Pentagon

Pentagon acquisition officials say a sweeping cybersecurity certification program issued last week will take six years to fully implement, a phased-in schedule that defense industry officials say is the result of pressure by the contracting community about mitigating costs.

As the Marine Corps works to keep up with a new National Defense Strategy, its top officer is advocating for sweeping force design changes meant to help the service prepare for 2030.

The Pentagon is settling on a concept for a Next-Generation Interceptor, a nearly 10-year project that will require a radical overhaul of planned missile defense spending while raising questions about the efficacy of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system to protect the nation in the interim.

The National Defense Industrial Association today, in the first of what is a planned annual review, gave the defense industrial base a "C" grade, pointing to challenges with cybersecurity and workforce.

The Air Force today delivered to Congress its plan for the organizational structure of the Space Force, outlining "clean sheet" plans to stand up a lean, agile service.

The Air Force has tallied a $2.6 billion tab for its Enhanced Polar System-Recapitalization program, an extremely high frequency satellite system that when combined with an associated ground component is designed to provide naval forces operating in north polar regions -- such as nuclear-armed submarines -- secure, anti-jam communications that are difficult for an adversary to detect.

Pentagon officials are promising the defense industry a slow, phased roll out of the new Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification, with the new security requirements expected to show up in just 10 contracts this year.

The Defense Department completed CMMC Version 1 today after spending the past several months working with industry, academia and other stakeholders to fine tune several drafts of the certification model.

The Pentagon's top weapons tester continues to push for greater investment in threat-representative space testing infrastructure, writing in his most recent report that the Defense Department should invest at least $100 million per year over the next five years in improving space threat emulation.

The Pentagon is eyeing a two-way competition for its prototype hypersonic defense interceptor program with plans to down select in the first 18 months to a single concept and later culminate with a non-intercept flight test.