executing detailed design

Lockheed Martin today announced its Next Generation Interceptor prototype has formally cleared the first of six major acquisition hurdles established for the homeland defense guided missile program, the culmination of more than two years' work that a company executive said was marked by "unprecedented" technical rigor.

The head of the Space Development Agency spoke this week at the Defense and Intelligence Space Conference:

Tournear: Nuclear ASAT attack would be a 'black swan event'

The Space Development Agency won't change its approach to creating the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture in response to reports of a Russian space-based nuclear weapon, according to Director Derek Tournear.

Tournear also talked about the ongoing stopgap spending measure wreaking havoc on various SDA acquisition programs:

Two SDA programs put on hold during CR

Two of the Space Development Agency's programs are on hold until Congress can pass a fiscal year 2024 budget, threatening the outfit's timeline for satellite launches, according to Director Derek Tournear.

Dave McKeown, DOD’s chief information officer for cybersecurity and the senior information security officer, spoke this week at the 2024 Cybersecurity Summit:

DOD cyber chief emphasizes AI monitoring moving toward zero-trust policy

The Defense Department's cybersecurity chief said this week that integrating artificial intelligence into military systems is the only way to keep pace with foreign adversaries as DOD moves toward its zero-trust security policy.

The Army's top uniformed and civilian officials spoke this week at a Defense Writers Group breakfast:

Army making thousands of force structure cuts to support modernization

The Army is cutting 24,000 authorizations, or spaces, to make way for 7,500 new spaces that will support a series of new capabilities the service aims to implement, service leaders announced this week.