The Insider

The Senate voted 87-13 today to approve the compromise version of the fiscal year 2024 defense authorization bill.

The House is expected to pass the bill tomorrow, sending it to President Biden’s desk to be signed into law.

The annual bill, among numerous other things, authorizes $886 billion in total defense spending for FY-24. Congress, however, must still pass a final spending bill to appropriate the funds.

This Wednesday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on a Defense Innovation Unit project to develop prototype batteries, the Army's Unified Network Operations (UNO) plan, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program and more.

A new Defense Innovation Unit project attempts to strengthen DOD's energy supply chains, solve source dependency challenges and improve lithium battery life cycle through partnerships across the DOD and service branches that will implement commercial technology into DOD soldier-portable systems, ground vehicles and aviation:

DIU awards companies to prototype 'standard aviation batteries' in line with DOD's lithium battery strengthening initiative

The Defense Innovation Unit awarded contracts to five companies to prototype standard aviation batteries to combat energy source needs through the Defense Department's Family of Advanced Standard Batteries (FAStBat) project, which integrates commercially available lithium battery technologies across the Pentagon.

Inside Defense is covering the Army's Technical Exchange Meeting 11 in Savannah, GA that focuses on the service's network design efforts:

Army gears up for competitive prototyping in Unified Network Operations

SAVANNAH, GA -- Fiscal year 2024 figures to be an eventful year for the Army's Unified Network Operations (UNO) plan, as it moves into the competitive prototyping phase and eventually toward a downselect.

Senior DOD officials testified on Capitol Hill this week on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program:

F-35 engine upgrade program would run out of funds in February under CR

Funding for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Engine Core Upgrade program will run out after February 2024 if Congress doesn't pass a budget with the funding requested to ramp up the program, Program Executive Officer Lt. Gen. Michael Schmidt told lawmakers Tuesday.

Document: House hearing on the F-35 program

The Missile Defense Agency plans a preliminary design review of Northrop Grumman's Next Generation Interceptor proposal -- the company is partnered with Raytheon for the estimated $17 billion contest -- in January:

Major MDA technical review of Northrop-Raytheon NGI design set for January

The Defense Department plans next month to conduct the second of two major technical reviews for the Next Generation Interceptor competition, assessing Northrop Grumman's design and select components for a homeland defense guided-missile prototype after completing a similar review in October of the same for Lockheed Martin.

Space Systems Command this week issued a request for information on refueling and mobility for dynamic space operations:

SSC seeks industry inputs to advance Combat Space Mobility concepts

Space Systems Command is seeking industry assistance to identify potential capabilities and technologies to advance Combat Space Mobility, according to a notice posted yesterday that aligns with operational imperatives introduced by Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall.

The Marine Corps is preparing to publish a new information doctrine that will provide an implementation strategy to elevate information as a warfighting function, according to Deputy Commandant for Information Lt. Gen. Matthew Glavy.

The service is in the “final stages” of assembling the new document, Doctrinal Publication 8-10, and will release it in approximately 30 days, Glavy said Monday at the Association of Old Crows annual symposium.

In June 2022, the Marine Corps published Doctrinal Publication 8, Information, produced as part of the Force Design 2030 effort and informed by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The document outlined multiple forms of information advantage -- including technological overmatch and force resiliency -- that Marines can achieve by applying information as a warfighting function.

While this original doctrine delivered a high-level discussion of the topic, the forthcoming follow-up will provide a more concrete implementation game plan, Glavy explained.

“MCDP-8 was a cognitive discussion, more of a discussion than educational,” he said. “So, 8-10 gets into the practical application.”

“We’re in the final stages -- 30 days,” he added. “The reviews and publications always take a little longer than expected, but 30 days.”

The Marine Corps is planning a virtual industry day for its Advanced Reconnaissance Vehicle as the program continues progressing through a prototype assessment phase, according to a Tuesday announcement.

The industry day is scheduled for Feb. 29 and will take place via a virtual platform, the notice states, adding that more information on the event will be posted to SAM.gov “on or about” Jan. 19.

The notice was released by Army Contracting Command, which is serving as the ARV contracting authority on behalf of the Marine Corps’ program manager for Light Armored Vehicles.

