DoD, VA Officials Prep for a Possible Government Shutdown Later This Week
(Defense News)  In anticipation of a possible government shutdown later this week, leaders from the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs have begun warning employees of possible office closures, program interruptions, and potential furloughs that will result from a budget lapse.

Operation DGAR: A Collective Effort to Repatriate Stranded Mariners During a Global Pandemic
(gCaptain)  By the spring of 2020, COVID-19 restrictions on travel had stranded hundreds of mariners on 13 commercial and U.S. government-owned ships based on and around the remote island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. What to do? This is how Operation DGAR was born.

What to Expect When You’re Expecting a National Defense Strategy
(War on the Rocks)  The new National Defense Strategy that the Biden administration is writing should reckon with the challenges and the ramifications of rapidly expanding global threats. Conservatives and progressives alike share the goal of better securing the United States and its interests. Read some ideas for how the National Defense Strategy should do this.

U.S. TRANSCOM Again Delays Contract Aimed at Fixing Problems with Household Goods Moves
(Military Times)  U.S. Transportation Command officials have again delayed the award of a new contract aimed at improving household goods moves for military members and their families. The contract will be awarded “no earlier than” late October, said Andre Kok, a spokesman for TRANSCOM.

House Transportation Reps in GOP Press for Truck Parking
(Transport Topics)  With the U.S. House scheduled to consider key aspects of President Joe Biden’s infrastructure agenda this week, a group of Republican lawmakers continues to advocate for additional access to truck parking.

Federal Cyber Agencies Call Zero Trust ‘New Normal’ of Security, Partnering to Implement
(Federal News Network)  Still wondering what the “new normal” will look like? Federal cyber leaders say it looks an awful lot like zero trust — at least on the IT side of things.

You Need to Protect Yourself From Zero-Click Attacks
(Popular Science)  After Citizen Lab, a cybersecurity watchdog group that’s spent years tracking digital threats, examined the contents of a Saudi activist’s phone, researchers quickly discovered that it was infected. But the phone wasn’t infected with just any virus. It was infected with NSO Group’s zero-click Pegasus spyware—software that does not even require people to click on a link in order to get the infection.

US Air Force Developing Combat Tanker-Airlifter that Can Land on Water
(Defense One)  The U.S. Air Force is working on detachable pontoons and other modifications for its MC-130J Commando II that could enable special forces to rely less on land-based runways in future conflicts, the service said Monday.

Auditors, Contractors Hang in the Balance as Defense Overhauls Cybersecurity Certification Program
(Nextgov)  Hundreds of individuals have paid for their place in line to take an exam that would qualify them to perform cybersecurity assessments of defense contractors that may no longer be necessary after the department reexamines its Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program.

Trade Versus Subs: The Risky U.S. Tradeoff in the Asia-Pacific
(Council on Foreign Relations)  In the decades to come which will matter more, a dozen more nuclear subs on the U.S. side of the ledger or a trade pact that could draw many of the world’s largest economies ever-closer toward China?

Lack of Access to Data During Afghanistan Exit Shines Light on Tech Gap
(C4ISRNet)  The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan prompted Pentagon officials working on the Joint All-Domain Command and Control concept to ask: Do troops have access to data they need on the ground, absent of an adversary capable of disrupting that access? The answer was “no.”

White House Announces Target of 20 Percent Aviation Emissions Reduction by 2030
(The Hill)  The Biden administration has announced a series of industry-backed actions aimed at reducing the climate impact of air travel, with a goal of cutting aviation emissions by 20 percent by 2030.

US: Afghan Evacuee Flights Halted From Two Key Military Bases
(Military Times)  The U.S. has halted all U.S.-bound flights of Afghan evacuees from two main bases overseas for unspecified “health safety concerns,” a move U.S. officials warn will have a severe impact on the evacuation operation.

DoD Wants Transformational 2023 Budget, But Will Take Some Cuts to Pay For It
(Federal News Network)  The leaders of the military services are promising a transformative 2023 budget, even though it seems unlikely that the Biden administration will increase the Defense Department’s budget. What the services are teasing at for 2023 is a realization of about five years of work to modernize the military and develop innovative capabilities that use artificial intelligence, man-machine teaming, hypersonics, long-range precision arms, and other advancements.

SPOTLIGHT ON AFGHANISTAN

• The Kabul Airlift in 5 Charts
• Airline Employees Took On New Mission in Afghanistan Conflict’s Final Days: Getting Evacuees to the U.S.
• What Went Wrong in Afghanistan?
• Calculating the Costs of the Afghanistan War in Lives, Dollars and Years

New Artificial Intelligence Initiatives, Buy American Increase Advancing in House NDAA
(Federal News Network)  The House Armed Services Committee advanced a fiscal year 2022 policy bill this week that would boost military artificial intelligence efforts and increase Buy American requirements, among numerous other provisions added to the legislation. The big news from the committee’s markup came when it voted by a 42-17 margin to increase the FY 22 national defense budget by $25 billion beyond President Biden’s request.

House Committee Votes to Temporarily Postpone Space Command Relocation
(The Hill)  U.S. Space Command won’t be switching from Colorado to Alabama just yet after a recent House panel vote stalled the transfer.

Opinion: Ascendancy: The Space Warfighter Mindset
(Schriever Sentinel)  Ascendancy is the occupation of a position of preeminence, power, or influence. To dominate in space, ascendancy must be our mindset. Space as a warfighting domain is a reality—being a warfighter in the space domain is a realization. Ascendancy starts with awareness but must become actualized.

CMMC Board Chief Talks Assessors, IT Staff
(Defense Systems)  What’s standing between defense contractors and the upcoming cyber assessments? A bit of IT. Matt Travis, the CEO for the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Accreditation Body, said training and IT access to the Defense Department’s Enterprise Mission Assurance Support Service (eMASS) application, which will house CMMC data, still needs to be finalized for the third-party organizations that will be charged with conducting cyber assessments.

‘Food Fight’: Lawmakers Jockey for $6B in Funding After Afghan Military’s Collapse
(Politico)  Roughly $6 billion that was either approved or will be approved for Afghan military training is now up for grabs after Kabul’s collapse last week, and the jockeying among lawmakers to find a new home for that money has begun. The numbers include almost $3 billion unspent from fiscal years 2020 and 2021, and $3.3 billion requested by the Pentagon to train and equip the Afghan army, air force and national police in 2022.

A Better Approach to Organizing Combatant Commands
(War on the Rocks)  Future conflicts, especially against near-peer countries, are increasingly likely to be global in today’s interconnected world, not confined within the borders of existing U.S. combatant commands. To succeed in the global competition of today and in the potential conflicts of tomorrow, the United States should find a better way to organize its defense, one that is not beholden to implicit but unnecessary assumptions about what a combatant command should be.

Defense Secretary Orders US Airlines to Help with Evacuation
(Defense One)  Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered the Civil Reserve Air Fleet to activate, requesting 18 aircraft from the U.S. airlines to help in the evacuation of Afghans and Americans. This is the third time in history that the military has mobilized the U.S. airlines to help with a military evacuation.

TRANSCOM Boss Vows to Ramp Up What Is Already One of the Largest Airlift Operations in History
(Air Force Times)  The head of U.S. Transportation Command, the military organization spearheading the massive humanitarian evacuation effort in Afghanistan, said Monday he expects to ramp up flights out of the country even further as the Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw all American troops and Afghan allies approaches.

New Navy Approach to Supply Chain Elevates Data-Driven Decisions to C-Suite
(Federal News Network)  Last October, when the Navy began its latest effort to examine its vast supply and logistics enterprise, officials realized they had what was, in essence, a too-many-cooks-in-the-galley problem. In the span of less than a year, a new initiative called Naval Sustainment System-Supply (NSS-S) has made a measurable dent in those problems.

Fuel-Efficient Tech Available for Trucks Via Proposed Legislation
(Transport Topics)  Legislation that would establish a program at the U.S. Department of Energy to assist the trucking industry with the adoption of fuel-efficient technologies recently was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The Space Force Met Its 18-Month Deadline to Get Up and Running. Here’s What’s Next.
(Air Force Times)  When Congress created the U.S. Space Force in December 2019, the Pentagon hadn’t launched a new military service since 1947. Lawmakers wanted the idea to become reality in just 18 months—a deadline met earlier this summer. Now, it turns from tackling the first organizational steps to the meat of becoming an effective warfighting branch.

The Senate Just Passed a Massive Infrastructure Bill. Here’s What’s in It
(Time)  The Senate approved a sweeping $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill on Tuesday that includes a substantial increase in funding for roads, broadband, and energy usage, marking a major step forward in President Joe Biden’s economic agenda as the nation continues to recover from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

It’s Time for a National Maritime Strategy
(Breaking Defense)  Like its predecessors, the sea services’ most recent policy statement, Advantage at Sea, concentrates on naval operations and almost completely ignores the US maritime industry. This is a missed opportunity.

China Reportedly Converted Civilian Ferries for Amphibious Assault Operations
(Defense News)  China has converted civilian ferries for use in military amphibious operations, potentially enabling the country to significantly surge its amphibious assault capabilities in a contingency like a Taiwan invasion, according to a new report.

NIST Revises Flagship Cyber Resiliency Guidance
(FedScoop)  The National Institute of Standards and Technology released the first-ever revision to its flagship cyber resiliency guidance with updated controls and a single threat taxonomy Thursday.

Floating Robot Gas Station to Get Pentagon Trial
(Defense One)  The Defense Department is set to trial a full-scale autonomous ocean-going replenishment system comprised of technology-driven kits that transform existing barges into self-moving platforms that can land and refuel military aircraft. They’ll make up a network of smart, floating military gas or resupply stations.

Here’s What’s in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill
(CNN Politics)  A bipartisan group of senators unveiled the legislative text of the infrastructure bill on Sunday night after months of negotiations. In total, the deal includes $550 billion in new federal investments in America’s infrastructure over five years.

From Ports to Rail Yards, Global Supply Lines Struggle Amid Virus Outbreaks in the Developing World
(The Washington Post)  Fresh coronavirus outbreaks are forcing factory shutdowns in countries such as Vietnam and Bangladesh, aggravating supply chain disruptions that could leave some U.S. retailers with empty shelves as consumers begin their back-to-school shopping. The overseas work stoppages are just the latest twist in almost 18 months of pandemic-related manufacturing and transportation woes.

Sea Power Panel Backs Block Buy of Amphibious Ships
(Defense News)  A House panel has advanced a proposal to authorize the Navy to make a block buy of amphibious ships for one more year, meant to save taxpayer dollars, proponents say. The House Armed Services Committee’s seapower subpanel voted to adopt the plans, part of an amendment from Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA). As expected, lawmakers also advanced the broader sea power mark for the sweeping fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act.

The US Army’s New Iron Triangle: The Coming Budget Crunch and Its Implications for Modernization
(Defense News)  The Army believes it must prepare for three challenges, each with distinct implications for the future force. As a result, budget cuts will likely present the Army with something of an iron triangle among these challenges — at best only able to afford a future force prepared for two, but not all three.

Updating Space Doctrine: How to Avoid World War II
(War on the Rocks) What should the United States do if one of its satellites were attacked and the Pentagon had no way to respond in space? The answer to this question is surprisingly revealing about Washington’s space policy.

Senate Panel Adds $25B to Biden’s Defense Budget
(The Hill) The Senate Armed Services Committee has approved a $778 billion defense policy bill, adding nearly $25 billion more to the defense budget than the Biden administration requested. The funding boost would go entirely to the Pentagon, giving the department $740.3 billion compared to the Biden administration’s request for $715 billion.

Lawmakers Want Pentagon to Map Supply Chain Risks, Cut China Products
(Defense News) A bipartisan group of lawmakers wants to require the Pentagon in the upcoming defense policy bill to get a better handle on who sells the military critical technologies to reduce reliance Chinese-sourced products.

Warner Says ‘Time is Now’ for Cyber Incident Reporting Legislation
(Federal News Network) A new bipartisan bill in the Senate would require federal contractors, agencies, and critical infrastructure operators to report cyber intrusions to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency within 24 hours of discovery.

Biden Targets High Shipping Costs as Pandemic Ravages Global Supply Chains
(The Washington Post) President Biden recently called on regulators to crack down on consolidation in the shipping and rail industries, as part of a broad executive order promoting competition throughout the U.S. economy. Freight may seem a prosaic topic for presidential attention. But the smooth movement of goods has perhaps never been more essential, amid the explosion of e-commerce that accompanied the pandemic.

China’s Space Program Is More Military Than You Might Think
(Defense One) On the 4th of July, China celebrated its taikonauts’ first-ever spacewalk outside the country’s first permanent space station, the Tiangong (“Heavenly Palace”). The extravehicular activity marked yet another major step for the country’s ambitious space program and a vivid sign of what is to come.

Biden Nominates New Air Mobility Command Boss
(Air Force Times) President Joe Biden has nominated the military’s No. 2 officer in the Pacific to lead the Air Force’s tanker and transport branch. If approved by the Senate, Lt. Gen. Mike Minihan, deputy commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, would earn a promotion to four-star general and replace current Air Mobility Command boss Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost.

OVERWATCH PODCAST E55: New Technology, Deadlier Weapons, and Disinformation Campaigns: How Russia Sees the Future of Warfare
(Institute for the Study of War) Russian leaders have a very specific vision for the future of warfare, one that US leaders need to understand if they are to effectively counter Russian strategy and technology. This is the second podcast episode in a series examining the Russian understanding of hybrid war.

As New NATO Command Becomes Fully Operational, Top US Military Officer Issues Warning Over ‘Great Power War’
(Defense News) NATO and U.S. military leaders gathered at Joint Force Command Norfolk in Virginia on Thursday to celebrate full readiness of the first operational NATO headquarters in North America. The new command will be responsible for the Atlantic and Arctic regions.

New Pentagon Policy to Accelerate Use of 3D Printing Amid Fresh Cyber Concerns
(Federal News Network) Defense Department officials want to accelerate the adoption of additive manufacturing to solve frontline and logistical challenges alike under a recent policy change, even as the department’s watchdog raises new concerns about how the military secures its 3D printing systems.

