The INSIDER daily digest -- March 6, 2023

This Monday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on the Army looking into the possibility of replacing the M1A1 Abrams main battle tank, upgrades to Navy destroyers and more.

Late last month, the Army Requirements Oversight Council -- a body chaired by the service's chief of staff -- met to discuss a potential follow-on to the Abrams tank but did not reach a decision:

Army leadership considering whether to launch Abrams tank replacement program

Army leaders huddled in secret last week to contemplate one of the most consequential decisions in two generations: whether the time has come to replace the Abrams main battle tank and what exactly a fifth-generation combat vehicle replacement might be.

Rear Adm. Fred Pyle, director of the office of the chief of naval operations' surface warfare division (N96), spoke last week at a Navy League event:

Pyle: Surface warfare roadmap includes DDG upgrades and new weapon systems

Over the next 15 years, the surface Navy will focus on upgrading its fleet of destroyers and investing in new weapon systems like hypersonic missiles and directed energy, a top surface warfare officer said while laying out the service's future years defense program forecast.

Joint Strike Fighter aircraft are getting their engines retrofitted with a fix that should allow them to return to flight soon:

JPO orders retrofit for F-35 engines following 'harmonic resonance' incident

F-35 Joint Strike Fighters grounded by an engine problem discovered in December will undergo an immediate retrofitting procedure to return to flight, the Joint Program Office said Thursday, and all other F-35s should be retrofitted within 90 days.

Fortem Technologies has evolved its work with miniature radar into an end-to-end counter-drone system that has captured the attention of investors as well as foreign countries like Ukraine:

Drones armed with precision-fired nets protecting U.S. strategic, Ukrainian critical sites

The U.S. government is protecting select strategic sites from small-uncrewed air systems with new counter-drone technology developed by a Utah startup that nabs a threat mid-air with a net, a system that is also proving itself in operations over Ukraine by thwarting some Russian intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions as well as kamikaze drone strikes.

The Hudson Institute recently hosted Ely Ratner, assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs:

DOD officials anticipate additional MLR in Indo-Pacific

The Marine Corps' newly announced Okinawa-based Marine Littoral Regiment is not the only MLR the service plans to stand up in the region, according to senior Pentagon policy officials who underscored the importance of forward-deployed forces to deter an increasingly aggressive Chinese military.