The INSIDER daily digest -- July 29, 2020

By John Liang / July 29, 2020 at 2:43 PM

This Wednesday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the Trump administration's plans to pull troops out of Germany, General Dynamics' quarterly earnings and more.

The chief of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command spoke during a recent Defense Writers Group call:

INDOPACOM pushing for new Pacific training, experimentation capability in FY-22 budget talks

The head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command is lobbying senior Defense Department leaders to include a new project in the fiscal year 2022 budget currently being developed to establish a vast new test and training complex to support large-scale experimentation of advanced warfighting concepts.

Congressional Democrats aren't exactly thrilled by the Trump administration's plans to pull troops out of Germany:

Pentagon plan to rotate nearly 12K forces out of Germany could cost at least 'single digit' billions

The Pentagon will start repositioning 11,900 military personnel from Germany in the coming weeks, as part of a strategic shift expected to cost at least "single digit" billions of dollars over the next several years, according to Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

General Dynamics had its quarterly earnings call with Wall Street analysts this morning:

General Dynamics has seen 'most painful' impact of COVID-19 in European IT program

General Dynamics reported a $40 million charge in a program at its information technology business in its most recent quarter because the company is unable to get its employees to the European worksite, according to its chief executive.

Brig. Gen. Dale White, the Air Force's program executive officer for fighters and advanced aircraft, spoke at a media roundtable this week:

Air Force to award Skyborg prototypes for 2021 experiments in coming months

The Air Force will decide in the next 60 to 90 days which of its four initial Skyborg prototyping competitors will have their drones participate in operational experiments to build the service's first autonomous vehicle for manned-unmanned teaming.

Officials from the Air Force Research Laboratory, Defense Innovation Unit and the Space Force issued a report this week on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the space industrial base:

New report highlights impact of COVID-19 on space industrial base

A new report on the state of the space industrial base released today highlights the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on space companies, and urges the Defense Department to take advantage of "offensive and defensive economic tools" to support technology development that will be key to a healthy industry base today and in the future.

Document: Space industrial base report

The Marine Corps is tweaking a pair of MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aircraft to make sure they are similar to those flown by Air Force pilots:

Marines modifying newly bought Reapers to match Air Force training, operations

The Marine Corps this week announced it plans to modify two MQ-9 Reapers with a Raytheon-produced situational awareness tool as a means to ensure operations are similar to the Air Force-procured drones being used to train its pilots.

Last but certainly not least, the latest defense cyber news from our colleagues at Inside Cybersecurity:

Pentagon issues contracting guidance for waivers on banned Huawei, ZTE services

The Defense Department has issued guidance for its procurement units on how to process and review waiver requests for contractors who wish to continue using banned equipment and services from Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE.

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