The INSIDER daily digest -- Jan. 6, 2021

This Thursday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on the Pentagon's multitrillion-dollar weapons portfolio and more.

The Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act requires the defense secretary by March 2023 to establish a new framework for assessing the suitability of the U.S. military's existing major weapon system inventory for potential future combat operations:

DOD required to conduct major review of $2 trillion weapons portfolio over next year

The Pentagon must conduct a new review over the next year that could reshape the U.S. military's $2 trillion roster of current weapon system acquisition projects by identifying programs for divestiture that are not keeping pace with emerging threats.

The Pentagon's Artificial Intelligence and Data Acceleration initiative aims to accelerate progress on the Joint All Domain Command and Control effort:

DOD wrapping up COCOM visits through AIDA this month

The Defense Department through its Artificial Intelligence and Data Acceleration initiative established last year has so far visited eight combatant commands and plans to wrap up visits with the remaining three COCOMs this month.

The latest defense policy bill signed into law last month would roll back a provision included in the fiscal year 2019 authorization bill that directed the Army to field a third and fourth Iron Dome battery no later than September 2023:

Army unshackled from requirement to buy, field additional Iron Dome batteries

The Army is eyeing new options to limit further entanglement with an Israeli-made air defense system, specifically being released from a statutory requirement to buy and operationally deploy additional Iron Dome batteries.

Pentagon officials and lawmakers have long complained about continuing resolutions and their debilitating restrictions that freeze budgets at previous-year levels and prohibit spending on new defense programs:

House appropriators to probe CR impacts at DOD

The House Appropriations defense subcommittee intends to hold a hearing to examine the impact of stopgap continuing resolutions on the Defense Department.

Former Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Director Victoria Coleman spoke with Inside Defense recently:

USAF chief scientist wants service to stretch thinking on directed energy

The Air Force's chief scientist wants to see officials leverage directed energy "to further enable and support" the service’s agile combat employment strategy, as she advocates "thinking outside the box" when considering use cases for those technologies.