Pentagon

Acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan this week said China was stealing U.S. technology at a "staggering" rate and raised concerns about possible Chinese dominance of next-generation "5G" telecom networks -- remarks that come as U.S. and Chinese trade officials move toward concluding talks that have included cyber theft of intellectual property as a key component.

The Pentagon is still about 18 months away from measuring contractor cybersecurity as part of the acquisition process, but the Defense Department is moving forward this year with developing the metrics and establishing relationships with third-party auditors.

ANDOVER, MA -- Raytheon has developed a new high-tech, Gallium Nitride transmitter for legacy Patriot interceptors -- the GEM-T variant which makes up the bulk of the Army's inventory -- that promises to significantly improve reliability and service life of the guided missile, a capability the company hopes will sweeten interest in its proposed Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor.

Acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan said today the Pentagon fully understands the "downsides" to overturning decades of precedent to reprogram $1 billion in Army personnel funding to construct 57 miles of fencing on the southern border without the approval of Congress, especially since lawmakers have warned that could lead them to eliminating the Pentagon's funding flexibility altogether.

The U.S. military, in a major test of the Ballistic Missile Defense System, destroyed an intercontinental ballistic missile target with a pair of Ground-based Interceptors in the first-ever salvo launch of the homeland defense guided-missile fleet, an event likely to bolster confidence in the current fielded system and the exoatmospheric kill vehicle in particular.

The Pentagon today shifted $1 billion from Army funds to a counternarcotics account to construct 57 miles of fencing along the United States-Mexico border, according to documents obtained by Inside Defense.

The Pentagon has sent Congress a $600 million reprogramming request for near-term hurricane recovery, but will need supplemental funding to cover $9 billion in damage across multiple fiscal years, according to an internal memo from acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan.

The Pentagon has sent Congress a $4 billion list of unfunded military lab construction priorities that were not approved for the fiscal year 2020 budget submission, but that Pentagon technology chief Mike Griffin would like to see completed anyway, according to documents obtained by Inside Defense.

A Defense Department official who briefed reporters at the Pentagon today said acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan did not play a direct role in the decision to buy Boeing's F-15EX, citing an ethics agreement that barred Shanahan from doing so.