Top 100 Defense Companies for 2021
(Defense News) Who are the largest defense companies in the world? Defense News just released its annual rankings.

Opinion: Strategic Sealift Is Broken – Which Direction Are We Headed?
(The Maritime Executive) There has been a slow and steady decline of the Strategic Sealift fleet. Read about issues have caused this decline, including mistakes that have been made in trying to correct them, and hear a few possible solutions to ensure the warfighters have the tools they need to quickly respond to emergent contingencies.

The German ‘New Space’ Industry Is Booming. So Why Isn’t Berlin Buying In?
(Defense News) While NATO allies like the United States and France are dedicating evermore resources to military space assets, Germany has articulated the importance of space, but has yet to put many actual euros behind the statement.

Overcoming the Diego Garcia Stalemate
(War on the Rocks) During a 2017 visit to India, then British foreign secretary, Boris Johnson failed to convince India’s government to restrain its ally Mauritius from launching a diplomatic offensive against Britain over sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago. Johnson and the UK government were most concerned about Diego Garcia, which is leased to the United States as a base for significant military and intelligence capabilities.

The US Desperately Needs a Civilian Cybersecurity Corps
(Defense One) Bipartisan legislation aims to augment the National Guard’s cyber reservists, but a wholly civilian component could be larger and more flexible.

Getting More Out of Defense Dollars
(The Heritage Foundation) Defense budgeteers face a “use it or lose it” situation every Sept. 30—driving all kinds of bizarre and inefficient behaviors. There are, however, ways Congress can help alleviate this situation.

Fix the Pacific Deterrence Fund—and the Deeper Problem It Reveals
(Defense One) The Pentagon’s plan to deter China is rightly coming under fire from Congress and national security experts for double-counting planned procurement and not pursuing the missile defense, interoperability, and training investments requested by two Indo-Pacific Command chiefs. But in addition to falling short of INDOPACOM’s needs, the new defense budget fails to address the more important underlying problem: combatant commanders cannot properly organize and integrate forces in theater to tackle their most challenging operational problems.

Procurement Should Take Ownership Over Transportation and Logistics
(Supply Chain Dive) Supply chain bottlenecks happen frequently. Recent delays in transpacific shipping are a reminder of that, and it’s all the more reason procurement should take responsibility for inbound and outbound shipments.

Lawmakers Tee Up Legislation to Push DoD, Prime Contractors on Supply Chain Vulnerabilities
(Federal News Network) Prime contractors may hold the key to the Pentagon’s lack of visibility into supply chain vulnerabilities laid bare by COVID-19 last year, and House lawmakers are now preparing legislation to address the issue along with other supply challenges.

Democrats’ Two-Step Infrastructure Plan Draws Republican Ire
(Reuters) Hours after President Joe Biden declared “We have a deal” to renew the infrastructure of the United States, the Senate’s top Republican lashed out at plans to follow the $1.2 trillion bipartisan bill with another measure funding what Democrats call “human infrastructure.”

FAA and Air Force Sign Agreement on Commercial Launches from Space Force bases
(Air Force Times) The Department of the Air Force signed an agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration designed to eliminate red tape affecting commercial rocket launches at U.S. Space Force ranges, the agencies announced June 21.

Labor, Driver Shortages Delay Commercial, Military Moves
(Transport Topics) The moving industry is facing mammoth labor and truck driver shortages during the peak military moving season and an explosion of moving demands in the commercial market, possibly delaying unscheduled summer moves until August or September, according to American Trucking Associations’ Moving and Storage Conference.

Robert C. O’Brien: The Jones Act Is Essential for U.S. National Security
(The National Interest) The world is a dangerous place and the original purpose of the Jones Act is still relevant. Just imagine a future without the Jones Act, where Chinese-flagged vessels all controlled, in whole or in part, by the Chinese Communist Party—were able to freely dock at our domestic ports, cruise our coastlines, and travel up and down our inland waterways…

Biden-Putin Summit: Key Takeaways From an ‘All Business’ Meeting in Geneva
(NBC News) President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he made it clear in his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that the U.S. will act against Russia if it continues with behavior that harms America’s interests—even as Washington keeps trying to find areas of common ground.

Defeat Is Possible
(War on the Rocks) If the United States is to have a reasonable hope of winning a war, it needs to think very seriously about what it would be like to lose. For years, analysts have warned the US and its allies might not prevail in a high-level conflict with a near-peer adversary. While Russia and China fall short of the US in overall military power, they enjoy local overmatch in key theaters that might allow them to defeat US forces.

Austin Signs Internal Directive to Unify Department’s China Efforts
(US Department of Defense) Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III has issued an internal directive to laser-focus Department of Defense efforts to address China as the nation’s number one pacing challenge.

Senate Commerce Committee’s Bipartisan $78B Surface Transportation Bill Advances
(Railway Age) The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation has passed its five-year surface transportation bill authorizing $78 billion for rail, freight, safety and research programs.

Hack the Army Uncovers 238 Cyber “Vulnerabilities”
(Breaking Defense) The third annual Hack the Army event uncovered 238 security vulnerabilities—102 rated “high” or “critical”—in Army tech. “We cannot afford a ‘next time we will do better’ mentality,” said one Defense Digital Service participant.

What 5G Will Actually Do for the U.S. Military
(Defense One) Imagine a city where a self-driving electric car anticipates when and where to pick you up. There is no traffic, because every vehicle is in constant communication with every other car and traffic light. That internet-of-things enabled city of the future looks a lot like the experiments with ubiquitous 5G cellular networking the military is doing today.

DoD Calls for Whole-of-Government Effort to Improve Critical Supply Chains
(Federal News Network) The Defense Department said it will need at least $1 billion over the next five years to strengthen its stockpile of critical materials. The recommendation comes from a report mandated by the White House that looked at supply chain issues at DoD, the Commerce Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Energy Department.

The Truth About Tripwires: Why Small Force Deployments Do Not Deter Aggression
(Texas National Security Review) A pillar of American grand strategy since 1945 has been the deployment of forces—sometimes smaller and sometimes larger—abroad. A key logic underpinning smaller deployments is that they serve as tripwires: Attacking them is assumed to inevitably trigger broader intervention, deterring aggression. We question this logic.

U.S. Navy Wants to Decommission Six Littoral Combat Ships
(The Maritime Executive) The U.S. Navy is doing what it can to high-grade its troubled fleet of Littoral Combat Ships, repairing persistent defects in the best vessels while attempting to dispose of the worst – including two Freedom-class ships that are just a few years old.

What Blockchain Tells Us about the Pentagon’s Innovation Struggles
(Defense One) A shared digital ledger whose every transaction is preserved in mathematical amber, blockchain can offer transparency, trustworthiness, and immutability—qualities of obvious value to the world of defense acquisition. But to the U.S. defense industry, blockchain is just another small-company innovation that the Pentagon has failed to grasp, and it is instructive to look at why.

America’s Allies and Enemies Will Take Note of Biden’s Low-Priority Defense Budget
(The Hill) It has not gone without notice that the word “defense” did not appear and that there was no mention of “great power competition” in the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) “Fact Sheet” that accompanied the release of the fiscal year 2022 budget. How allies, partners, and adversaries will interpret the absence of any mention of classic concepts of national security is anyone’s guess.

White House Launches Task Force to Address Supply Chain Disruptions
(NBC News) The White House announced Tuesday that it will establish a task force to address supply chain challenges in key sectors where “a mismatch between supply and demand has been evident.” The task force will focus on “homebuilding and construction, semiconductors, transportation, and agriculture and food” and will be led by the secretaries of commerce, agriculture and transportation, the White House said.

Space Force Seeks $832 Million in Classified Spending, New Missions and More in Annual Wish List
(C4ISRNet) The U.S. Space Force is asking Congress for $832 million over its $17.4 billion budget request for its unfunded priority list, an annual wish list of spending every service sends lawmakers. The request includes additional funding for dozens of programs, repairs to Space Force facilities, and $279 million in classified spending to “develop a warfighting punch.”

TRANSCOM Head Envisions Increased Intra-Theater Lift Demand
(Breaking Defense) America’s new way of war, soon to be articulated in the Joint Warfighting Concept, will require more and different intra-theater lift capabilities, says the outgoing head of Transportation Command GEN Stephen Lyons.

Eyeing China, Biden Defense Budget Boosts Research and Cuts Procurement
(Defense News) U.S. President Joe Biden’s first budget request for the Department of Defense slashes procurement by $8 billion, whacking scores of legacy weapons and systems as a way to deliver a $5.5 billion boost for the development and testing of cutting-edge technologies that could deter China. The $715 billion Pentagon request for fiscal 2022, which was sent to Congress Friday, represents an $11 billion increase and trails the rate of inflation.

Biden’s Budget Includes Boost for Transportation Purposes
(Transport Topics) President Joe Biden on May 28 unveiled a whopping $6 trillion budget proposal, which includes billions for provisions to boost transportation infrastructure. The budget, proposed for fiscal 2022 spending, will be considered by Congress, which actually sets the budget.

Connecting Partnerships for the Co-Production of Full-Spectrum Threat Intelligence
(Center for International Maritime Security) Traditional threats to global challenges of port security are now joined by threats including both physical and cyber-attacks, the potential for littoral terrorist operations—such as the maritime insertion of terrorists for the November 2008 Mumbai Attacks—and the potential for unmanned operations including aerial, surface, and underwater drones. These technological challenges will influence both state and non-state actors leading to new potentials for maritime conflict.

America Will Need the Jones Act Long After the Colonial Pipeline Crisis Is Resolved
(RealClear Defense) The disruption of the Colonial Pipeline was a devastating reminder of America’s vulnerabilities in an age of rapidly evolving threats. But while this should have been a moment for unification around national security priorities, some saw this crisis as an opportunity to propagate misguided and inaccurate attacks on the Jones Act.

Russia’s Latest Hack Shows How Useful ‘Criminal Groups’ Are to the Kremlin
(Defense One) Russian coders have little choice but to work with their government, which in turn denies any knowledge of their activities. That’s why hacking activity shows no sign of slowing.

Russia’s Northernmost Base Projects Its Power Across Arctic
(AP) Russia’s northernmost military base is bristling with missiles and radar and its extended runway can handle all types of aircraft, including nuclear-capable strategic bombers, projecting Moscow’s power and influence across the Arctic amid intensifying international competition for the region’s vast resources.

Can Special Ops Build a C-130 Seaplane?
(Breaking Defense) Air Force Special Operations Command is pushing to refit MC-130J aircraft to be able to take off and land in the water. An amphibious C-130 would give special operations forces another way to insert themselves in areas where US military leaders think will be most contested in the coming years — small island chains in the Pacific where Chinese forces have built a string of small bases contesting claims by rival nations.

The Pentagon Has Never Passed an Audit. Some Senators Want to Change That
(NPR) The Pentagon went through its first independent financial audit in 2017. But after three failed attempts, lawmakers are losing their patience. A new bill could impose financial penalties on the DOD.

37 Defense Industrial Base Companies Affected by SolarWinds Intrusion
(NextGov) Rear Adm. William Chase III, deputy principal cyber adviser to the defense secretary and director of the Protecting Critical Technology Task Force, said during a Senate Armed Services cyber subcommittee hearing that 37 companies reported exposures related to the SolarWinds intrusion. He also said that while the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification would not necessarily have prevented the intrusions, meeting certain CMMC requirements may have helped companies spot hackers’ movements.

Long-Term Partnerships with at Least Six African Countries Expected, SFAB Colonel Says
(Army Times) A recent deployment of Army advisors to Africa saw U.S. troops pull out of Somalia but increase their footprint on the continent, beginning training missions in Senegal, Kenya, and Ghana. COL Michael P. Sullivan, head of 2nd Security Force Assistance Brigade out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, told reporters that he expects the SFAB mission in Africa to grow.

Active-Duty Troops Could Be Deployed Along the Southern Border Again
(Military Times) Thousands of National Guardsmen who’ve been rotating to the U.S.-Mexico border since 2018 are supposed to go home for good by Sept. 30, the chief of the National Guard Bureau told lawmakers on Tuesday, but because the Homeland Security Department wants that mission to continue, they could be replaced by active-duty troops.

We Should Not Underestimate China’s Military Ambitions
(The Dispatch) Americans, according to recent polls and surveys, increasingly view China as a leading threat to the United States. Waking up to the threat from China is a good thing. But Americans may still not fully appreciate how Beijing has used its growing economy to undertake the largest military modernization effort in the history of the People’s Republic of China.

New Guidance on Acquisition Requirements Coming This Month, Hyten Says
(Defense News) Under DOD’s still-in-the-works joint war-fighting concept, there are four subsidiary topics of focus: information advantage, joint command and control, fires, and contested logistics. By the end of May, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen John Hyten says strategic directives on speeding up the acquisition system for those four key areas will be published.

South Korea Plans to Invest $450 Billion to Become Chip ‘Powerhouse’
(NIKKEI Asia) South Korea is going all out to bolster its critical semiconductor industry, with the government on Thursday announcing a plan by companies to invest 510 trillion won ($451 billion) and beefed-up tax benefits to boost chipmakers’ competitiveness amid a critical global shortage of the key components.

Japan, US, France Hold Military Drill Eyeing China Presence
(Marine Times) Dozens of Japanese, American, and French troops landed amid pouring rain from a CH-47 transport helicopter onto a grassy field at a training area in southern Japan, part of Saturday’s joint scenario of defending a remote island from an enemy invasion.

US-China Rivalry: Will America’s New ‘Floating Base’ Heighten Tensions?
(South China Morning Post) The commissioning of a United States “floating naval base” will extend the military competition between the US and China into areas where China controls ports, according to defense experts.

CNO, Commandant: Services Have a Good Idea of How They’ll Fight, If Congress Helps Them with the Right Spending Plans
(USNI News) The chief of naval operations and commandant of the Marine Corps say they are increasingly clear on how they’d want to fight a peer adversary, what attributes would make their forces successful and what platforms they need to equip that force. Now, they just need help from Congress turning that into a budget everyone can agree upon, they say.

