Saturday, April 20, 2024
Saturday, April 20, 2024
This Thursday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on the Pentagon inspector general's COVID-19 oversight plan and more.
The Defense Department inspector general's office intends to investigate several new areas including cybersecurity in DOD's newly expanded telework environment "to determine whether DOD components maintained network protections" amid the coronavirua pandemic:
DOD IG announces new COVID-19 oversight plan
The Defense Department inspector general today released new plans to audit the Pentagon's response to the COVID-19 outbreak, including oversight of $10.6 billion Congress has authorized for DOD to focus on the pandemic.'
Document: DOD IG's COVID-19 oversight plan
Inside Defense recently interviewed Lt. Gen. Gene Kirkland, head of the Air Force Sustainment Center:
AFSC closely tracking supply chain, depot workflow amid COVID-19
The Air Force Sustainment Center is working to mitigate possible supply chain disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, paying close attention to potential component shortages and reductions across the transportation network.
The Air Force's FY-21 budget request proposes shutting down MQ-9 Reaper production early and retiring the service's Block 20 and Block 30 RQ-4 Global Hawks -- about two-thirds of the fleet:
Lawmakers concerned about Air Force's ISR capabilities amid Reaper, Global Hawk divestments
Lawmakers are voicing concern that the Air Force's fiscal year 2021 plan to divest from legacy drone programs before next-generation platforms are ready could leave a gap in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities -- putting the service on the defensive as budget negotiations ramp up.
The Defense Department recently sent a legislative proposal to lawmakers that would allow DOD and the Coast Guard to "react immediately to reports of intrusions that may affect critical data of the armed forces":
Pentagon seeks automatic access to 'operationally critical' contractor networks following cyber incidents
The Pentagon is proposing changes to the law that would require "operationally critical" contractors to let Defense Department investigators access their unclassified information systems in the wake of a cyber incident.
Document: DOD's fourth, fifth FY-21 defense authorization legislative proposal packages
A notional new weapon would outmatch anything currently fielded by potential U.S. adversaries, according to an industry official, and give U.S. forces a new counter-battery, anti-armor capability to fight inside a contested environment against near-peer adversaries such as Russia and China:
Army taps U.S.-European industry team to design ramjet artillery prototype
The Army has tapped a U.S.-European industry team to design a potentially revolutionary munition that would pair an artillery round with an air-breathing engine to form a kind of quasi-missile to strike targets as far away as 100 kilometers, doubling the reach of current howitzers.