Wednesday, June 26, 2024
Wednesday, June 26, 2024
This Tuesday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on the drafting of an updated missile defense management policy, defense contractor M&A legislation, the tribulations of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program and more.
The Defense Department is in the final stages of drafting an updated missile defense management policy:
New MDA charter being finalized as statutory deadline to rescind 2020 DTM approaches
The Pentagon is finalizing a new update of seminal missile defense governance policy mandated by law to replace a controversial memorandum advanced during the Trump administration that curtailed the Missile Defense Agency's autonomy by elevating approval authority for key activities to senior Defense Department officials.
A House lawmaker last week tried to include several military contractor mergers and acquisitions-related amendments in the fiscal year 2025 defense policy bill:
Lawmaker targets defense company mergers and acquisitions
Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-PA) successfully included an amendment in the House Armed Services Committee's version of the fiscal year 2025 defense authorization bill that would require the Pentagon to provide lawmakers a report outlining its goals to increase oversight of defense company mergers and acquisitions, though he tried to do more.
Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle slammed Lockheed Martin last week for allegedly allowing the more than $2 trillion Joint Strike Fighter program to go off track and, ultimately, hamstringing the operational capabilities of the warfighter:
Lawmakers are fed up with Lockheed Martin's handling of F-35
The House Armed Services Committee is willing to "impose consequences" on Lockheed Martin if the company isn't able to swiftly remedy compounding issues causing delays in software development and deliveries of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a senior congressional aide told Inside Defense on Thursday.
New zero-trust policy guidance has been released by the National Security Agency:
NSA provides steps to secure applications, workloads under DOD zero-trust model
The National Security Agency has published guidance on how to protect applications and workloads from unauthorized access, as part of a series focused on supporting adoption of the Pentagon's zero-trust model across national security systems, the Defense Department and the defense industrial base.
House authorizers last week adopted proposals on improving the cybersecurity of mobile devices used within DOD and allowing the military services "to accept voluntary and uncompensated services from civilian cybersecurity experts to train servicemembers on technical matters":
House defense policy bill advances with measures addressing vulnerability disclosure, critical infrastructure
The House Armed Services Committee added amendments to the fiscal year 2025 defense authorization bill in a mark-up session requiring federal contractors to have a vulnerability disclosure policy and ordering studies from the Pentagon on critical infrastructure threats.