The INSIDER daily digest -- Jan. 5, 2018

Continuing congressional budget negotiations, the Navy's Columbia-class submarine program and a slew of Air Force news highlight this Friday INSIDER Daily Digest.

With President Trump heading to Camp David today to attend a Republican Party retreat, senior GOP leaders are still wrangling with their Democrat counterparts over the government budget:

Budget talks continue as stopgap funding threatens DOD weapons programs

Senate Republicans and Democrats said Thursday talks to raise budget caps and avert a government shutdown remain productive and ongoing, but cautioned that the road to a final compromise remains long.

The Government Accountability Office believes the Navy's Columbia-class submarine program will cost more than the service thinks:

GAO: Columbia-class program costs 'optimistic,' fleet needs likely to exceed planed funding

Congressional auditors believe the $128 billion cost estimate to develop and build the new Columbia-class submarine fleet is "optimistic" and that program costs are likely to exceed requested funding, despite the Pentagon's adoption last year of the higher of two independently prepared cost estimates.

The senior Air Force official responsible for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance spoke at an industry event this week:

Air Force ISR flight plan to dictate future of developing platforms like Orion

The Air Force's intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance chief said Thursday an ISR flight plan to debut this spring will chart how the service can use current and future assets through 2035 including Aurora's developmental unmanned aircraft, Orion.

The Air Force Research Laboratory recently released a request for information on autonomous technologies:

Autonomy consortium to demonstrate new technologies over five years

A new consortium of defense contractors is in the works to advance autonomy technologies in collaboration with the Air Force Research Laboratory.

Document: Air Force autonomy consortium RFI

Orbital ATK could be the next company that competes to fly national security space missions:

Air Force signs CRADA with Orbital ATK for Next-Generation Launcher

The Air Force has signed a cooperative research and development agreement with Orbital ATK that puts the company on a path to compete with SpaceX and the United Launch Alliance to fly national security space missions.

More Air Force news:

Air Force raising contract ceiling for Cobra Dane radar ops and maintenance

The Air Force is planning to extend and increase the value of an operations and maintenance contract for a key ground-based radar in order to implement an urgent reliability and performance upgrade.

Document: Air Force Cobra Dane J&A document

National Space Defense Center transitioning to 24/7 ops this month

The Air Force's National Space Defense Center will transition to 24/7 operations this month, U.S. Strategic Command confirmed recently.

Air Force awards FMS contracts for weapons, missile defense systems

The Air Force marked the end of 2017 by issuing multiple foreign military sales contracts for programs including Boeing's Small Diameter Bomb Increment I, Raytheon's Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile and Northrop Grumman's Large Aircraft Infrared Counter-Measures system.