US and Singapore Armies Conduct 40th Annual Tiger Balm Exercise
(US Indo-Pacific Command) Celebrating a 40-year partnership, Exercise Tiger Balm is the longest-running bilateral exercise between the U.S. Army and the Singapore Armed Forces that occurred virtually on Singapore and Oahu, Hawaii, May 6-13, 2021. A U.S. Army Pacific (USARPAC) sponsored exercise conducted annually since 1981, the Tiger Balm aims to enhance regional security, interoperability, and country-to-country military relationships.

Strategic Predictability: Landpower in the Indo-Pacific
(War on the Rocks) The concept of a “free and open Indo-Pacific” could become a fleeting memory. Those committed to the region — especially the Army — should address this challenge. To that end, the Army is transforming landpower in the Indo-Pacific to engage in, and deliver operations across, the land, air, sea, space, and cyberspace domains on, from, and through land.

EU and US Defense Leaders Pounce on New Pet Project: Military Mobility
(Defense News) European Union members have admitted the United States into a project aimed at quickening the flow of military personnel and equipment across the continent, hoping the move will open a new front in trans-Atlantic cooperation.

An Update on a Big Program to Help Cybersecurity of the Defense Industrial Base
(Federal News Network) Even for the government, the Defense Department’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program is a complicated apparatus. Get an update from the Chairman of the Accreditation Body Board of Directors, retired Air Force Col. Karlton Johnson.

Why the United States Needs an Independent Cyber Force
(War on the Rocks) The cyber warfare domain is entirely different from the physical domains of air, land, sea, and space that shape the focus and warfighting priorities of the services. Yet too often, the services treat cyber as an enabler of more conventional military operations in their respective domains, rather than an entirely new and unique domain of warfare.

China Plans to Revive Strategic Pacific Airstrip, Kiribati Lawmaker Says
(Reuters) China has drawn up plans to upgrade an airstrip and bridge on one of Kiribati’s remote islands about 3,000km southwest of Hawaii, lawmakers told Reuters, in a bid to revive a site that hosted military aircraft during World War II.

Four Ways a China-U.S. War at Sea Could Play Out
(Bloomberg) There are four distinct maritime “flashpoint” zones, where the Chinese navy may potentially take military against the U.S. and its allies, partners, and friends: the Taiwan Strait; Japan and the East China Sea; the South China Sea; and more distant waters around China’s other neighbors, including Indonesia, Singapore, Australia, and India. 

DHS Announces Extension of REAL ID Full Enforcement Deadline
(Transportation Security Administration) Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas has announced the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is extending the REAL ID full enforcement date by 19 months, from October 1, 2021 to May 3, 2023, due to circumstances resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Sea Power Backers Propose $25 Billion to Fix US Shipyards
(Defense News) As the U.S. Navy grapples with outdated maintenance facilities and a fleet stretched by maintenance backlogs, a bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers are proposing a $25 billion cash infusion for public and private shipyards timed for Congress’ debate on a massive infrastructure package.

USAF Logistics Chief Raises Urgent Warning on Surge Capacity
(Aviation Week) A recent internal study shows more than nine out of 10 repairs performed by the defense industry on U.S. Air Force aircraft are by a sole-source vendor, the service’s top logistics official said on April 28.

Commander Says Africa Is Too Important for Americans to Ignore
(DOD News) Africa is a fascinating continent of tremendous possibilities but also tremendous dangers, and the U.S. ignores the nations of Africa at its own peril, the commander of the U.S. Africa Command said during an interview.

Digitizing President Biden’s Supply Chain Strategy
(Supply & Demand Chain Executive) Supply chain was one of the most urgent yet perplexing terms on the minds of business leaders in 2020, along with personal protective equipment (PPE), social distancing, and work-from-home. Its status and importance were cemented with President Biden’s new Executive Order designed to shore up critical components and improve the resiliency of America’s supply chains.

EU Blames China for Endangering Peace in South China Sea
(U.S. News & World Report) The European Union has called out China for endangering peace in the South China Sea and urged all parties to abide by a 2016 tribunal ruling which rejected most of China’s claim to sovereignty in the sea, but which Beijing has rejected.

Speedy ‘Ambulance Ships’ a High Priority for Navy Medicine, Admiral Says
(Military.com) The Navy is investing more than $200 million to configure two of its catamarans to function as high-speed “ambulance ships” for medical emergencies on the water. And the Navy’s surgeon general said Tuesday that the service is “enormously excited” to gain the new capability.

US Military Begins Shipping Equipment in Afghanistan Pullout Prep
(Military Times) The U.S. military has begun shipping equipment and winding down contracts with local service providers ahead of the May 1 start of the final phase of its military pullout from Afghanistan, a U.S. Defense Department official said Thursday.

Free the Data: Vice Chiefs Launch an Acquisition Crusade
(Defense One) America’s sophisticated jets, drones, combat vehicles, satellites, and other gear produce data that the Defense Department can’t access, use, or share in the way that it wants to. Gen. John Hyten, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the services’ vice chiefs are looking to change that.

The USAF’s Bad Bets on Pilot Retention Show It Needs Outside Help
(Defense One) Despite the pandemic, the Air Force is still short of pilots, thanks to low retention and strong airline hiring. This brewing personnel issue is so severe that outside intervention is now required.

USTRANSCOM Prepares for Third-Party Cyber Compliance Assessments
(Federal Computer Week) U.S. Transportation Command is preparing a test program for cyber compliance to hold commercial partners accountable for supply chain risks in preparation for broad adoption of the Defense Department’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program, FCW has learned.

Afghanistan Withdrawal Plan Could Involve Small Troop Surge
(Military Times) The Pentagon is pulling out its old Afghanistan drawdown plans and reworking them for a Sept. 11 deadline, per President Joe Biden’s announcement of the end of Operation Resolute Support on Wednesday. The 2,500 troops deployed to that country may see some back-up arriving to help with removing equipment, shutting down operations centers, and maintaining security as the Taliban seeks to take advantage of their focus on closing up shop.

The Army’s Newest $21 Billion Contract Is Not Your Typical Government Contract
(JD Supra) Recently the Army awarded Microsoft the Integrated Visual Augmentation System contract, a potentially $21 billion undertaking to develop next-generation night vision and “situational awareness capabilities” in a Heads Up Display. The contract was awarded under the Army’s Other Transaction authority (OTA) and the sheer size of it is certain to bring renewed attention to this contracting vehicle.

Space Force Wants to Introduce Commercial Capabilities to All Mission Areas
(C4ISRNet) While commercial services have played a significant role in the military’s satellite communications and launch enterprises, the Space Force has not integrated commercial services more widely. However, as the service begins looking at its future plans, it sees industry as a much bigger partner.

Republicans Say Less Than 6% of Biden’s Plan is Traditional Infrastructure. BofA Says It’s More Like Half
(Insider) The leaders of the Republican party have argued that President Joe Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan funds too many things that aren’t physical, or traditional, infrastructure, saying that less than 6% of its spending goes to rebuilding roads and bridges.

Commentary: Now is a Great Time for Veterans to Enhance Their Education
(Military Times) There may be no “silver lining” to the COVID-19 pandemic in the traditional sense. But there is an opportunity for veterans and soldiers to embrace new technologies, maximize indoor time on our computers and pursue degrees that will help us serve today and possibly prepare for the private sector with greater income opportunities.

DTMO Releases Defense Travel Dispatch
(Defense Travel Management Office [DTMO]) DTMO has published the Spring 2021 edition of its quarterly newsletter, the Defense Travel Dispatch, featuring travel-related news, best practices, and updates.

The Longest Telegram: A Visionary Blueprint for the Comprehensive Grand Strategy Against China We Need
(War on the Rocks) The defining challenge facing the United States in the 21st century is the rise of China. While Washington has been dozing, Beijing has been dreaming—and China’s dreams are the stuff of American nightmares.

Satellite Images Show Large Russian Military Build-Up in Arctic: Report
(The Hill) Russia is building up military equipment in the Arctic and testing new weapons there as it looks to assert dominance of the region, CNN reported. According to satellite images, Russia is building upon military bases, hardware, and underground storage facilities on its Arctic coastline, with bombers, MiG31BM jets, and new radar systems close to the Alaskan coast.

Let’s Get Real About US Military ‘Dominance’
(Defense One) While the U.S. military may remain the dominant force across all domains in any location on any day of the week during any time of day, recent long-term trends dictate that that should no longer be the operating assumption of American military strategists in their futures analysis.

The Infinite Game: How the US Army Plans to Operate in Great Power Competition
(Defense News) The Army has outlined, in a recent white paper obtained by Defense News, its “critical” role in great power competition to include deterring conflict, upholding US interests and forging and strengthening relationships with allies and partners.

How Air Mobility Command Wants its Airlifters and Refuelers to Fight
(Air Force Magazine) Air Mobility Command has big plans to overhaul its gray-tailed heavies for the high-end fight, turning airlifters into command and control assets and possibly putting air-to-air missiles on tankers. The long-term planning is a shift away from the idea of keeping mobility assets away from a fight, using them instead just as delivery platforms for other combat forces.

Commentary: Pentagon Industrial Policies Need to Focus on Demand
(Defense News) The Biden administration recently started a review of critical US supply chains, following on the heels of multiple manufacturing and defense-industrial base assessments by the previous White House and Pentagon teams. But not addressing the demand side of manufacturing ecosystems in these assessments could prompt unproductive government policies or miss promising opportunities to strengthen US industry.

Biden Unveils Sweeping $2 Trillion Infrastructure Plan
(Freight Waves) The White House has released an outline of President Joe Biden’s vision for infrastructure: a $2 trillion, 10-year American Jobs Plan that includes upgrading transportation infrastructure as well as renewing the electric grid, high-speed broadband to all parts of the US and delivering clean drinking water.

A Marine Logistics Base May Be the Warehouse of the Future
(Defense One) In the warehouse of the future, nothing is ever lost. A massive web of 5G-connected sensors will track every object all the time everywhere, slashing the time required to manage and restock items. The Defense Department has awarded $13 million to a Virginia Tech-led team to build just such a smart warehouse for the Marine Corps.

Blinken and Austin’s Heavy Lifting: Takeaways from Indo-Pacific Tour
(Nikkei Asia) Between them, Blinken and Austin accomplished a great deal on their first international trip as secretaries. “Two-plus-two” visits to estranged neighbors Japan and South Korea, a huddle with strategic partner India, and even a surprise appearance in Afghanistan, followed by a phone call with Pakistan’s most powerful man, all show the U.S. pushing the envelope to work with friends and allies, both old and new, to outmaneuver China in the Indo-Pacific, with an eye on conflicts past and present.

Army Revamping How It Positions, Maneuvers Global Force as It Faces an Assertive China
(Stars and Stripes) The U.S. Army will transform over the next 14 years into a multidomain power capable of operating as an “inside force” within an adversary’s defensive zones, according to a strategy paper released Tuesday by the service. The transformation affects the Army worldwide, but the paper regards the Indo-Pacific region as the most imminent challenge.

The Future of Sino-US Proxy War
(Texas National Security Review) Strategic thought in both the United States and China has focused on the potential for a Sino-U.S. interstate war and downplayed the odds of a clash in a foreign internal conflict. However, great-power military competition is likely to take the form of proxy war in which Washington and Beijing aid rival actors in an intrastate conflict.

China’s Secretive Maritime Militia May Be Gathering at Whitsun Reef
(Foreign Policy) Since at least March 7, 2021, many dozens of large, blue-hulled PRC ships have been lashed together in Whitsun Reef’s lagoon. They have not been seen to do any fishing, but run powerful lights at night. Citing the presence of 220 China Maritime Militia (CMM) vessels, on March 21 Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana publicly demanded their departure from his nation’s Exclusive Economic Zone. But Beijing remains defiant.

How China is Winning the Subsea Internet Cable Competition in Africa
(Maritime Executive) Since its launch in 2013, China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has received extensive attention against the backdrop of growing national debts in many African countries, with discussion focused primarily on the overland Silk Road and the maritime Silk Road. However, the spotlight on China’s Digital Silk Road (DSR) has remained faint, despite its overarching role in realization of the BRI.

A New Great Game Finds the South Atlantic
(War on the Rocks) In March, the South Atlantic witnessed an unusual scene: a U.S. ship turning around and sailing for home, having been refused docking rights and services by the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The press paid little attention to this kerfuffle, but it was yet another sign that a tectonic shift is underway. In the South Atlantic, former U.S. security partners are building stronger ties with China, a shift that presents critical future risks for Washington and the inter-American community.

Second Stage of Chinese Telecom Ban Producing Unintended Consequences
(Federal News Network) Phase two of the U.S. government’s crackdown on untrusted Chinese hardware and software in its supply chain is only about six months old. But as some contracting experts both inside and outside of the government warned at the time, the latest implementation appears to be causing unintended consequences because of ambiguities over what it means to “use” equipment made by companies like ZTE and Huawei.

Incorporating the Cyberspace Domain: How Russia and China Exploit Asymmetric Advantages in Great Power Competition
(Modern War Institute) When it comes to America’s focus on great power competition, China and Russia loom large, making the analysis of these two competitors and their strategies a booming business for analysts and practitioners alike. But how these two states and their militaries act in cyberspace is less often discussed and less well understood.

Editor’s note: The article above was recommended to us by our friend Capt. Alex Soukhanov, Managing Director, Moran Cyber, who said “Not protecting our ideas is not protecting our employees, our businesses, and our infrastructure.”

Massive, Army-Led NATO Exercise Defender Europe Kicks Off
(Army Times) One of the largest U.S.-Army led military exercises in decades has kicked off and will run until June, with 28,000 total troops from 27 nations taking part. Defender Europe 2021 will include “nearly simultaneous operations across more than 30 training areas” in a dozen countries.

Op-ed | Don’t Discount the FAA’s Role in the Private Space Race
(Space News) SpaceX has disrupted long-held beliefs of how the space business works and permanently expanded thinking about government contracting with industry. However, as a leader in private spaceflight, SpaceX must also set a better example for the entire industry in working with the regulatory bodies that safeguard and advance private spaceflight’s future.

