The INSIDER daily digest -- March 10, 2025

This Monday INSIDER Daily Digest has coverage of a new Joint Strike Fighter simulator trainer, space-based missile warning satellites and more.

We start off with continuing coverage of last week's AFA Warfare symposium in Colorado:

F-35 pilots at Nellis Air Force Base could train on JSE as soon as this month

DENVER -- The Joint Integrated Test and Training Center at Nellis Air Force Base, NV could soon receive a final assessment of its Joint Simulation Environment before the synthetic test system can be officially stood up in the next few weeks, a senior Air Force materiel leader said Wednesday.

Next Gen OPIR GEO readying for launch this year, needs ULA's Vulcan rocket certified

DENVER -- The first satellites of the Space Force's program to augment missile warning from geosynchronous Earth orbit will be ready to launch this year, a top official said this week, but they will need the United Launch Alliance's rocket to be certified to launch such a mission.

(Read our full AFA Warfare Symposium coverage)

Some Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture news:

SDA Tranche 1 satellites to begin launching in late summer

The Space Development Agency is now expecting its first operational satellites for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture to launch late this summer, the agency announced, about a year after initially scheduled.

The Light Marine Air Defense Integrated Systems (L-MADIS) capability, which was developed in-house by the Marine Corps' ground-based air defense program office, consists of a "fighting pair" of Ultra-Light Tactical Vehicles:

Marine Corps using L-MADIS to protect ships from aerial threats as Pentagon continues hunt for low-cost drone defense

The Marine Corps is using a mobile air defense system to protect amphibious warships from drones and other aerial threats, according to a service spokesperson, who told Inside Defense the recently developed capability now deploys with each Marine Expeditionary Unit as part its Low Altitude Air Defense detachment.

In a recent memo, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed "all DOD Components to adopt the Software Acquisition Pathway (SWP) as the preferred pathway for all software development components of business and weapon system programs in the [Defense] Department":

Pentagon moves to streamline and scale new software procurement

The Defense Department is being directed to adopt special contracting pathways for rapidly acquiring software, according to a new memo from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Document: Hegseth memo on software