Pentagon

The congressionally mandated U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission issued its annual report this morning,saying Chinese President Xi Jinping is pressing the military to up its investments in cyber warfare despite progress over the past several years by the People's Liberation Army in developing cyber defensive and offensive capabilities.

The Defense Department plans to update the cost estimate for the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent in late spring of next year, setting the stage for a potential major recalibration of the price tag for the new ballistic missile program that generated a pair of valuations in 2017 that varied by more than $20 billion.

NATO officials will discuss fifth-generation telecommunications this week in Washington, as U.S. officials press European nations to bar Chinese companies like Huawei from the buildout of their 5G networks.

The Pentagon's "defend forward" cyber strategy was the focus of lively discussion by an American Bar Association panel of national security lawyers late last week, who described the more active approach to countering foreign adversaries as a response to a failed U.S. deterrence posture -- which is also forcing a rethinking of key international norms and the relationship between the military and private sector in defending critical national functions.

The Defense Department is preparing to review its decades-old policy for paying contractors, including a look at how potential changes might impact the profits of defense companies.

The Pentagon's acquisition office is seeking industry input on establishing an accreditation body for third-party auditors as part of a cybersecurity certification program for contractors, expected to be rolled out in some form next year.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is preparing to kick off a key end-to-end simulation phase for its Blackjack program next spring, aiming to retire risk on the path to demonstrating the utility of a proliferated low-earth orbit satellite constellation equipped with an autonomous data processing capability.

The Pentagon's policies and processes serve as major impediments in the U.S. military's adoption of artificial intelligence technologies, according to a new report, as another panel takes aim at the Defense Department's acquisition system.

The Chinese government is exporting armed drones advertised as being capable of "full autonomy," Defense Secretary Mark Esper said today in a speech aimed at drawing distinctions between the United States and China's competing approaches to artificial intelligence.