Army AI Helper Would Suggest Actions in Multidomain Fights
(C4ISRNet) The Army’s future capabilities lab is developing an artificial intelligence tool to help mission planners choose the best moves in multidomain battles. The system will highlight critical points in the mission with risk of failure, such as when military vehicles need to arrive on time at a specific location or when a unit would begin to run out of fuel.

Battle Heats Up Over Pentagon Spending Plans
(The Hill) Jockeying over defense funding is heating up amid expectations President Biden will request an essentially flat Pentagon budget for next year. This past week, a group of progressive Democrats sent Biden a letter calling for him to “significantly” slash defense spending, sparking fierce backlash from Republicans who would like to see the budget increase.

Task Force on Supply Chain Will Make Recommendations for 2022 NDAA
(Federal News Network) In the three months leading up to the year’s biggest defense bill, a group of representatives led by the House Armed Services Committee Chairman plan to come up with ways Congress can change the law to better the nation’s most important supply chains.

China’s Arms Sales Drop as ‘Other Nations Buy American’
(South China Morning Post) China’s arms exports have dropped over the past five years, a decline that experts have attributed to tensions between China and the US prompting some of China’s neighbors to buy more American weapons, according to a new report.

Getting Out of Forever Wars: What Are Biden’s Options in Afghanistan?
(Military Times) US counterterrorism strategy has for a quarter-century been driven by the assumption that security at home depends on fighting the terrorists abroad. How will that square with President Biden’s campaign pledge to “end the forever wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East?”

Redefine Readiness or Lose
(War on the Rocks) In the halls of the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill, military, civilian, and congressional leaders regularly discuss the “readiness” of our armed forces. But what exactly is readiness?

What the SolarWinds Hack Tells Us About IoT and Supply-Chain Security
(Supply Chain Brain) No matter the industry, cybersecurity breaches seem to be escalating in size and scale. The sprawling hacking campaign launched by Russia three months ago—which impacted as many as 18,000 customers of the Texas-based software maker SolarWinds Corp.—is an egregious example of the far reach of a potential supply-chain attack.

GI Bill Vets May Be Less Attractive to For-Profit Schools Under New Law
(Military Times) Lawmakers on Wednesday finalized plans for major changes in for-profit colleges’ ability to recruit and enroll veterans in degree programs, but students are unlikely to see any school restrictions or closings as a result of the move for several more years.

ow the US Military is Preparing for a War with China
(Nikkei Asia) A recent Atlantic Council publication lays out a sweeping blueprint for a U.S. strategy to face China. Whether the new Biden administration fully embraces the paper’s aggressive stance remains to be seen, but elements are under serious consideration.

Eyeing China, Indo-Pacific Command Seeks $27 Billion Deterrence Fund
(Defense News) U.S. military officials have outlined new spending requirements to boost deterrence against China, including new weapons, new construction, and closer military-to-military collaboration with America’s allies in the region.

CISA Tells Agencies to Patch or Unplug On-Premise Microsoft Email Systems
(Federal News Network) New zero-day vulnerabilities in on-premise Microsoft email servers are causing a fire drill across the government. CISA issued an emergency directive Wednesday requiring agencies to update or disconnect the Microsoft Exchange products from their networks until they are updated with the patch released Tuesday.

Abandon Old Assumptions About Defense Spending
(War on the Rocks) In 2010, then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen said, “The most significant threat to our national security is our debt.” At the time the national debt was climbing fast. But obsession with the debt and the limits that it places on defense spending is actually a bad idea.

West of Diego Garcia, India is Building an Island Base of Its Own
(The Maritime Executive) The small, remote Mauritian island of North Agalega, located in the south-western Indian Ocean, 700 miles north of Mauritius, is currently a hive of construction activity. India sought access to the islands in 2015 to develop as an air and naval staging point for surveillance of the south-west Indian Ocean.

Physics-Based Simulation Can Improve Force Readiness
(Defense News) Lethality, agility, speed, and technology: These words describe our capacity to fight. Yet, much of our latent capacity is held back by reliability issues — the bane of all warfighters.

US Industry Struggles to Strip Chinese Tech from Networks
(Breaking Defense) More than two years after Congress passed two laws to strip Chinese hardware and software from US defense and telecommunications supply chains, industry is struggling to figure out how.

Secretary Pete Buttigieg Suggests Usage Charge as Sustainable Funding Solution
(Transport Topics) Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg acknowledged the lack of sustainable transportation financing sources but suggested an increase to the federal fuel tax rate would not offer a long-term solution. In terms of a sustainable funding mechanism, Buttigieg suggested the merits of a usage charge system—so long as privacy concerns could be addressed.

Smarter Software Could Help Air Force Cut Fuel Bills by a Million Gallons Per Week
(Federal News Network) The Air Force, the government’s largest fuel consumer, wants to use its market power to help spur the development of new innovations like ultra-efficient airplanes and new types of fuel. But if those energy-saving investments pan out, they’re likely to take a while.

Navigating the Shoals of Renewed American Naval Power: Imperatives for the Next Secretary of the Navy
(War on the Rocks) New Navy leadership will soon arrive, but the department should not squander precious time on restarting strategic studies, force assessments, and process improvement programs. Instead, steady and strategic civilian leadership is required to make progress in the marathon implementation of integrated force redesign.

‘Great Power Competition’ Is a Dangerously Simple Frame
(Defense News) To correctly set force posture, the Pentagon needs to look more deeply at the world’s actors, their preferences, and relationships.

Space Force Chief Sees Larger Role for Commercial Industry in Its Missions
(C4ISRNet) In its second year, the US Space Force wants to build deeper connections with commercial industry, according to Chief of Space Operations Gen. Jay Raymond.

TRANSCOM Delays Awarding New Contract Worth Up to $20 Billion for Military Household Goods Moves
(MilitaryTimes) Officials at US Transportation Command have delayed their award of a contract aimed at improving household goods moves for military members and their families to the fall of 2022. The new system will fundamentally change how TRANSCOM does business, by putting the day-to-day management of household goods moves into the hands of a contractor. 

An Influential Group has a List of Ideas for the Future of US Maritime Power
(Federal News Network) With rival nations building up their navies, and in China’s case getting a lot more aggressive, what should the United States’ floating power look like? The Navy League recently released a long list of recommendations for maritime policy.

Biden Takes His ‘America Is Back’ Message to the World in Munich Speech
(NPR) President Biden on Friday sought to turn the page on former President Donald Trump’s “America First” ethos, declaring “America is back” and vowing to rebuild trust with European allies by working on challenges like arms control, COVID-19, and climate change.

Austin Says No Decision Has Been Made Yet on Afghanistan Troop Withdrawal, but ‘Violence Must Decrease Now’
(Stars and Stripes) The United States has yet to decide the future of its military posture in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Friday, urging an end to violence in the nation where American troops have been fighting for nearly 20 years.

Buttigieg: After COVID-19 Relief, an Infrastructure Policy
(Transport Topics) The nation’s top transportation officer echoed the White House’s strategy of pursuing a comprehensive infrastructure policy agenda after the approval of a new round of COVID-19 aid.

DOD’s Smart Warehouse-Enabling 5G Network Underway
(Defense One) Deployment of the private 5G wireless network that will underpin the Defense Department’s experimentation with an array of cutting-edge technologies through its forthcoming smart warehouse testbed has officially kicked off.

Opinion: Why the Future Will Not Be Virtual
(Aviation Week) The COVID-19 pandemic has accustomed us to living in the virtual world and hearing speculation about the ways in which our actual lives may never resume as before. To all you leaders who, like me, find the progressively virtual world unsettling, I say, “Find your terrain walk.” 

Bill Would Cut Over 100,000 DOD Jobs
(Federal Times) New legislation would require the Department of Defense to cut its civilian workforce by 15 percent by 2025, a move that would result in the elimination of over 100,000 federal jobs based on current numbers.

Want to Redefine Readiness? Here’s Where to Start
(Defense One) At their core, discussions of readiness are a matter of balancing risk and one’s strategic objectives. If the military prioritizes near-term readiness and addressing today’s threats, it risks being unprepared for the future fight.

A Key Step in Preventing a Future SolarWinds
(Just Security) Since news of the SolarWinds incident became public, commentators have offered prescriptions for responding to the incident. But as information continues to emerge about the scope and scale of the incident and policymakers struggle with thorny questions regarding appropriate responses, urgent attention is needed to preventing such large-scale catastrophes in the future.

The US Navy’s Postgraduate School is Taking a Stab at Metal 3D Printing
(Defense News) The Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., took delivery late last year of a new Xerox 3D metal printer that the school hopes will advance what’s possible to manufacture at sea, easing the burden on the Navy’s supply chain.

A Better Bureaucracy Can Close the Gap Between Defense and Commercial Technologies
(War on the Rocks) As it is currently organized, the US government is ill-equipped to deal with the growing number of national security challenges that exist at the intersection of commercial and defense technology. To solve these problems, the White House needs to ensure there is a single organization that has stewardship of all the issues that cross existing lines between national security, commerce, and technology.

Biden Harnesses Defense Production Act to Speed Vaccinations and Production of Protective Equipment
(The Washington Post) The Biden administration has announced a handful of initiatives aimed at accelerating mass inoculations against the coronavirus and expanding production of rapid tests and surgical gloves to help control the pathogen. This includes taking several steps under the Defense Production Act in a bid to boost supplies of the shots and of other critical equipment.

The United States and Japan Should Prepare for War with China
(War on the Rocks) Last week, China toughened its language against Taiwan, warning that “independence means war.” A few days prior, the Taiwanese Defense Ministry reported 15 aircraft from the Chinese air force inside its air defense identification zone. This uptick in saber-rattling suggests the military challenge posed by China will likely continue, making it one of the Biden administration’s top priorities.

Pentagon Leaders Discuss Challenges of Moving Data To and From the Tactical Edge
(Nextgov) As the Defense Department shifts to become the data-centric organization laid out in its enterprise-wide data strategy, data leaders across the department and the services are working through questions related to how to keep information flowing from the enterprise level to the tactical level and vice versa.

Air Force Study on Future Aerial Refueling Tanker Could Start in 2022
(Defense News) The Air Force could begin to lay out its vision for a future aerial refueling tanker, previously known as KC-Z, as early as next year, says Commander of Air Mobility Command, Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost.

Five Steps to Keep Your Supply Chain Secure
(Forbes) Though the well-publicized SolarWinds hack this past December came as a shock to many outside the security world, most experienced cybersecurity professionals had a different response. To them, the vulnerability that compromised thousands of organizations, including many departments within the U.S. government, was something else altogether: an inevitability.

Satisfaction with Military Moves Went Up Despite Pandemic, DoD Says
(Military.com) The COVID-19 pandemic created a military permanent change of station, or PCS, a year like no other, bringing unprecedented challenges like lockdowns and travel restrictions, increased sanitation requirements, the burden of personal protective gear, and an ever-present threat of coronavirus.

Beijing’s Warning Shot to Biden
(Defense One) As President Joe Biden was delivering his inaugural address on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, the Chinese government delivered a parting shot to the Trump administration: sanctions against 10 of its former senior officials. But the move was not just a parting shot but a warning shot to the incoming Biden administration.

Hand-to-Hand Combat on Computer Networks: How Cyber Threat Hunters Work
(C4ISRNet) When hackers break through the Pentagon’s cyber defenses, it’s the job of elite threat-hunting teams to find intruders or damage.

DoD is Centralizing Space Acquisition, But Still Has Bugs to Work Out
(Federal News Network) The Air Force is reorganizing its space acquisition office to better support the Space Force and other new space entities, but there are still questions surrounding exactly how the Pentagon will consolidate its space procurement.

Austin Confirmed as New Defense Secretary in Historic Vote
(Defense News) Former US Central Command leader Lloyd Austin was confirmed Friday as the next defense secretary, a historic vote that makes him the nation’s first Black chief of the Pentagon. Austin, a four-star Army general who spent more than 40 years in the ranks, was approved by an overwhelming 93-2 vote in the Senate.

To Rule the Invisible Battlefield: The Electromagnetic Spectrum and Chinese Military Power
(War on the Rocks) The fight for electromagnetic spectrum superiority has been ongoing for over a century. As US military’s domination of the spectrum steadily declined over the past two decades, China has been making moves to strengthen its capabilities, and has brought itself to near parity with the US.

Trump Administration Updates GPS Policy
(C4ISRNet) The outgoing Trump administration issued a new policy memo outlining the need to continue providing a worldwide GPS signal while preventing adversaries from using it against the U.S.

Joe Biden Has a Europe Problem
(Defense One) The new president has a daunting list of foreign-policy challenges. Among the biggest will be managing a longtime ally.

Pentagon Launches Online Marketplace to Pair Small Firms with ‘Trusted’ Investors
(Federal News Network) The Defense Department has rolled out a new initiative meant to protect its future supply chain from investors that might seek to turn US intellectual property into foreign military capabilities.

US Army Taps Industry for Autonomous Drones to Resupply Troops
(Defense News) The US Army is tapping industry for drones that can deliver supplies to infantry brigade combat teams in the field, according to a request for information posted to the federal contracting website Beta.Sam.Gov on Jan. 13.

Air Force Recommends Space Command Move to Alabama
(Defense One) US Space Command should move from Colorado to Alabama, the Air Force secretary said on Wednesday, effectively announcing the winner of a hotly contested competition just one week before she is scheduled to resign with the rest of the Trump administration.

Court Upholds FMCSA Exemption of Trucking from California Rest Break Rules
(Transport Topics) The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s 2018 determination that interstate motor carriers are exempt from California’s stringent meal-and-rest-break rules.

National Maritime Cybersecurity Plan Includes New Contract Mandates, Intel Sharing
(Homeland Security Today) The recently released five-year National Maritime Cybersecurity Plan focuses on new standards for port owners, shippers, and operators and forthcoming mandates that contractors meet cyber standards.

DOD Formalizes Program Giving Companies More Access to Classified Info
(Air Force Magazine) The Pentagon has formally created a group of defense companies that can get broader access to classified initiatives known as special-access programs, hoping that more insight will make contractors more efficient and cost-conscious.

Positive Train Control Ready Ahead of Schedule
(The BRAKE Report) The US Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration announced that positive train control (PTC) technology is in operation on all 57,536 required freight and passenger railroad route miles, prior to the statutory deadline set by Congress.

