The Insider

The Defense Science Board will hold a closed-door meeting next Thursday where the panel will "meet with DOD Leadership" to discuss classified findings and recommendations from several studies and DSB task forces, according to the Federal Register.

Chief among those topics discussed at the 8 a.m. ET closed meeting will be the classified findings and recommendations from the 2024 Summer Study on Advanced Capabilities for Potential Future Conflict.

The Oct. 3 briefing comes just over a month after the most recent meeting on the 2024 summer study, which has been shrouded in secrecy since its inception.

The board’s Permanent Subcommittee on Strategic Operations’ Commercial Provision of Navigation Signals for Operational Use study and the National Security Challenges for 2025 will also provide remarks on their findings and recommendations during the meeting. DSB task forces on emerging biotechnologies and national security, and the 21st century industrial base for national defense will also present attendees with their findings and recommendations.

The Pentagon's Joint Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office (JCO) has released a request for white papers related to the office's next demonstration, scheduled for the second quarter of fiscal year 2025.

According to the notice, released Thursday, the office is seeking white papers for “Detect, Track, Identify, and/or Defeat for Short Range Defeat Within a Contested Electromagnetic Environment.” The government intends to identify “potential materiel solutions that have promising technologies or approaches” when it comes to small UAS capabilities that can operate in a contested electromagnetic environment.

The demonstration planned for next year is the sixth the JCO will have conducted since the office was stood up four years ago. Demo 5, the most recent one, was conducted this past summer at Yuma Proving Ground, AZ and focused on defeating large swarms of up to 50 drones.

Demo 6 will focus on systems used to detect, track, identify and defeat Group 3 UAS, those weighing less than 1,320 pounds but more than 55 pounds, within a slant range of 2 kilometers from the counter small UAS platform. The Pentagon is interested in “small arms munitions at or below 40mm and kinetic interceptor effectors,” the notice states.

The planned demonstration will also include systems used by dismounted forces for detection and identification of groups 1 and 2 UAS -- those weighing less than 55 pounds. This category includes handheld weapons as well as “personal weapon affixable systems” such as enhanced optics and warfighter wearable systems.

The JCO is hosting a virtual industry day for vendors Oct. 9. Responses to the request for white papers are due Oct. 25.

The Senate voted 78-18 to pass a three-month continuing resolution that will fund the federal government through Dec. 20.

The measure, having been passed by the House only a few hours earlier, will advance to President Biden’s desk for his signature.

This Wednesday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on a multibillion-dollar amphibious warship contract, the Pentagon's financial management practices and more.

HII will be building a bunch of amphibious warships in the coming years under a new, multibillion-dollar contract:

Navy awards Ingalls $9.5 billion for four amphibious warships

The Navy has awarded HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding two contracts totaling nearly $9.5 billion for three Flight II San Antonio-class amphibious transport docks and one America-class amphibious assault ship, the Navy announced this week.

The House Oversight and Accountability government operations and the federal workforce subcommittee held a hearing this week on the Defense Department's financial management practices:

DOD's 'window is closing' to make progress toward clean audit by 2028 deadline

House lawmakers volleyed bipartisan criticism at the Defense Department for its years-long failure to achieve a clean financial audit, with one government watchdog warning that DOD still has a long road ahead of it before reaching the 2028 deadline mandated by Congress.

Document: House hearing on DOD's financial management practices

Space Systems Command has awarded contracts to Astranis, Axient, L3Harris and Sierra Space as part of the first round of R-GPS satellites:

Space Force awards R-GPS contracts through Quick Start authority

The Space Force awarded four companies contracts to create design concepts for the first set of Resilient-GPS satellites, a program created outside of the typical budgeting cycle through the Quick Start authorities granted in last year’s defense policy act.

The Pentagon has invested in the tin industrial base:

DOD awarding $16.2M for domestic tin production facility

The Defense Department is awarding Nathan Trotter & Co. Inc. a $16.2 million contract to establish a facility enabling comprehensive capacity for the domestic smelting, refining and recycling of tin, the department announced.

A Modernized Selected Acquisition Report, cleared for publication on Aug. 7, discusses the Marine Corps' Amphibious Combat Vehicle Family of Vehicles program:

Marine Corps negotiating ACV cost and schedule amid funding shortfalls

The Marine Corps is engaged in cost negotiations to drive down the price of its Amphibious Combat Vehicle program as funding shortfalls and rising prices put the program's acquisition objectives of 175 ACV-30 variants and 632 total ACVs at risk.

