The INSIDER daily digest -- Sept. 9, 2019

By John Liang / September 9, 2019 at 1:48 PM

This Monday INSIDER Daily Digest has coverage of the upcoming defense budget, Army aviation, Air Force directed-energy efforts and more.

Using military funds to pay for President Trump's proposed border wall is not going to make passing the fiscal year 2020 defense policy and spending bills any easier:

Fight over wall funding threatens to disrupt defense bills

A partisan battle over President Trump’s efforts to divert Defense Department money to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border is poised to snarl House and Senate negotiations over upcoming defense policy and spending bills, despite lawmakers having already reached a broad budget agreement.

. . . And missile defense funding will not be immune:

DOD eyes $8M for Trump's border wall from GBI silo project MDA deemed urgent

The Defense Department plans to divert $8 million to help finance President Trump's controversial border wall from a Missile Defense Agency project deemed urgent for homeland defense.

Col. John Ferrell, director of simulation for the Army Aviation Center of Excellence at Ft. Rucker, AL, recently spoke at an Association of the U.S. Army event:

Platform replication remains a challenge for Army aviation

Replicating platforms accurately in simulations remains one of the biggest challenges for the Army, according to a service official.

Inside Defense recently spoke with Michael Jirjis, who oversees the directed-energy campaign within the Air Force's strategic development planning and experimentation office:

DE experimentation for precision strike, aircraft self-protect expected in 2021-2023

An Air Force official anticipates an emphasis on testing prototypes for precision strike and aircraft self-protect capabilities in the 2021-2023 time frame.

Jirjis also discussed directed-energy, counter UAS programs:

Air Force looking to establish directed-energy, counter-UAS programs of record in near-term

The Air Force's directed-energy researchers are engaging with acquisition officials about establishing programs of record for DE weapons and counter-unmanned aerial systems in the near future.

The federal government is still struggling to grapple with the "complexity" of its cybersecurity and supply chain problems, according to Ron Ross, a computer scientist and fellow at the National Institute for Standards and Technology who leads the development of cybersecurity standards and spoke at the recent Billington Cybersecurity Conference:

New Pentagon initiatives seek to overcome entrenched supply chain security concerns

Federal officials are injecting a sense of urgency into multiple initiatives to more effectively secure the Defense Department’s expansive supply chain from cyber threats, as one official warned the issue is nearing a "tipping point."

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