2021 Could Be a Huge Year for Space. Here’s What’s to Come from NASA, Elon Musk, Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos
(The Washington Post) While 2020 was a bad year and will be remembered for the coronavirus, for space enthusiasts, it was actually quite a good year, providing bits of promising news amid the bleak headlines of disease, economic hardship, and protests. From a rover landing on Mars to more human spaceflight missions, big projects are in the works for 2021.

USAF Begins Basing MQ-9s in Romania
(Air Force Magazine) Air Force MQ-9s have a new permanent home in Romania. U.S. Air Forces in Europe announced Jan. 4 that Reapers and about 90 Airmen are now based at Romanian Air Force Base 71 at Campia Turzii.

Federal Pilot Program Would Open Long-Distance Trucking to 18-Year-Olds(The Washington Post) A federal agency is proposing a pilot program to allow people as young as 18 to drive trucks across the country, an idea enthusiastically supported by trucking companies as a way to open the door to recruitment in high schools but facing deep opposition from safety organizations that say it will lead to immature drivers causing more crashes.

NATO Secretary General: Our Alliance Must Remain Strong Militarily and Politically Across the Globe
(Defense News) COVID-19 has shown that our world is more unpredictable than ever. The only thing we can be certain of is uncertainty itself — and we must learn to deal with it. For NATO, this means we must remain ready to tackle any challenge, at any time, to keep our people safe — including during pandemics.

In a First, Congress Overrides Trump Veto of Defense Bill
(The Associated Press) Congress on Friday overrode President Donald Trump’s veto of a defense policy bill, a first by lawmakers since he took office nearly four years ago, ensuring that the measure becomes law.

In Europe, US Air Force Brings Back Cold War Mobility Concept

(Defense One) For the 100th Air Refueling Wing, pivoting away from counter-terrorism to great power competition means reverting to Cold War concepts such as highly mobile command centers.

A Grand Strategy Based on Resilience
(War on the Rocks) It is nearly inevitable that disruptive events will continue to take place in the future. Given this reality, the notion that resilience should be a cornerstone of American grand strategy has gained increasing attention.

The Logistics News That Shaped 2020
(Logistics Management) Read the stories that best summarize the wild ride of 2020 in logistics and transportation management.

Russian Government Hackers Are Behind a Broad Espionage Campaign That Has Compromised U.S. Agencies, Including Treasury and Commerce
(The Washington Post) Russian government hackers breached the Treasury and Commerce departments, along with other U.S. government agencies, as part of a global espionage campaign that stretches back months, according to people familiar with the matter.

Trump Revives Threat to Veto Defense Bill, Teeing Up Battle with Lawmakers
(Reuters) US President Donald Trump on Sunday repeated his threat to veto a massive defense policy bill, setting the stage for a major battle with US lawmakers at a time when they are racing to hammer out a compromise on more coronavirus relief.

Five Things to Know About Lloyd Austin, Biden’s Pentagon Pick
(The Hill) Retired Gen. Lloyd Austin, President-elect Joe Biden’s choice to be Defense secretary, is seeking to put a history-making cap on a 40-year career that already saw him breaking several barriers along the way. To get there, Austin will need to convince a skeptical Congress to grant him a waiver to the law requiring Defense secretaries to be out-of-uniform for at least seven years.

Congress Fears DOD Not Prepared for NC3 Cyber Attacks
(Breaking Defense) A classified assessment of America’s nuclear command, control, and communications system (NC3) has rung alarm bells on Capitol Hill.  The assessment was mentioned in a provision crafted by the Senate Armed Services Committee for the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act and accepted by the House in their conference deliberations.

The US Army is Adjusting Its Pre-Positioned Stock for More Than Just War
(Defense News) The U.S. Army is taking steps to ensure its pre-positioned stock in the European and Asia-Pacific theaters is right-sized not just for conflict but for strategic competition with Russia and China, according to the service’s new commander in charge of materiel.

Washington Braces for Clash Over Defense Budget
(The Hill) A clash over the $740 billion defense budget is poised to erupt in 2021, with Democrats set to battle among themselves over whether to reduce funding.

Navy, Marines Will Need Recapitalized Sealift, Logistics Capabilities to Succeed in Pacific Operations
(USNI News) The Navy and Marine Corps need to grow their capacity to move people and supplies to and around a contested sea space—using both manned and unmanned ships and aircraft—and the service leaders asked lawmakers today for help in creating a supply chain that can stand up to a peer competitor.

Air Safety Panel Recommends Flight Hour Increase, Emphasis on Maintenance, Steady Funding
(DOD News) The National Commission on Military Aviation Safety released its recommendations yesterday saying aviators need more flight hours, maintenance personnel need better training, and manning and supply chains need more and faster throughput.

The Next Administration Will Need to Fix Military Sealift
(The National Interest) The next administration will need to bite the bullet on recapitalization of the sealift fleet. In doing so, it needs to take a long-term view that includes the need to support domestic shipbuilding and to maintain an adequate number of merchant mariners.

Tankers Likely the First Aircraft to Receive ABMS Upgrades
(Air Force Magazine) The Air Force’s aerial refueling fleet could be the first platform to adopt new technologies developed under the Advanced Battle Management System effort, integrating pods complete with advanced communications and data links to feed information, along with gas, to combat aircraft as early as next year.

Appropriators Strike Deal on Funding Totals to Avoid December Shutdown
(Politico) Top House and Senate appropriators have clinched a deal on a bipartisan set of funding levels, paving the way for a $1.4 trillion spending package to avert a government shutdown on 11 December.

Railroads Approaching Positive Train Control Full Implementation, FRA Says
(Transport Topics) The automatic braking system Congress is mandating for the country’s railroads is almost implemented on the route miles required by law, according to federal regulators’ most recent update.

Starting Dec. 1, Cybersecurity Is No Longer Optional
(Breaking Defense) As the deadline nears for the first 15 contracts awarded in compliance with the new Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification, the Pentagon made it clear that is just the beginning.

New Defense Chief Signals Potential Troop Drawdown: ‘All Wars Must End’
(The Hill) Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller signaled a potential U.S. troop reduction ahead in the Middle East in a memo sent to agency staff on Friday, saying, “All wars must end.”

Why Defense Firms Need to Get Systematic About M&A — Big and Small
(Defense News) After years of growth, defense budgets will likely flatten (or decline). In such a financial environment, the U.S. Department of Defense will consider trade-offs between funding modernization, sustaining legacy equipment, and preserving force structure.

Senate Committee Unveils Fiscal 2021 Transportation Funding Bill
(Transport Topics) The U.S. Senate committee that oversees funding across the federal government unveiled a plan for fiscal 2021 that will ensure operations continue uninterrupted across agencies, including the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

America’s Forgotten Marine Highway Network That Could Green Global Freight Transport
(Forbes) Having a robust plan for how the U.S. will meet this 40% forecast increase in freight while addressing climate commitments set in the Paris Agreement will be a critical priority. It requires out of the box thinking, and a long-forgotten transport network could prove a vital part of the solution.

Esper Fired as Defense Secretary
(Defense News) US Defense Secretary Mark Esper has been fired by President Donald Trump. Christopher Miller, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, has been appointed Acting Defense Secretary.

Where President-Elect Joe Biden Stands on National Security Issues
(Military Times) After five days of counting votes, former Vice President Joe Biden has been declared the winner of the U.S. presidential election, unseating President Donald Trump. Read a few of his selected positions and how they differ from Trump.

Is Ending Protection of US Maritime a Bad Idea?
(Federal News Network) Should foreign maritime transportation competitors like China be permitted to ply U.S. commercial waters? For a century, the Jones Act has reserved that right for U.S. made ships and crews. Now the idea of ending the protection of the U.S. maritime is gaining traction. Bad idea, according to the vice president for legislative affairs at the Navy League, Jon Kaskin.

Prioritize Building the Flight Line of the Future
(C4ISRNet) Mission readiness depends on secure and reliable connectivity to successfully maintain electronic workflows. But, military airfields and airports located in very large areas typically have minimal connectivity.

In Military Logistics, New Pentagon Leaders Must Balance Low Costs with Resiliency
(Forbes) Obtaining foreign help has always been a centerpiece of American national security strategy. But foreign resources used in the past offered the US government flexibility for a cost that, even then, was unacceptable.

What’s Bad for Government Supply Chain is Bad for Industry Too
(Federal News Network) Hardly a day of Zoom conferences goes by without someone talking about supply chain security. But the government supply chain is ultimately also the supply chain of industry.

As Its Term Winds Down, Trump’s White House Plots a Major Naval Expansion
(Defense News) Sitting inside a restaurant just yards from Bath Iron Works shipyard on a blustery October day, President Donald Trump’s top national security aide has two things on his mind: pizza, and Chinese naval expansion in the Western Pacific. One solves a short-term problem. The other is a long-term menace.

Is Iraq’s Military Good Enough for US Troops to Leave?
(Defense One) After 17 years of fighting Saddam, AQ, and ISIS, officials say support for Baghdad and its security forces remains key to fending off Iran.

Cyber Solarium Commission Outlines Recommendations for Strengthening the Supply Chain
(C4ISRNet) On the heels of its capstone March report, the Cyberspace Solarium Commission has released a detailed follow-up with recommendations for how to secure the information and communications technologies supply chain.

$20 Billion Plan to Outsource Management of Military Household Moves Hits Roadblock
(Military Times) The government’s plan to outsource its management of military household goods moves hit a major roadblock after the Government Accountability Office decided in favor of two protesters of the contract, which had a potential cost of $19.9 billion over nine years.

FMCSA ‘Struggling’ with Under-21 CDL Pilot for Military Vets
(FreightWaves) At a recent American Trucking Associations conference, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Chief Wiley Deck reveals a lack of participation in a program meant to address a shortfall of drivers entering the trucking industry is forcing regulators to adjust.

Military to Play Logistics-Only Role in COVID-19 Vaccine Effort
(DOD News) US military personnel won’t be administering any COVID-19 vaccines to the American people once the vaccines are approved for use. But the US military will lend it’s experienced hand in logistics to ensure the vaccine is available across the nation.

NSA Warns Companies China is Exploiting 25 Unpatched Vulnerabilities
(Breaking Defense) In a warning sent this week, the National Security Agency warned companies that 25 already known exploits were being used by state-based intelligence services, including China’s, and should be patched as soon as possible.

Increasing Sealift Funding, Fixing Tankers Are 2022 Budget Priorities, Esper Says
(Defense News) The Pentagon plans to include funding in its fiscal 2022 budget request to increase military sealift capabilities, including through the use of commercial vessels, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in comments Thursday.

A 21st-Century Reality Is Dawning on NATO
(Defense One) Last week, Jens Stoltenberg delivered a remarkable speech in Bratislava. It could have been one of the speeches one so often hears from officials at security conferences, one about how the West should buy more tankers and fighter jets so as to better deter Russia. Instead, NATO’s Secretary-General spoke about ports, electricity grids, and telecommunications.

Everybody Matters. Really
(Forbes) No doubt about it. Truly successful organizations typically have happy people. Or put another way, to win in the marketplace you must first win in the workplace.

Preparing the Cyber Battlefield: Assessing a Novel Escalation Risk in a Sino-American Crisis
(War on the Rocks) Do cyber capabilities create novel risks of a future political crisis between the United States and China escalating into a conflict? This article outlines one potential pathway for interstate crises to escalate: the use of force in response to adversary hacking operations that could enable high-end cyber attacks.

Democrats Face Internal ‘Fight’ on Defense Spending, Says Smith
(Defense News) The Democratic split over the size of future defense budgets will come to a head in the new Congress, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., predicted Tuesday.

The Next Evolution of Supply Chains
(Supply Chain Management Review) The adaptation of supply chains to the new global world economy had already started before the U.S.-China trade war and COVID started, and these events have accelerated the process of redefining global supply chains.

The US Military Is About to Launch Its Largest 5G Experiments Yet
(Defense One) After months of expectation, planning, and consulting with the services and with industry, the Pentagon is finally ready to start testing new concepts for 5G communications at five bases across the country.

A Cyber Cautionary Tale: Unnamed Agency Suffers Sophisticated, Possibly Nation State, Attack
(Federal News Network) A virtual private network vulnerability that has been known since December. Stolen credentials of a power user. A poorly configured firewall. It didn’t take long for the hacker to own this unnamed federal agency.

The Pentagon is Eyeing a 500-Ship Navy, Documents Reveal
(Defense News) The Pentagon’s upcoming recommendation for a future Navy is expected to call for a significant increase in the number of ships, with officials discussing a fleet as large as 530 hulls, according to documents obtained by Defense News.

Air Force Taps AT&T 5G to Boost Network Services at 3 Bases
(FedScoop) The Air Force has inked a deal with AT&T to bring 5G wireless technology to three new bases in support of the service’s enterprise IT-as-a-service and network-as-a-service models.

Global Shipping in Crisis: World Leaders Ignoring the S.O.S.
(Forbes) How many more signals do world leaders need to see to believe that global shipping is an industry in meltdown?

New U.S. Government Rules Mean Rethinking Supply Chain Risk for Public and Private Sector Decision Makers
(Forbes) The United States Government is in the process of rolling out two far-reaching procurement changes aimed at securing the federal supply chain. Individually, each of these initiatives will have a substantial impact on federal purchasing. Together, they are the largest change in federal procurement practices in many years and have implications well beyond the direct provision of products and services to the U.S. Government.

House Stopgap Spending Bill Includes $1.6B for Columbia-Class Subs
(The Hill) The Navy would be allowed to buy the first two Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines under a stopgap government funding measure released by House Democrats on Monday. Typically, stopgap spending bills known as continuing resolutions (CR) bar any changes to existing funding, including preventing new purchases.

Bradley Fighting Vehicles Sent to Protect US Troops in Syria
(Military.com) U.S. Central Command has directed the deployment of Bradley Fighting Vehicles, advanced Sentinel radar systems, and other assets to northeastern Syria to protect the remaining few hundred U.S. troops against Islamic State attack, CENTCOM said in a statement Friday.

