The INSIDER daily digest -- March 9, 2020

By John Liang / March 9, 2020 at 2:06 PM

This Monday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on Littoral Combat Ship retirements, the Marine Corps’ nascent force design initiative and more.

We start off with coverage from last week’s West 2020 conference:

Gilday defends LCS retirements, says service will save $2 billion across FYDP

SAN DIEGO -- The Navy's top officer last week defended the service's recent decision to retire its first four Littoral Combat Ships.

Berger: Marine Corps force design not tied to INFSA hold

SAN DIEGO -- The Marine Corps' new force design initiative is not tied up with the current hold on the Navy's Integrated Naval Force Structure Assessment, according to the commandant.

In case you missed our recent deep dive into what the Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit is up to these days, here’s a free link to the story, available to all:

Pentagon's Silicon Valley outfit seeks to shift from 'experimental' to 'transformative'

In 2017, the Defense Innovation Unit began working with several start-up companies to develop tools to automatically find and fix software vulnerabilities in the U.S. military's highly advanced weapon systems.

Senior Navy officials last week briefed lawmakers on the service’s plan for a second Trident SLBM life extension:

Navy reveals six-year, $700M plan to design second Trident SLBM life extension

The Navy is proposing a $700 million, six-year project to define a second life extension of the Trident II D5 submarine-launched ballistic missile to keep the 27-year old strategic weapon system in service for the life of the new Columbia-class submarine fleet through 2083, potentially stretching the life of the Trident across a century.

BWX Technologies, Westinghouse Government Services and X-energy have won contracts to develop a small, mobile nuclear reactor:

DOD awards contracts for prototype mobile nuclear reactor

The Defense Department today awarded contracts to begin work on a prototype mobile nuclear reactor under a Strategic Capabilities Office initiative called "Project Pele."

Air Force officials are looking forward to the transition to the Operational Data Integrated Network, but are hoping the good parts of the Autonomic Logistics Information System are maintained in the new system:

Hill AFB F-35 maintainers helping inform requirements for ALIS replacement

HILL AIR FORCE BASE, UT -- As the F-35 program shapes requirements for the program that will replace the Autonomic Logistics Information System, users here are hopeful the new capability will overcome the challenges of ALIS without abandoning the pieces that are working.

A "Dynamic Spectrum Access Experiment" will take place at Hill Air Force Base, UT, to pursue "interoperability between airborne radar and 5G cellular system in 3.1-3.45 GHz Band”:

DOD briefs companies on mid-band spectrum sharing between 5G devices and aircraft radars

The Pentagon recently briefed industry on plans to experiment with sharing electromagnetic spectrum between fifth-generation commercial cellular devices and military aircraft, as Defense Department leaders say they won’t give up DOD's access to mid-band spectrum but are willing to share it.

Document: DOD 5G, aircraft radar mid-band spectrum sharing industry day briefing slides

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

NIST relabels data security standards central to Pentagon's cyber certification program

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has renumbered proposed revisions for criteria on protecting controlled unclassified information from advanced persistent threats, such as from Russia and China, a move linked to pushing out requirements that were stalled by a White House review and which are central to a Pentagon program for certifying contractors.

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