The Pentagon is turning to authorities under the Defense Production Act -- a law that allows government incentives to spur the development of defense-essential products -- to advance a variety of energy-related projects in the Defense Department's efforts to improve its energy security, according to a high-level DOD energy official.

A new payload module slated for Virginia-class attack submarines may replace the capability provided by the Navy's four SSGN guided-missile submarines in the mid-2020s, an official said Oct. 19 during the Naval Submarine Symposium in McLean, VA.

The Army hopes to realize $5.5 billion in annual savings by fiscal year 2016 through a far-reaching overhaul of how the service manages its more than two million military, civilian and contractor personnel, according to a previously unreported memo issued by Secretary John McHugh this summer.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency plans to hold a pair of industry days next month to gauge potential contractors' interest in working on an effort to refurbish and repurpose defunct yet still in-orbit satellites.

The Navy is developing its "increment 1" Littoral Combat Ship surface warfare mission package around the Griffin missile -- replacing the canceled Non-Line-of-Sight missile despite not meeting all of the Navy's specifications -- and could begin looking for an increment 2 Griffin upgrade as early as next year.

The Navy plans to extend the Virginia-class attack submarine program to 45 or 50 subs rather than end it at 30 boats and start building a replacement in the early 2020s, Capt. Michael Jabaley, Virginia-class program manager, said today.

The Air Force is preparing for its share of the $450 billion in budget reductions mandated by Washington lawmakers, but the service will be able to find only a tiny portion of that by looking for further efficiencies in its operations, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said.

The Defense Business Board plans to present draft recommendations in January on ways to revise the department's joint requirements process, focusing on the roles of the service chiefs and the importance of system-engineer expertise, according to the board member leading the effort.

An independent assessment team will conduct a "major program review" next week of both variants of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) demonstration program, according to a Lockheed Martin program manager.

Lockheed Martin recently completed early delivery of intra-fire unit communications kits designed for use with the Medium Extended Air Defense System, according to a company statement issued this week.

ABOARD THE USS WASP (LHD-1) -- As it wraps up the initial round of at-sea testing of the Marine Corps' short-take-off, vertical-landing variant of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the Navy is finding that JSFs do not appear to cause significantly more "downwash" effects on ship decks than the service's legacy AV-8B Harriers.

The Army wants Congress to restore nearly $1 billion in canceled funding for a host of major acquisition programs, including the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, which was terminated by Senate appropriators last month, according to government documents.

The Air Force is nearly done cleaning up a virus found on "stand-alone systems" associated with remotely piloted aircraft operated out of Creech Air Force Base, NV, according to U.S. Strategic Command chief Gen. Robert Kehler.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says Ashton Carter, the newly installed deputy defense secretary, is his "alter ego" in executing key priorities and is empowered to "speak and act on my behalf," a personal endorsement made in a memo provided to Defense Department leaders that buttresses the statutory authority of the Pentagon's No. 2 official.

A problem with the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system's outer-space guidance system was the reason why a Missile Defense Agency interceptor missed its target in a test last December.

Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has reached beyond the stable of three-star generals on the Joint Staff and tapped Lt. Gen. Robert Schmidle, a Marine who assisted this summer with Dempsey's transition from Army chief to the Pentagon's No. 1 military billet, to fill a temporary position with enormous influence over how DOD will cut $450 billion over the next decade.

The Navy is slashing the number of multimillion-dollar catamarans it plans to acquire from Mobile, AL-based shipbuilder Austal USA, a move that could terminate the Joint High Speed Vessel program years earlier than previously planned.

If Congress fails to agree on a long-term deficit reduction plan, the massive cuts that would follow would be "devastating" to the defense industrial base and prompt a "fundamental rethinking of our industrial strategy," according to a senior Pentagon official.

The Joint Tactical Radio System's Ground Mobile Radio has been officially terminated, according to a letter sent to Congress yesterday by Frank Kendall, the Pentagon's acting acquisition chief.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff today questioned the affordability of the Joint Strike Fighter program, telling lawmakers that government belt-tightening is raising uncertainty about the Defense Department's ability to procure all three variants of the F-35 aircraft, one each for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.