Marines and Mercenaries: Beware the Irregular Threat in the Littoral
(Center for International Maritime Security) The world is increasingly urban and littoral. This convergence between urbanization and the littoral, or littoralization, can lead to “the worst of both worlds” and may remake the littorals into hotspots of instability and conflict.

Expect US Election to Have Consequences for American Troops Overseas
(Military Times) President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden both say they want to pull U.S. forces out of Iraq and Afghanistan. But their approaches differ, and the outcome of the Nov. 3 election will have long-term consequences not only for U.S. troops, but for the wider region.

DOD’s Forthcoming Data Strategy Focused on Joint Warfighting Approach
(FedScoop) The Department of Defense has been broadcasting its need to use “data as a strategic asset” for years now. But soon, it will give more weight to the phrase with a new data strategy that aims to empower every level of the DOD to more effectively use data.

China Has the World’s Largest Navy. And It’s Getting Better, Pentagon Warns
(Forbes) China has the largest navy in the world. And, according to a new DOD report, it’s not just big, but it’s getting better.

DOD-Dependent Movers Seeing Rebound in Revenue, But Uncertainty Lies Ahead
(Federal News Network) After a disastrous spring, moving companies are bouncing back and seeing revenues above average for August and September.

Pentagon, Defense Contractors Are Out of Step on Tech Innovation, GAO Finds
(Breaking Defense) The Pentagon wanted to fund ambitious research into future tech breakthroughs but contractors spend most of their money on safer bets, GAO has found.

DOT Plans Funding Boost, Regulatory Rollbacks in National Freight Strategy
(Supply Chain Dive) The Department of Transportation has released a National Freight Strategic Plan to help implement the National Multimodal Freight Policy. The plan outlines goals and strategies to guide multimodal freight policies, investments, and programs at the federal and state levels.

China Planning High-Speed Rail Freight Network to Help E-Commerce Sector
(South China Morning Post) China’s state-owned railway operator is planning to accelerate the development of a high-speed freight network in the hope of bolstering the e-commerce network.

The Next Supply Chain Challenge: How to Vaccinate the World
(Forbes) The next ‘real’ supply chain crisis however will be to vaccinate the whole world, safely, efficiently, and fairly. We have to get from formulating, to planning, to manufacturing and finally distributing billions of doses of vaccine.

America’s 355-Ship Navy Does Not Have to Be the Current Fantasy
(Defense News) Current law and presidential policy established 355 ships, including 12 carriers and 66 submarines, as the U.S. Navy force goal. Since few mission categories have support of law, budgets should reflect this priority. They have not.

Can AI Solve the Rare Earths Problem? Chinese and U.S. Researchers Think So
(Defense One) A joint U.S.-Chinese research team has shown that artificial intelligence can help find potent new combinations of materials to replace rare earth metals that are key to military technology.

For US Air Force Pilots, the Toughest Training Flights are Going Virtual
(Defense News) A new simulator campus at Nellis Air Force Base could be key for the U.S. Air Force as it grapples with the question of how it can train pilots against complex threats like Russia and China at a budget-friendly cost.

The Defense Industry Remains in Dire Straits. Congress Must Pass Another Relief Package
(Defense News) Pentagon officials have provided details on its stimulus funding request. It’s clear the defense, shipbuilding and aerospace industrial base—an “essential” workforce as designated by the Department of Homeland Security—is indeed in need of help.

An AI Just Beat a Human F-16 Pilot in a Dogfight—Again
(Defense One) In five rounds, an artificially-intelligent agent showed that it could outshoot other AI’s, and a human. So, what happens next with AI in air combat?

Pentagon Wins Brief Waiver from Government’s Huawei Ban
(Defense News) The Trump administration is granting the Pentagon a temporary waiver of a government-wide ban on contractors using Huawei and other Chinese-made telecommunications equipment, according to a memo obtained by Defense News.

DOD’s IT Supply Chain has Dozens of Suppliers from China, Report Finds
(FedScoop) A report from data analytics firm Govini shows that the Department of Defense‘s IT supply chains has dozens of Chinese companies in it. It is unclear how much work, products, or services come from these companies and in what way, but it still poses a significant risk.

Russia and China Playing Musical Chairs in Zero Gravity
(War on the Rocks) When SpaceX’s recent Falcon 9 rocket mission launched the first human spaceflight from U.S. soil since 2011 and the first ever for a commercial company, Russia saw its monopoly on putting humans in space fade rapidly into the background.

Here’s What Narcos Could Teach Marines, Sailors About ‘Cocaine Logistics’
(Marine Corps Times) The Navy and Marine Corps expect a big future fight in the Pacific, involving China, a lot of missiles, small islands, and far-flung units. Many people turn to history for lessons learned and future guidance, while others lean on high-tech superiority. But another direction might be sitting just south of us and come from a long-running U.S. adversary: narcotraffickers.

Ten Performance Gains the Ford-Class Carrier Will Deliver that a Nimitz Never Can
(Forbes) The USS Gerald R. Ford, the lead ship in a new generation of large-deck, nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, has been criticized for taking too long, costing too much, and not living up to its advanced billing. However, the Ford class is so different from what came before that it is hard to keep track of all the ways in which it will out-perform the carriers populating today’s operational fleet.

An Aerospace Startup Just Won a Contract to Develop an Air Force One Jet that Can Travel at Mach 5. Here’s an Early Look at the Engine that Could Rocket from New York to Paris in 90 Minutes
(Business Insider) The Air Force One of the future might be getting a major speed boost. An aerospace company called Hermeus on Thursday announced a contract with the US Air Force and the Presidential and Executive Airlift Directorate to develop a hypersonic aircraft for the presidential fleet.

House Approves $1.3 Trillion Spending Package for 2021
(The Hill) The House has approved a $1.3 trillion package of spending bills for the 2021 fiscal year. The package includes the spending bills for defense; labor, health and human services, and education; commerce, justice and science; energy and water; financial services and general government; and transportation and housing and urban development.

What Will It Take to Move 12,000 Troops from Germany? Closures, Time and Lots of Money
(Stars and Stripes) Removing 12,000 troops from Germany will likely mean several base closures and cost billions of dollars for an operation that could begin in weeks but take years to complete.

NASA Hails Success of SpaceX’s 1st Astronaut Mission: ‘This is Just the Beginning’
(Space.com) The success of SpaceX’s first-ever crewed mission has NASA very optimistic about the future of human spaceflight.

The Air Force’s Latest GPS Alternative: Earth’s Magnetic Fields
(Defense One) Officials just launched a public challenge to help create the artificial intelligence needed to turn the planet’s magnetic fields into readable maps.

Secretary Elaine Chao Unveils Guidance Document for Regulation of Hyperloop Months Ahead of Schedule and Establishes Eligibility for Project Funding
(GlobeNewswire) US Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and the Non-Traditional and Emerging Transportation Technology Council have unveiled the guidance document on a clear regulatory framework for hyperloop in the United States. The guidance is the first of its kind in the world.

Milley Assigns Service Roles in All-Domain Ops Concept
(Breaking Defense) Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley has tasked each of the services to develop a specific piece of the overarching concept for future Joint All-Domain Operations (JADO), which envisions seamlessly lethal coordination across land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace.

Commanders Need to Know Innovative Acquisition
(War on the Rocks) Successful commanders were skilled in a lot of areas: leadership style, ability to communicate, forming relationships, and motivating troops. But, perhaps most importantly, the successful commanders all had the ability to navigate government bureaucracy — specifically the acquisitions process.

The Trump Administration Says Its Overhaul of an Unpopular Trucking Safety Law Will Save Taxpayers $4 Billion
(Business Insider) The Department of Transportation announced that planned reforms to the hours-of-service (HOS) law will save American taxpayers more than $4 billion over about 14 years—roughly $287 million a year—by reducing regulatory costs.

US May Need to Nationalize Military Aircraft Industry, USAF Says
(Defense One) The United States might need to nationalize parts of the military aviation sector if the Pentagon does not come up with new ways to buy planes that stimulate more competition in private industry, a top Air Force official warned.

Navy Automates Supply Chain Analysis for Microelectronics
(FedScoop) The small computer chips in just about everything from weapon systems to IT platforms often take a long and winding supply chain journey before joining Department of Defense networks. So, the Navy recently acquired a new supply chain risk assessment tool for quicker analysis of its microelectronics and to serve as an example in monitoring broader supply chains for IT-related products.

Military Sealift is America’s Achilles’ Heel
(Navy Times) A powerful Navy, capable of protecting global commerce and projecting power around the globe, has become the cornerstone of US national defense. This strategy has also meant fighting the vast majority of the nation’s armed conflict far from our shores, protecting the homeland from the terrible destruction that was a defining characteristic of war in the 20th century.

Expanded Cargo Preferences May Be the Easiest Way to Rebuild the U.S. Maritime Industry
(Forbes) The current high-cost structure of U.S. merchant shipping is directly related to the loss of economies as subsidized foreign carriers have driven U.S. ships from the marketplace. If U.S. shipping and shipbuilding made a comeback as a result of expanded cargo preferences, the cost structure would likely change.

Logistics Challenges, Opportunities Discussed During Lexington Institute Webinar
(US Department of Defense) Brig Gen Leonard Kosinski, USAF, Director of Logistics for US Africa Command spoke to international logistics experts during a recent webinar. Kosinski discussed the logistical challenges in Africa and the need to partner with commercial industry to help overcome challenges and leverage lessons learned.

‘Lightning in Her Veins’: How Katie Arrington is Convincing Defense Contractors to Love Cybersecurity
(C4ISRNet) Arrington’s title is clunky: chief information security officer for acquisition in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment. Translated, she’s leading the Pentagon’s effort to add new cybersecurity requirements for the 300,000 companies that do business with the Pentagon. Her challenge, almost every day, is to convince industry it should embrace the Defense Department’s new auditing standards, which are aimed at improving cybersecurity.

USDOT Issues Final Rule for Transporting LNG by Rail Tank Car
(Progressive Railroading) The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), in consultation with the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), late last week issued a final rule authorizing the bulk transportation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) by rail.

SECDEF Seeks to Reassure NATO Over U.S. Troop Plans
(Military Times) U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Friday sought to reassure allies at NATO that Washington will consult them on any future troop movements, after President Donald Trump surprised partners at the military alliance by announcing the withdrawal of thousands of personnel from Germany.

Pentagon Wants to Give Contractors an Extra Year to Remove Chinese Tech
(FedScoop) The Department of Defense is considering giving contractors an extra year to rid their networks of technology from Huawei, ZTE, and other Chinese companies.

House Lawmakers Vote to Raise Mandatory Insurance Coverage to $2 Million
(FreightWaves) Lawmakers marking up the U.S. House of Representatives’ version of the surface transportation reauthorization bill have approved an amendment to more than double the required amount of insurance coverage for truck owners from $750,000 to $2 million.

Democrats Unveil $1.5 Trillion Infrastructure Plan
(The Hill) House Democrats unveiled a $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan Thursday that calls for a huge increase in funding to repair roads and bridges while expanding broadband access in rural areas.

Congress Has Less Than a Month to Ward Off Needless Harm to the US Military
(Defense One) The ranking member of the House’s Defense Appropriations panel lays out how it would hurt to start fiscal 2021 with a continuing resolution.

In War, Chinese Shipyards Could Outpace US in Replacing Losses; Marine Commandant
(Breaking Defense) “Replacing ships lost in combat will be problematic,” Marine Commandant Gen. David Berger writes in a forthcoming paper. “Our industrial base has shrunk while peer adversaries have expanded their shipbuilding capacity. In an extended conflict, the United States will be on the losing end of a production race.”

As a Global Superpower, America Depends on World-Class Logistics Providers
(The National Interest) One area where the United States has a significant advantage over any other nation, particularly potential adversaries, is in logistics.

TRANSCOM Pulls Back $7 Billion Contract to Privatize Military Household Goods Moves
(Military Times) A $7.2 billion contract for outsourcing the management of moving service members’ household goods has been pulled back by the U.S. Transportation Command.

Air Force Acquisition Chief Wants to Reshape Defense Industrial Base
(Federal Computer Week) The Air Force’s increasing interest in startups isn’t just to get a taste of innovation but completely change the defense industrial base by pivoting away from the defense prime model (while still working with those companies) and create a new industrial base that more easily allows tech companies to simultaneously work with the Defense Department and the commercial sector.

DOD Unveils Women, Peace, Security Strategy
(US Department of Defense) Global conflict is evolving, and to illustrate that the United States military needs the expertise and viewpoints of all members of society for success. DOD has published the Women, Peace and Security Strategic Framework and Implementation Plan as part of a national effort to promote the safety, equality and meaningful contributions of women around the world, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Rath Hoffman said.

Senate’s Defense Bill Looks to Pump Money into Shipbuilding Suppliers
(Defense News) Despite howls of criticism from Congress over the Navy’s seven-ship budget request earlier this year, the Senate Armed Services Committee’s markup of the National Defense Authorization Act stopped short of adding extra ships. Instead, lawmakers are opting to authorize the purchase of long-lead-time materials to keep the industrial base healthy.

Why the Jones Act is Still Needed 100 Years Later
(Defense News) One hundred years ago today, President Woodrow Wilson enacted a law that would become known as the Jones Act. Its purpose was to help the U.S. shipping industry recover after World War I. Yet few could have predicted how vital it would become to our national security and economic prosperity a full century later — especially during a pandemic.

D-Day Veterans Few and Far Between as Time Moves On
(Military.com) Saturday marked the 76th anniversary of D-Day. Historians say more than 4,400 Allied soldiers were killed on D-Day, including 2,501 Americans, that fateful Tuesday on the shores of France.

Defense Bill Turns into Proxy Battle Over Floyd Protests
(The Hill) A fight is brewing over the annual defense policy bill as the Trump administration’s response to the protests against racial injustices roils the nation.

House Democrats Release Nearly $500 Billion Infrastructure Bill
(Transportation Today) As the clock winds down on the current surface transportation authorization, Democrats on the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee have unveiled a nearly $500 billion package designed to fix a backlog of infrastructure issues, create jobs, and prop up public transit.

