Sunday, December 8, 2024
Sunday, December 8, 2024
This Monday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on a management shakeup at Boeing, a nascent submarine industrial base initiative, unmanned systems and more.
The head of Boeing's defense unit has stepped down:
Boeing defense chief stepping down as unit logs billions in losses
Ted Colbert, the chief executive of Boeing's Defense, Space and Security unit, left the company today as the business struggles to bring its margins back to profitability.
A new initiative is intended to attract private investment to the struggling submarine industrial base:
Navy announces private-equity partnership aimed at submarine industrial base improvements
The Navy has announced its involvement in a new "public-private collaboration" with the United Submarine Alliance (USA), Qualified Opportunity Fund LP -- a private-equity fund that has purchased 355 acres from Alabama Shipyard that will be used to build submarine modules and expand industrial base capacity.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) as well as Sens. John Hoeven (R-ND) and John Thune (R-SD) have offered amendments to the defense policy bill that deal with unmanned systems:
Senate defense bill adds new drone tech amendments
Two amendments added to the Senate's version of the fiscal year 2025 defense authorization bill would direct the Pentagon to provide congressional defense committees with reports on department actions and procedures related to unmanned systems.
Lawmakers want DOD to study portable, counter-drone systems for ground combat
Senators have tacked on a new task for the Pentagon in their fiscal year 2025 defense authorization bill: Study the cost of acquiring portable, droppable munitions that can kill any sort of drone.
The Marine Corps will have received two Stern Landing Vessels by next February:
First Stern Landing Vessel heads to III MEF as Marine Corps moves toward LSM and interim 'bridging solution'
The Marine Corps' first Stern Landing Vessel, a converted civilian support ship leased from shipbuilder Hornbeck Offshore Services, is now on its way to Okinawa, Japan to exercise with the third Marine Expeditionary Force after a year of testing off the East and West coasts of the United States.
A recent Government Accountability Office report recommends DOD promptly update the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement in accordance with legislation on acquisition personnel's use of information on foreign ownership, control or influence in granting or adjusting contracts, and new requirements for contracts involving certain types of consulting services:
GAO sees risks with DOD consultants possibly working for China
There's no regulation in effect specifically directing federal acquisition personnel to consider the possibility that consultants with U.S. contracts may have ties to China, which, according to the Government Accountability Office, poses a risk to national security.