Missile Defense

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford said today the Pentagon should be cautious about increasing the size of the military at the expense of investments in new technologies critical to maintaining longstanding advantages over China and Russia.

The Pentagon will unveil a new cybersecurity certification for Defense Department contractors this year, as DOD officials concede the current rules governing how companies should secure sensitive information are not working.

The Missile Defense Agency, eyeing new ballistic missile target needs, will meet with industry next month as part of an ongoing market research effort in support of a potential future acquisition of new re-entry vehicles, medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missile-class targets as well as intercontinental ballistic missile-class targets.

The Army flipped key evaluation criteria during the solicitation endgame for the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor competition, supplanting "capability" for "schedule" as the most important factor in the final request for proposals compared to an earlier draft for the potential multibillion-dollar project to replace the service's Patriot radar inventory.

The Senate Armed Services Committee this week took a step toward reorganizing the space enterprise, passing a fiscal year 2020 policy bill that would establish a Space Force within the Air Force.

Senior Pentagon acquisition officials are writing new intellectual property policies amid heightened scrutiny from Capitol Hill, where concerns about price gouging have put a new spotlight on the issue.

The Air Force could see a major cut to its plan to fast-track development of the next generation of missile warning satellites as House appropriators pitch a plan to reduce the program's fiscal year 2020 funding by more than $200 million.

House lawmakers are stepping up congressional oversight of the Air Force's Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon and Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon projects, arguing the Pentagon's new five-year spending plan indicates a potential lack of commitment to seeing them completed.

The absence of a broad budget deal in Congress is being highlighted by the release of a White House letter opposing the defense spending bill crafted by House Democrats.