Fog of War: How Clever Technology Enables Military Pilots to See Through Smoke, Dust, Mist & Smog
(Forbes) The Pentagon figures that 58% of the rotorcraft it lost during the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq were traceable to mishaps caused by what professionals call “degraded visual environments” or DVE. But, until relatively recently, no comprehensive solution was available that would allow military pilots to see through every type of obscurant in every imaginable condition, from a raging sandstorm to a blizzard.

Ships! Ships! All We Need is Ships!
(War on the Rocks) The United States is at a significant crossroads in designing a future fleet to meet its maritime needs. But, the ability to project sea power must be a strategic priority for the entire government and not solely a U.S. Navy challenge to solve.

All Aboard the Sea Train!
(C4ISRNet) The current security environment has incentivized the Navy and the Marine Corps to move from a small number of exquisite, large manned platforms to a more distributed fleet structure comprised of smaller vessels, including unmanned platforms that can conduct surveillance and engage in electronic warfare and offensive operations.

CMMC Accreditation Body Close to Releasing Assessor Training Requirements
(Federal News Network) The leaked or mistakenly-made public details of the assessment and certification processes under the Defense Department’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program shed some initial bright light on the accreditation body’s (AB) thinking.

Exercise to Unite Four Combatant Commands to Test Homeland Defenses for the First Time
(Defense News) For the first time, four U.S. combatant commands are coming together this week for an exercise that simulates how the military would respond to an attack on its home turf.

5,000 National Guard Troops in 15 States and DC Activated to Help Quell Growing Civil Unrest
(Military Times) About 5,000 National Guard troops in 15 states and the District of Columbia have been activated to help quell the current unrest across the Nation. Another 2,000 Guard members are prepared to activate if needed.

EXIM Board Unanimously Approves Amended Financing of U.S. Exports to Mozambique LNG Project and Support of More U.S. Jobs in Additional States
(Export-Import Bank of the United States [EXIM]) The Board of Directors of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) has unanimously voted to amend the agency’s previously approved September 2019 direct loan supporting U.S. exports for the development and construction of an integrated liquefied natural gas (LNG) project located on the Afungi Peninsula in northern Mozambique. As a result, the transaction now will support an increased number—16,700—of estimated American jobs over the five-year construction period.

Irregular Warfare in a New Era of Great-Power Competition
(Modern War Institute at West Point) America’s strategic emphasis on great-power competition is changing when, where, and how the United States conducts irregular warfare—counterterrorism, unconventional warfare, counterinsurgency, foreign internal defense, and stability operations.

China Announces $178.2 Billion Military Budget
(Defense News) China has announced a 6.6 percent growth in its defense budget for this year, its lowest rate of increase for almost three decades.

ICYMI Force Projection: Port Diversification Generates Strategic Readiness
(US Army) If and when America goes to war, we will fight by, with, and through seaports. These critical nodes at home and abroad are key to projecting the nation’s decisive military force.

Navy Using ‘Digital Twins’ to Speed Innovation to the Fleet
(Federal News Network) The Navy has started to build virtual replicas of the systems that comprise the IT networks aboard its warships, starting with the ships in the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt strike group. The basic idea is to let developers build and test new ideas on those “digital twins,” letting them get new technology out to the fleet more quickly, and without the risk of breaking mission-critical systems.

The Air Force’s Secret Space Plane Is Part of A Plan to One Day Shoot Microwaves to Earth
(Defense One) Little is known about the X-37B space plane and what, exactly, it’s been doing during missions that now total nearly eight years in orbit. But recently, the U.S. Air Force revealed some of the satellite payloads and experiments it will carry aloft this month, including one that will try converting the sun’s energy into a form that can be sent to Earth.

The Pentagon Should Train for—and Not Just Talk About—Great-Power Competition
(War on the Rocks) The Pentagon has committed to competing with China and Russia—but it’s not training that way. If the United States is to be truly prepared for great-power competition, its forces need to train as they expect to operate in theater.

Virgin Orbit Gets Thumbs-Up for Space Force Launches From Guam
(C4ISRNet) VOX Space has received approval to launch payloads into orbit from Guam, the company announced May 7, and its first launch there will place experimental cubesats on orbit for various government agencies.

How the Navy’s CMV-22B Osprey Helps Make Distributed Maritime Operations a Reality
(Forbes) The U.S. Navy is developing a new warfighting concept called Distributed Maritime Operations that calls for dispersing warships over vast areas and coordinating their operations via a secure communications grid.

Is Automotive CyberSecurity a National Defense Issue?
(Forbes) Recently, the US Congress released a bipartisan draft of a new autonomous vehicle bill. One of the most interesting aspects of the bill was its emphasis on cybersecurity.

Amazon Wants to Train Veterans to Start Their Own Delivery Businesses
(Military.com) While Amazon reported massive growth in the first quarter of 2020, the online sales giant needs more delivery assets. And it wants American military veterans to be those assets.

South Korea: Kim Jong Un Did Not Have Surgery
(Politico) North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did not undergo surgery or any other medical procedure, a South Korean official said Sunday, amid speculation about his health that continues to linger even after he reappeared publicly in recent days.

Defense Travel Dispatch – Spring 2020 Edition
(Defense Travel Management Office [DTMO]) DTMO has published the spring 2020 edition of its quarterly newsletter, The Dispatch.

As Rumor Mill Goes into Overdrive, South Korea Insists Kim Jong Un is “Alive and Well”
(Slate) The rumors about the health of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un went into overdrive this weekend with some media outlets outright claiming he has died while others claim he is very sick and may even be brain dead. Amid all the chatter, some insist the reports of his death have been greatly exaggerated.

The Pentagon’s Cybersecurity Certification Plan Includes Continuously Monitoring Contractors
(Nextgov) The accreditation body overseeing the Defense Department’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program—the CMMC-AB—issued a request for proposal that provides insight into how the group plans to keep track of contractors outside of conducting physical audits.

The Future of Tactical Airlifts is Here and It Is Verticle
(War on the Rocks) Commanders will always want more airlift capacity and light airlifters have been effective in the past. However, there are more modern and more capable Marine and Army aircraft filling many of those roles now.

FCC to Approve Spectrum Plan that Pentagon Claims Will Harm GPS
(C4ISRNet) The Federal Communications Commission is poised to approve a draft order that would reallocate a specific portion of the radio spectrum for broadband communications, overruling a decade of strong objections from the Department of Defense. Senior Pentagon leaders warn that such a move will lead to “unacceptable” harm to the GPS system by creating new interference that could disrupt satellites critical to national security.

The Tanker Gap
(Air Force Magazine) The US Air Force’s budget seeks to swap capacity now for capability in the future, but USTRANSCOM is leery.

Plan B for GPS III Ground System Approved for Everyday Use
(C4ISRNet) Just hours after the Space Force announced it would pay hundreds of millions of dollars to replace the computer hardware in its next-generation GPS ground system, the service said the contingency program it has been relying on until that new system is ready has been approved for everyday use.

Trump Administration Must Produce 5G Security Strategy Under New Law
(Fifth Domain) President Donald Trump signed a 5G security bill March 23 that requires the executive branch to develop a strategy to secure and protect 5G and future generation networks.

Navy Shipbuilding: Increasing Focus on Sustainment Early in the Acquisition Process Could Save Billions
(US Government Accountability Office [GAO]) The GAO investigated every class of ships the Navy recently built and found 150 examples of systemic maintenance problems, which might have been prevented with some attention to future maintenance concerns when designing and building the ships. The GAO has made 11 recommendations to help the Navy focus on maintenance concerns earlier.

How China Is Militarizing the South China Sea With a Ton of Missiles
(The National Interest) Beijing has been conducting many tests as well as building military bases. Can China hold on to its artificial islands and threaten America’s carriers in the next war?

How the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act and the Defense Appropriations Act Can Prepare the U.S. for Great Power Competition
(The Heritage Foundation) A new era of great power competition will require the U.S. military to prioritize China and Russia, while maintaining readiness and expanding current capabilities. Upcoming defense authorization and appropriations bills are vital tools for Congress to help implement the National Defense Strategy and address rising threats.

Allies and American Foreign Policy
(War on the Rocks) Brig. Gen. (ret.) Kimberly Field, discusses the notion of grand strategy in the context of alliance relationships. Specifically, she draws on her experience serving as a U.S. representative at the United Nations and as a general officer deployed to Afghanistan as part of the NATO alliance, to examine the role that allies play in supporting and enabling U.S. grand strategic vision.

Doing Right by Forgotten American Heroes of the Merchant Marines
(New York Post) United States Merchant Mariners suffered the highest rate of casualties of any service in World War II. In long overdue recognition, President Trump has now signed into law a bill to award the Congressional Gold Medal to those United States Merchant Mariners who served as the fourth arm of our national defense during World War II.

7 Military Move Changes Coming This Spring
(Military.com) Officials are rolling out a series of small changes aimed at making military moves a little less stressful, just in time for 2020’s busiest permanent change-of-station (PCS) period.

DOD Awards Contracts for Development of a Mobile Microreactor
(Department of Defense) The Department of Defense has awarded three contracts to begin design work on a mobile nuclear reactor prototype under a Strategic Capabilities Office initiative called Project Pele.

What Taiwan Can Teach the World on Fighting the Coronavirus
(NBC News) Taiwan put lessons it learned during the 2003 SARS outbreak to good use, and this time its government and people were prepared.

US Military Scientists Hope to Have Coronavirus Therapeutic by Summer
(Defense News) A US military research program that seeks a new way to boost a body’s immunity to viruses could change how governments and militaries prepare for pandemics—and might even arrive soon enough to help with the COVID-19 outbreak.

SpaceLogistics Teams with DARPA to Service Satellites on Orbit
(C4ISRNet) SpaceLogistics will work with DARPA to develop a robotic servicing spacecraft after the company successfully docked its mission extension vehicle with a commercial satellite on orbit. SpaceLogistics, a Northrop Grumman subsidiary, will be DARPA’s commercial partner for the agency’s Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites (RSGS) program.

The Pentagon’s First Class of Cybersecurity Auditors is Almost Here
(Fifth Domain) The Pentagon hopes to have the first class of auditors to evaluate contractors’ cybersecurity ready by April, according to a top Department of Defense official. The auditors will be responsible for certifying companies under the new Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC).

Have Goods, Will Deliver: Materiel Command Modernizing to Build Readiness
(Association of the United States Army) While combat troops have always been the foundation of the Army, our strategic advantage has been our ability to mobilize, deploy, move and sustain the force. From management of installation infrastructure to mobilization operations, and from deployment to sustainment in the field and redeployment, the materiel enterprise has a significant role in building and delivering Army strategic readiness.

The US Military’s Investment Ecosystem is Missing in Action
(War on the Rocks) To succeed in this new environment, the US government should do more to foster defense innovation and strengthen critical industrial manufacturing capabilities, avoiding actions that push companies to move offshore, to allow themselves to be acquired by foreign competitors, or to exit the defense markets completely.

USS Eisenhower Leads Exercise to Clear Atlantic Shipping Lanes
(Breaking Defense) The Navy is doing something it hasn’t done since the 1980s—test its abilities to win in a contested crossing of the Atlantic.

Aerial Refueling, Sealift Capability Vital to Readiness
(DOD News) Aerial refueling and sealift forces require attention so they can meet current and future challenges, the commander of US Transportation Command told lawmakers.

Strengthening the US Defense Maritime Industrial Base: A Plan to Improve Maritime Industry’s Contribution to National Security
(Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments [CSBA]) A new report by CSBA finds that a robust maritime industry, and the policies that support it, are increasingly important in an era of great power competition. However, the maritime industry and the broader national security innovation base face a range of pressures that undermine their long-term viability, ability to innovate, and capacity to support future military operations.

How Do the Candidates’ Infrastructure Plans Compare?
(Transport Topics) A helpful chart compares the infrastructure plans of the candidates who are running for president in 2020.

State of Defense 2020: Special Report
(Defense One) Defense One’s annual service-by-service report takes a look at the big questions facing the US military.

New Adaptive Acquisition Policies for Defense Contractors
(Federal News Network) Contractors may not all be aware of the Defense Department’s new adaptive acquisition framework. But they should be. Eight acquisition policies are going to pop out of it in the next few months.

Sanctions in the Cyber Domain: Old Ways Won’t Win Today’s Wars
(US Army War College) In applying economic sanctions to financially motivated malicious North Korean cyber groups, U.S. policymakers display a shocking failure to understand strategic realities in the cyber domain, essentially fighting the last war.

A Century of Airpower Propaganda Was Just ‘Blown Up’ by an Air Force Think Tank
(The National Interest) A recent study on deterrence had some interesting results. It turns out that when we need to send a message of deterrence, nothing works better than the humble main battle tank.

Why Boeing’s T-7 Red Hawk Trainer is Shaping Up to Be a Breakthrough Success for the U.S. Air Force
(Forbes) If you look inside the T-7 program, it is apparent that something is going on here. Boeing and teammate Saab aren’t just developing a training system, they are fashioning what amounts to a prototype for the digital engineering revolution that is a top Air Force priority.

Report: U.S. Sealift Lacks Personnel, Hulls, National Strategy
(USNI News) An aging and inactive government fleet dependent on a shrinking pool of merchant mariners to get underway is how a new report describes the U.S. military’s strategic sealift capability.

Second Year of Audits Shows DoD Getting Better Grasp of Business Processes
(Federal News Network) After its first two years of full-scale financial audits, the Defense Department is starting to get some of its first concrete indications of how much work lies ahead of it before it can finally earn a clean audit opinion.

Used Ships Could Solve Sealift Readiness Issues
(DOD News) The aging vessels used to move personnel, equipment and supplies around the world pose a readiness concern, according to the Commander of US Transportation Command.

The Military’s Contractor Cyber Standards Are Officially Here
(FedScoop) The Pentagon has issued the final standards under the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC). Version 1.0 marks the first step towards implementing the new cybersecurity standards into all Department of Defense contracts.

DOD Budget Proposal Includes $7.8B in Cuts, Transfers from Defense Agencies
(Federal News Network) The 2021 budget the Pentagon will roll out next week will include $5.7 billion in program reductions across the dozens of agencies that make up the Defense Department’s “fourth estate,” and $2.1 billion worth of additional functions that DoD wants to move from Defense agencies to the military services.