Document: DOD modernized SAR on the ACV program

The Army next year will hold the Arcane Thunder 25 demonstration, an annual field-based exercise that looks at technological capabilities and identifies potential holes to plug:

Army reaches out for new technologies to test at Arcane Thunder 25

The Army is seeking emerging technologies that can help it with "reconnaissance, target development and precision targeting operations" across different domains, according to a request for information released Monday.

The Senate confirmed Lt. Gen. Ronald Clark by voice vote to be the Army's top commander in the Pacific Tuesday, following a hold by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), according to the Congressional Record.

Clark’s nomination was received by the Senate and referred to the Senate Armed Services Committee on July 11. However, the nomination was held up by Tuberville due to questions about Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s hospitalization in January that was related to a urinary tract infection following surgery to treat prostate cancer.

The Alabama senator told the Washington Post earlier this month that his concerns stem from the fact that while serving as an aide to Austin, Clark did not immediately alert the White House about the secretary’s condition.

The Defense Department’s inspector general is in the process of reviewing the procedures surrounding Austin’s hospitalization.

The Pentagon urged a swift confirmation of Clark on Sept. 10, with DOD spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder saying “he’s exactly the kind of leader we need.”

Tuberville dropped his hold Tuesday after he and Clark met earlier that day and had a detailed discussion, according to Mallory Jaspers, a spokeswoman for the senator’s office.

“While there were certainly failures elsewhere, the senator is confident that LTG Clark more than fulfilled his duties during the secretary’s hospitalization. Sen. Tuberville is thankful for LTG Clark’s many decades of service to our nation and wishes he and his family the best in his new assignment,” Jaspers wrote in a statement to Inside Defense Wednesday.

Tuberville gained notoriety last year when he held up more than 400 military nominations due to his opposition to the Pentagon’s travel and leave policy for servicemembers seeking abortion services.

This Tuesday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on the Strategic Capabilities Office seeking research proposals on autonomy and cyber defense, plus the DOD IG evaluating the Navy's E-2D Advanced Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft and more.

Along with the acceleration and expansion of existing DOD uses for autonomous systems, the Defense Department's Strategic Capabilities Office is also targeting technologies to counter to unmanned systems:

SCO targeting non-traditional, autonomous, cyber technology prototypes

The Pentagon's secretive technology office is seeking research proposals for funding that would deliver the "unconventional uses of existing systems" to enable capabilities across five specific areas, including autonomy and cyber defense, according to a broad agency announcement posted Monday.

A new Defense Department inspector general's report determines whether the Navy "effectively managed deficiencies identified during operational testing to achieve the performance capabilities for the E‑2D Advanced Hawkeye modifications":

E-2D Hawkeye program office neglected to manage deficiencies found in tests, IG finds

The Navy's E-2/C-2 Airborne Command and Control Systems Program Office didn't effectively manage deficiencies found during operational tests for modifications made to the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft, according to a report released by the Defense Department's inspector general earlier this week.

Document: DOD IG report on E-2D Hawkeye

The Pentagon's No. 2 uniformed officer this week floated the idea that U.S. military planners need to prepare for an arms race in the heavens after explaining space policy goals such as developing resilient capabilities that can be reconstituted:

VCJCS: U.S. military needs to contemplate the potential threat of weapons from space

NEW YORK -- The U.S. military needs to begin thinking about a future when the nation faces weapons from space -- a move that would require a policy shift by the U.S. government -- because it would be "folly" to think potential adversaries such as Russia and China are not exploring armed satellites, a senior Defense Department official said this week.

More coverage from last week's Air and Space Forces Association's Air, Space, Cyber conference:

P25 radio integration on track, not likely to push back MH-139 fielding

A last-minute addition to the Air Force MH-139 Grey Wolf's contractual requirements will be available when the service begins flight testing and won't delay initial operational test and evaluation, Azeem Khan, Boeing's MH-139 program manager and executive director, said last week.

Read our full coverage.

In June, the Navy and National Nuclear Security Administration formed a SLCM-N Project Officers Group to manage SLCM-N Phase 6.2, which includes a feasibility study for the use of alternative warheads:

Joint Navy, NNSA group exploring alternative warhead options for SLCM-N

As the Navy explores the possibility of implementing alternative warheads for its nuclear-armed sea-launched program, a new group was created earlier this year to guide the effort.

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.