The INSIDER daily digest -- July 8, 2021

By John Liang / July 8, 2021 at 1:56 PM

This Thursday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on the status of Michael Brown's nomination to become Pentagon acquisition chief and more.

President Biden's nomination of Michael Brown to become the next Defense Department acquisition chief appears to be stalled:

Biden's pick for Pentagon acquisition chief in 'limbo'

The nomination of Michael Brown to be the Pentagon's next acquisition chief appears to have stalled in the Senate amid an ongoing investigation.

While acting acquisition executive Darlene Costello said today some level of testing must still be completed physically, she stressed the need for officials to identify "where can we burn down risk virtually" before going to testing to validate or complete a final exam:

Air Force looks to find paths forward on digital testing in coming years

The Air Force's acting acquisition chief said she's hopeful the service will be able to find ways to move forward on digital testing "in the next year or two" as officials work to embrace a broader digital acquisition approach to programs.

The Defense Department's operational test and evaluation office has been reorganized:

DOT&E internal realignment shifts live-fire responsibility, establishes new strategic initiatives division

The Pentagon shop that oversees testing and evaluation of all new major weapon systems is realigning its internal structure in a bid to "better posture" the organization and the Defense Department "to address current and future needs," according to a senior official.

The Navy recently announced milestone C for the Next Generation Jammer Mid-Band program:

Navy awards Raytheon $171 million NGJ-MB LRIP Lot 1 contract

The Navy awarded Raytheon a $171 million contract for three Next Generation Jammer Mid-Band low-rate initial production Lot 1 ship sets, the service announced Friday.

More coverage of the Pentagon's latest omnibus reprogramming request:

DOD requests $120 million reprogramming for F-35 C2D2 electronic warfare capability

The Defense Department is requesting congressional approval to shift $120 million in "bridge funding" to keep the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter's Continuous Capability Development and Delivery effort on track until fiscal year 2022 funding is appropriated.

DOD looks to accelerate program to counter 'growing' small UAS threat

The Defense Department is looking to immediately jump-start a new program to defeat small, unmanned aircraft systems in the wake of a call by Pentagon top brass last fall for a more coordinated U.S. military effort to defeat commercially available systems that pose a "growing" threat to U.S. forces both at home and abroad.

Vice Adm. Johnny Wolfe, the Navy's director for strategic systems programs, spoke this week at the 2021 Nuclear Triad Symposium:

Navy considering expanding life cycles of some Ohio-class submarines to ease Columbia transition

The Navy is weighing once again expanding the life cycles of some Ohio-class submarines as the service transitions to the Columbia-class nuclear submarine.

The Government Accountability Office released a report this week that finds "F-35 mission capable rates -- a measure of the readiness of an aircraft fleet -- have recently improved, but still fall short of warfighter requirements":

Air Force tells GAO its only options to hit F-35 sustainment cost targets are to cut jets, flying hours

Air Force officials told the Government Accountability Office in a recent report the service's only options for significantly reducing F-35A sustainment costs are to reduce the number of aircraft it plans to buy or make cuts to its flying-hour program.

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