The Air Force and Navy Have Stealth Fighters So Why Not Also Stealth Tankers?
(The National Interest) Key point: Washington needs to ensure its stealth fighters can have the range they need to reach enemy targets. But that won’t work if its tankers aren’t stealthy and give the game away.

Can Warfighters Remain the Masters of AI?
(War on the Rocks) The Department of Defense is engaging in a dangerous experiment: It is investing heavily in artificial intelligence (AI) equipment and technologies while simultaneously underinvesting in preparation for the workforce will need to understand its implementation.

Freight All Kinds: Making Military Logistics Work in the 2020s and Beyond
(FreightWaves) In the private sector, problems with supply chain agility and resilience might lead to a poor quarter or two. For the military, a lack of supply chain resilience can complicate the armed services’ capability to meet dynamic threats, diluting the nation’s global power and perhaps undermining its security.

Pentagon Should Explore Renting Refuelers Amid KC-46 Delays, General Says
(Military.com) The head of U.S. Transportation Command says the Pentagon should seriously explore an air refueling leasing program with the defense industry while the Air Force works with Boeing Co. to fix its newest tanker, the KC-46 Pegasus.

DoD Plans April Contract Award to Fix ‘Fundamentally Flawed’ Moving System
(Federal News Network) Officials at U.S. Transportation Command say they’re getting close to awarding a multibillion-dollar contract to overhaul the system for moving service members’ household goods across the country and around the world.

How the U.S. Navy’s Aging Sealift Fleet Could Lose America’s Next War in Eurasia
(Forbes) For much of U.S. history, the vast oceans separating America from Europe and Asia protected the nation against attack by foreign enemies. Today, those oceans are as much a hindrance as an advantage.

2020 Cybersecurity Predictions: Evolving Vulnerabilities on the Horizon
(The Hill) Cybersecurity threats are seemingly omnipresent in today’s hyper-connected, digital world. In fact — no surprise here — they will only continue to increase in sophistication, frequency, diversity, scale, and scope this year and in the near future.

Transportability Engineering is Vital in an Accelerated Acquisition Process
(U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center) As the design of military systems approaches the limits of the certain transportation assets, meeting the transportability requirements becomes critical.

Saudi Arabia’s Phone Hacking Shows We Need Better Encryption — Not Backdoors
(Defense One) Before the world learned that history’s richest man had been hacked by agents of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Saudi dissidents and human rights activists had received similar treatment. But the Bezos hack, and the others like it, show the limits of even good message security in the face of a known attacker.

Time to Revive Joint Concept Development and Experimentation
(War on the Rocks) Close air support has saved countless lives. The key to effective close air support is not the aircraft. It is the communication and coordination between controllers, deployed alongside soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines on the ground, and pilots from all four services in the air. In other words, it is the American military’s ability to conduct joint combat operations.

Treasury Tightens Foreign Investment Review Rules
(Politico) The Treasury Department has finalized two regulations that expand the power of the U.S. executive branch to block foreign investments in real estate or certain businesses involved in critical technology, infrastructure or personal data.

USDOT Announces $900 Million for Freight, Highway Grants
(Transport Topics) Transportation officials nationwide who are seeking a federal boost to help advance major freight or highway projects may find it in the form of a federal grant. The U.S. Department of Transportation announced this week that slightly more than $900 million has been made available for the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America, or INFRA, grants.

A New GPS III Satellite is Online. What Will It Bring to the Fleet?
(C4ISRNET) The first GPS III satellite is officially healthy and available for use by the military and civilians as of Jan. 13, thanks to a ground segment upgrade that provides the military command and control of the new, more powerful navigation satellite.

A Lance Corporal’s Phone Selfie Got His Marine Unit ‘Killed’ at 29 Palms
(Military.com) A junior Marine got his artillery unit into a serious bind after snapping a photo during a massive force-on-force training exercise in California’s Mojave Desert.

Suppose There Was a War and the Merchant Marine Didn’t Come?
(U.S. Naval Institute) In every conflict in U.S. history, the merchant marine has sailed and manned the ships loaded with the beans, bombs, and black oil needed for the fight. But what if the United States had a war and the merchant marine did not come?

Trump Kills Iran’s Most Overrated Warrior
(The New York Times) Suleimani pushed his country to build an empire, but drove it into the ground instead.

IMO 2020: Think Twice Before Finger Pointing
(Seatrade Maritme News) With the implementation of International Maritime Organization Low Sulphur Regulation (or IMO 2020), concerns keep on growing amid recently announced bunker adjustment factors by carriers and the apparently far-from-enough low-sulphur output from global oil refiners.

What Happens If the Air Force’s Command Center for All Its Tankers and Cargo Planes Gets Hacked?
(C4ISRNet) It’s 6 am, and the Air Force’s 618th Air Operations Center is quiet, its members working diligently to plan and control every transport, aerial refueling or aeromedical evacuation mission the service performs around the world. Suddenly, everyone’s computer screens go blank, as does the massive wall-sized projection that tracks air mobility missions worldwide.

FAA Plans New Safety Division as Post-Boeing Max Scrutiny Ramps Up
(CNBC) The Federal Aviation Administration is planning a new division that aims to improve aircraft certification, a development that comes as the agency is under increasing scrutiny for approving the Boeing 737 Max before two of the fast-selling planes crashed.

Bad Idea: Assuming the Small Wars Era is Over
(Defense 360) In seeking greater attention to the pressing challenges presented by peer and near-peer adversaries, those advocating for a strategic reorientation have (even if inadvertently) contributed to the dangerous notion that the United States need not continue to prepare to fight weaker adversaries like non-state militants and irregular forces and to conduct operations that fall below the threshold of major war.

The Army’s New Approach to People
(War on the Rocks) Gen. James C. McConville, the Army’s 40th chief of staff, has given his marching orders: The Army’s top priority is people—more specifically, overhauling talent management. How will future leaders be assessed, selected, and promoted?

SASC Chairman: We Must Build the National Security Innovation Base Our Defense Strategy Requires
(Defense News) Since World War II, the American people have believed our military has had the best of everything, but the technological superiority that kept us 20 years ahead of our competitors has rapidly diminished. In some cases, we’re already behind.

It’s Time to Rethink NATO’s Deterrent Strategy
(War on the Rocks) President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron don’t agree on much. The two leaders do, however, appear to agree on one thing—something is wrong with NATO.

Pentagon R&D Boss: The Challenge of Our Time
(Defense News)  What near-term risks are we willing to take and what current systems are we willing to let go so that we can invest in capabilities that will impose costs on our adversaries and deter them from starting a fight because they know they cannot win?

Hahn Air Gives Blockchain Booking a Test Run
(Travel Weekly)   Hahn Air, the Germany-based interline distribution specialist that also runs a tiny airline has flown what it says are the first passengers in the world whose tickets were enabled by blockchain.

US Senators Introduce ‘Women in Trucking’ Bill
(FreightWaves)   Two U.S. senators have introduced legislation that would require the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to take a formal role in supporting women drivers.

U.S. Postpones Military Exercises with South Korea in Nod Toward North Korea
(Politico) The United States and South Korea have indefinitely postponed a joint military exercise in an “act of goodwill” toward North Korea, according to US Defense Secretary Mark Esper. The move comes even as Japan’s defense minister, whose country feels threatened by repeated North Korean missile launches, told Esper “no one could be optimistic about” changing the North’s behavior.

Mobile Nuclear Power Will Enable a Logistics Revolution for the Army
(War on the Rocks) Future adversaries will certainly concentrate their attacks on fuel supplies as they know that America’s military needs energy to fight effectively. And this energy demand will only grow.

China and US Had ‘Constructive Discussions’ About Phase-One Trade Deal, State Media Says
(CNBC) Chinese Vice Premier Liu He spoke with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer about a phase-one trade deal in a phone call Saturday morning, according to Chinese state media. The two sides had “constructive discussions” about “each other’s core concerns.”

Congress Hunts for Path Out of Spending Stalemate
(The Hill) Top negotiators are set to meet this week to try to break a stalemate over funding the government. Congress has until Nov. 21 to prevent the second shutdown of the year after a 35-day partial closure that ended in February.

‘This Could Get a Little Ugly.’ What to Watch for at the NATO Leaders Summit
(Defense News) When the leaders of the 29 NATO nations gather in London at the start of December, the focus will nominally be on a celebration of the past and a look to the future. But analysts agree that as much as the event is billed as NATO’s 70th birthday, politics could make the situation feel more like a funeral.

Congressional Dysfunction Threatens to Halt Trump Defense Buildup
(Forbes) The assumption typically is that Congress will eventually pass a real budget. This year, though, doubts are rising that a budget can be passed, given wrangling over funding for the president’s border wall and the very divisive impeachment process.

The Defense Travel Management Office (DTMO) Releases Fall Dispatch
(DTMO) DTMO’s quarterly newsletter, The Dispatch, has just been released, featuring an update on travel system modernization, interviews with the team leads for both the Defense Travel Modernization prototype initiative and the DOD Preferred Commercial Lodging program, an overview of the Military Bus program, and more.

The Fight Over 5G Foreshadows the Great Decoupling
(C4ISRNet) How the Pentagon buys basic technology is suddenly a matter of national security. For everything from security cameras to printers to cellphone networks, the whole apparatus of modern office technology has now gained an air of ominous menace.

America’s Great-Power Problems Will Come Back to Haunt It in the Middle East
(The National Interest) In the past, when great powers exited a geopolitically critical region, a strategic vacuum ensued. Trump’s hasty withdrawal of troops in Syria, just like his predecessor’s pullout from Iraq, is no exception.

Report: Cyber Workforce Must Grow 145% to Meet Global Demand
(Nextgov) Demand for cyber expertise is skyrocketing across the U.S. as more organizations start prioritizing their digital security, but today there are only enough cybersecurity pros to fill about 60 percent of those jobs, according to a recent survey.

The Grades Are in for America’s Military Strength
(Defense News) America’s investments in military readiness are paying off, particularly for the Army, but its armed forces would be stretched dangerously thin if they participate in more than one large war at the same time, according to the Heritage Foundation’s 2020 Index of U.S. Military Strength.

Senate Democrats Block Defense Spending Bill Over Trump Wall
(The Hill) Senate Democrats blocked a defense spending bill for the second time this past week, underscoring the hurdles ahead of next month’s government funding deadline.

US Forces Could Learn from Intense Electronic War Battle in Ukraine
(Military Times) Ukrainian forces are under heavy assault by Russian drones and ground systems equipped with jammers and direction-finding technology honed to sniff out Ukrainian military positions—a near-peer battle offering lessons learned for American forces.

Russia Rolls Out Its ‘Sovereign Internet.’ Is It Building a Digital Iron Curtain?
(CNN) A controversial new law has taken effect in Russia: The so-called “sovereign internet” law, which mandates the creation of an independent internet for Russia. In effect, Moscow has given itself the power to erect a sort of digital Iron Curtain around its networks.

First, Manage Security Threats to Machine Learning
(War on the Rocks) Deception is as old as warfare itself. Until now, the targets of deception operations have been humans. But the introduction of machine learning and artificial intelligence opens up a whole new world of opportunities to deceive by targeting machines.

The Army is Finding New Ways to Airdrop Loads Large and Small, Even in Urban Terrain
(Army Times) The Army is testing and developing better ways to get supplies to soldiers in far-flung, austere places in both big and small packages.

US Logistics Boss Talks Risks to the Supply Chain and Protective Measures
(Defense News) Securing the supply chain can seem like a game of whack-a-mole involving cyberthreats, counterfeit goods and a shrinking industrial base. In the words of the DLA Director, LTG Darrell Williams, the supply chain “simply cannot afford to not be protected.”

GSA’s Simple Mantra Driving Modernization: Eliminate, Optimize and Automate
(Federal News Network) The General Services Administration is following a simple mantra to guide its agency-wide modernization effort—eliminate, optimize and automate. So far in just the Public Buildings Service alone, the EOA approach has saved almost $2 billion with a goal of saving $5 billion by 2024.

Trump Says Phase One of China Trade Deal Is ‘Ahead of Schedule’
(Politico) President Donald Trump said Monday that negotiations for the so-called phase one of the United States’ trade deal with China were “ahead of schedule.” The comments come ahead of Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Chile on Nov. 16-17.

Can Pentagon Acquisition Keep Up with Electronic Warfare?
(C4ISRNet) The cat-and-mouse nature of electronic warfare means systems need to always be up to date, but the Pentagon’s acquisition authorities don’t always allow for the Department of Defense to move fast enough, according to one senior acquisition official.

Despite Rising Awareness of Critical US Sealift Shortfalls, Solutions Are Elusive
(Defense News) The head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command couldn’t have been any clearer when he testified before the House Armed Services Committee in March: The U.S. absolutely must recapitalize its sealift fleet if its going to be able to support a war in the theater.

DLA, GSA to Review Federal Supply Chain for Streamlining Effort
(ExecutiveGov) The Defense Logistics Agency has partnered with the General Services Administration to review and streamline the federal supply chain. The DLA-GSA federal supply class review would tackle the 7 million items from across all 600 FSC categories, DLA said Wednesday.

Five Unintended Consequences of Trump’s Syria Withdrawal
(The Hill) President Trump’s decision last week to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria, allowing Turkey to launch an offensive against Kurdish forces, has already had several unintended, albeit foreseeable, consequences.

The Case for a Three Tanker Air Force
(War on the Rocks) The U.S. Air Force is about to execute a plan that could have irreversible consequences, and time is running out to change course. Before it retires the KC-10 “Extender,” its long-distance, high-capacity aerial refueling plane, the Air Force should reconsider.

The US Army is Worried About a Potential Showdown with Russia, and It’s Practicing a New Way to Get to a Fight in Europe
(Business Insider) Soldiers from the 1st Cavalry Division’s 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team started arriving in Europe this week for a nine-month rotation as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve. While the rotation is the fifth by an armored brigade in support of Atlantic Resolve, the unit is the first “in recent memory” to use the port of Vlissingen in the Netherlands.