The INSIDER daily digest -- Oct. 8, 2021

This Friday INSIDER Daily Digest brings news of a new Pentagon climate plan, cyber program spending, an Army hypersonic weapon, TRANSCOM’s thoughts on the recent Afghanistan evacuation and more.

The Defense Department’s battle with climate change may best be handled through the acquisition process:

DOD to leverage ‘procurement power’ to address climate change

A top Pentagon energy official, discussing a newly released Climate Adaptation Plan, said today the department intends to use its vast procurement power to address the impacts of climate change, specifically with greenhouse gas emissions in the defense supply chain.

Cyber and artificial intelligence programs may be in store for bigger budgets:

Acting DOD CIO foresees rising cyber budgets, increased AI investment

The Pentagon is preparing for rising cyber budgets as its information technology office aims to address the shifting cybersecurity landscape, including increasing investment in artificial intelligence, the acting chief information officer said today.

The Army announced that it has delivered a hypersonic weapon to one of its battalions:

Army delivers hypersonic ground equipment for first battery

The Army finished delivery Sept. 28 of the ground equipment for the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon to the battalion at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, WA, that is training to field the first battery of American hypersonic missiles, the service announced Oct. 7.

A U.S. Transportation Command official provided some insight on the recent evacuations from Kabul airport:

TRANSCOM: Kabul evacuation highlighted need for JADC2, improved IT systems

The U.S. evacuation mission from Afghanistan may have benefitted from joint all-domain command-and-control capabilities as well as a more robust IT infrastructure, according to the director of operations at U.S. Transportation Command.

An administration nominee says he will look to get more commercial companies involved in defense acquisition:

Key DOD tech nominee would check for ‘undue bias’ toward prime contractors

The nominee tapped for a senior Pentagon technology post told lawmakers today he will work to increase the participation of commercial companies in defense acquisition and, if confirmed, is planning to review the department’s current prototyping strategy and processes for any “undue bias” favoring large, traditional defense contractors.