Since early fiscal year 2023, the Marine Corps has been testing ARV prototypes produced by contractors General Dynamics Land Systems, Textron Systems and BAE Systems in a competitive prototype assessment phase that is now expected to stretch into FY-26.

The service plans to add an additional ARV mission role variant -- equipped with a 30mm gun and turret -- to this assessment. Only two contracts for ARV-30 prototypes will be awarded, according to a service spokesperson, who said this approach “supports the Marine Corps decision to pursue a purpose-built ARV solution.”

The program office plans to publish a request for proposals in the second quarter of FY-25 to advance the program into the engineering and manufacturing development phase, with a contract award anticipated in the second quarter of FY-26.

The Marine Corps’ FY-24 budget request includes $63.6 million in research and development funding for the program.

This Monday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on a big missile defense intercept test this morning, the Pentagon's Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program, Army artificial intelligence/machine learning efforts and more.

The Missile Defense Agency conducted a successful Ground-based Midcourse Defense system intercept test this morning:

New '2-/3-stage GBI' intercepts target, breaking nearly 5-year 'strategic pause' in GMD testing

A new variant of the Ground-based Interceptor successfully stopped an intermediate-range ballistic missile today over the Pacific Ocean using a booster that utilized only two of three available rocket stages -- demonstrating the ability to release the kill vehicle earlier, significantly expanding both the engagement area and time available to counter inbound threats.

More missile defense news:

New 'era of missile-centric warfare' has arrived, elevating import of missile-defense systems

The conflicts in Ukraine and Israel have ushered in a new "era of missile-centric warfare" and elevated the importance of missile defense systems, demonstrating in real-world events capabilities previously relegated to intelligence forecasts and baked into key policy documents, including the 2022 National Defense Strategy, according to a senior Pentagon official.

The latest cyber defense news from our colleagues at Inside Cybersecurity:

FDD's Montgomery evaluates cyber provisions in compromise defense policy bill package

Mark Montgomery of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies struck a positive tone on the House-Senate compromise version of the fiscal year 2024 defense authorization bill, while noting that some cyber provisions didn’t make the final cut.

Pentagon plans to hold public meeting on CMMC rulemaking after official publication

The Defense Department will hold a public meeting on its Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program after the proposed rule implementing the initiative is published in the Federal Register, according to the latest unified agenda and regulatory plan.

Some Army artificial intelligence/machine learning news:

Army's Project Linchpin will initially support TITAN

Project Linchpin, the Army's new initiative to create a pipeline of artificial intelligence and machine learning, will support the service's Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node (TITAN) in its initial stages, a service official said last week.

The FY-24 defense authorization conference report has language on implementing the U.S.-U.K.-Australia defense cooperation agreement:

Defense policy bill looks to clear the way for AUKUS implementation

The draft conference defense policy bill, agreed to by House and Senate lawmakers this week, includes several provisions aimed at implanting key aspects of the AUKUS security partnership, with provisions enabling the sale of Virginia-class submarines to Canberra and loosening export control laws for Australia and the United Kingdom.

In a letter sent late last week, House Armed Services readiness subcommittee Chairman Mike Waltz (R-FL) and Ranking Member John Garamendi (D-CA) call for a Government Accountability Office review of V-22 Osprey operations and maintenance practices:

Lawmakers call on GAO to review Osprey safety after deadly crash

The chairman and ranking member of the House Armed Services readiness subcommittee have asked the Government Accountability Office to review V-22 Osprey operation and maintenance practices to determine the factors responsible for a series of accidents that have occurred during aircraft missions and training exercises.

Document: Lawmakers' letter to GAO on V-22 review

Boeing today announced Stephanie Pope has been appointed as the company's new executive vice president and chief operating officer.

In this newly created position, effective Jan. 1, 2024, Pope will report to Boeing President and CEO Dave Calhoun.

As COO, Pope will "oversee the performance of the company's three business units with responsibility for driving supply chain, quality, manufacturing and engineering excellence across the company," a Boeing statement reads. The business unit CEOs, the Boeing chief engineer and the president of Boeing Global will report directly to Pope, while the senior corporate functional leaders will continue reporting to Calhoun.

Pope currently leads Boeing Global Services and has overseen that unit since April 2022. Her successor will be named at a later date, the company said. Before that, she was chief financial officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. She's been with the company for nearly three decades.