Army

The Pentagon is set to this week receive recommendations for principles guiding the U.S. military's development and use of artificial intelligence, the latest step in DOD’s effort to both take advantage of the rapidly advancing technology and keep it within ethical boundaries.

Congress, despite having agreed to a broad budget deal, has begun looking for stopgaps and schedule extensions for the defense spending and policy bills, which are already overdue and remain stalled amid partisan fighting over President Trump's use of military construction funds to build a southern border wall.

The White House Office of Management and Budget is balking at Defense Department plans for a Next Generation Interceptor, exposing a rift inside the Trump administration over how to modernize the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system just weeks after Mike Griffin, the Pentagon's top technology officer, sold Senate appropriators on plans for the new-start program.

While some lawmakers are concerned about how the Army's new four-star command in charge of modernization will coordinate with the service's acquisition office, the top acquisition executive said this month the relationship is going well.

House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Mac Thornberry (R-TX) says the impeachment inquiry into President Trump's hold on Ukraine aid is "sucking all the oxygen out of the room" as lawmakers look to negotiate contentious issues in the defense authorization and appropriations bills, respectively.

Raytheon appears to have missed the window to protest the Army's award to Lockheed Martin of the A4 Sentinel radar upgrade, conceding defeat in the estimated $3 billion project the same week the company won a potentially larger Army radar program, the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor.

The Army's top air defender -- a key player in overseeing day-to-day operations of the Ground Based Midcourse Defense System -- voiced continued support for the fleet of ballistic missile interceptors in the wake of the Pentagon's decision to terminate the Redesigned Kill Vehicle, a move that will delay plans to modernize the current interceptor fleet.

Pentagon acquisition chief Ellen Lord said her office is set to unveil in December "the most transformational acquisition policy change we’ve seen in decades."

Defense Department Special Assistant for Cybersecurity Katie Arrington said the Pentagon's maturity model for certifying contractors based on their ability to secure data and systems is moving forward, with a revised version of the plan to be released at the beginning of November for use in contracts next year, despite calls from industry and others to slow down the implementation process.