Acquisition
Air Force loadmasters prepare to load a satellite onto a C-17 Globemaster III at Buckley Air Force Base, Colo., March 19, 2019. Photo: Air Force Airman 1st Class Michael D. Mathews.
Deep personnel cuts jeopardize Space Force’s ability to implement Hegseth’s acquisition reforms
Anastasia Obis, Federal News Network
The Pentagon's acquisition reforms are jeopardized by deep personnel cuts in the Space Force, particularly in its acquisition and contracting offices. Space Force leaders warn that they currently lack the essential expertise and sufficient numbers of personnel to handle the looming increase in workload created by these reforms.
- Contracting Strain: The strain is particularly acute in contracting. Historically, a program might involve one prime contractor and one or two contracts over 20 years, but programs now utilize 10 or 15 different contractors, resulting in around 20 contracts over a five-year period.
- Expertise Requirement: Shifting to a commercial approach and utilizing new space companies requires a larger number of people with a deep understanding of the activity and incentive structures of the modern space sector.
Draft memo details DoD plans to cap most reseller fees
Jason Miller, Federal News Network
The Pentagon is moving to overhaul its acquisition of IT products by proposing a 5% cap on most fees charged by value-added resellers for specific technology purchases made through the General Services Administration (GSA) schedule contract. This measure is intended to address what DOD believes are elevated costs associated with IT products purchased through resellers.
- Disclosure Required: DOD would require vendors to disclose the manufacturer or dealer price, the percentage markup from the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) price, and a description of the value provided that justifies the markup amount in their price proposals. Any markup exceeding 5% would require additional vendor justification and a higher level of management attention.
- Acquisition Conflict: Critics argue that this price cap approach will add additional burden for resellers, while undermining the Trump administration's efforts to streamline federal acquisition and encourage vendor participation.
- Legal Concerns: Experts suggest that applying price caps on commercial items in this manner may violate several provisions of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR).
EMERGING TECHNOLOGY HORIZONS: Modeling the Future of Acquisition Reform
Wilson Miles, National Defense
The Pentagon currently models complex physical systems like body armor and munitions using rigorous physics-based tools and testing before deployment. However, it routinely changes complex non-physical systems, such as acquisition laws and regulations, without utilizing similar data-based predictive modeling or simulation techniques. The creation of predictive acquisition models, leveraging historical data and AI, offers a crucial opportunity to forecast risks and optimize acquisition strategies before implementing policy changes, ultimately reducing costs and accelerating capability delivery to the warfighter.
Innovation
The Future Long Range Assault Aircraft team shows Col. Matthew Scher, the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade commanding officer, what soldiers can expect from the future aircraft at Wheeler Army Airfield, Hawaii, Sept. 9, 2024. The tiltrotor aircraft will have the hybrid capabilities of both planes and helicopters. Photo: Spc. Charles Clark
Can digital engineering cut a decade-long test program in half?
Terry Gerton, Federal News Network
The Army’s Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) program is aggressively leveraging digital engineering, model-based systems engineering (MBSE), and the Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) to accelerate the delivery of a prototype tiltrotor aircraft by early fiscal year 2027. This approach aims to reduce risk and significantly cut down the test program length while ensuring the resulting MV-75 platform delivers transformational capability—flying twice as fast and twice as far as the current Black Hawk fleet.
- Digital Engineering: The program allows the team to design and iterate in the digital environment, ensuring the design is right before building. This is expected to make the physical test program half as long as traditional aircraft test programs.
- Sustainment Focus: Sustainment is a central element of the program, as it accounts for about 70% of a program's life-cycle cost. Digital tools are used early to bring maintainers into a virtual environment to simulate maintenance and improve repairability.
- Digital Twins: Every aircraft tail number in the Army will have its own "digital twin" that logisticians can access to understand the aircraft’s current status and support field repairs. This helps reduce churn associated with outdated documentation by establishing a single source of truth.
- Risk Mitigation: To meet the aggressive schedule, the Army accepted elevated risk by allowing Bell to use commercial best practices and FAA certifications for early prototypes, while the Army Airworthiness process continues in the background.
Arc Orbital Supply Capsule Aims To Put Military Supplies Anywhere On Earth Within An Hour
Thomas Newdick, The War Zone
A California-based space startup has unveiled the Arc Orbital Supply Capsule, a fully reusable, lifting-body spacecraft intended to address the U.S. military’s urgent need for high-speed logistics by delivering critical supplies anywhere on Earth within one hour.
- Precision Parachute: The spacecraft slows down and lands using an actively controlled parachute system. This system, recently proven in drop-testing, ensures Arc to land on soil, water, or snow with a precision of 50 feet - without needing ground infrastructure.
- Critical Cargo: Although modest in size compared to aircraft like the C-17, Arc capacity is optimized for critical, time-sensitive components often needed by the military.
Defense & Strategy
iStock illustration
JUST IN: China Commission Calls For Laser Focus on Export Controls, Sanctions
Laura Heckmann, National Defense
A report to Congress by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission argues that the fragmented U.S. approach to economic statecraft is failing to prevent China from systematically and persistently evading sanctions and export controls, thereby undermining U.S. technological advantages.
- Top Recommendation: The report offered 28 recommendations, with the most important calling for legislation to establish a consolidated economic statecraft entity to address the national security challenges posed by China's evasion tactics.
- Fragmented System: Currently, many organizations across the executive branch — including the Departments of Commerce, Treasury, State, and Defense — play critical roles in the sanctions and export control ecosystems. This results in the equivalent of "feudal states" arguing over priorities, without a natural way to resolve issues.
- Unified Structure: The proposed consolidated entity would unify these factions into one place, serving as a "forcing function" to drive decisions in this increasingly vital policy area. It would include, at minimum, Commerce, Treasury, State, and Defense, integrate into the intelligence community, and be equipped with enforcement authorities comparable to the Treasury Department.
- Vulnerabilities Explored: The report also examined how China has weaponized supply chain choke points, specifically noting its monopoly on critical mineral refining and its use of export controls on rare earth elements and magnets.
Executive Summary: U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission 2025 Report to Congress: Executive Summary and Recommendations
Industry
The U.S. Navy is turning to South Korean and Japanese shipyards as it struggles with deepening production delays at home, with Adm. Daryl Caudle urging closer allied cooperation to accelerate warship output and counter China's rapid maritime expansion (Picture source: Hanwha Ocean).
U.S. Navy Looks to Korean and Japanese Shipyards to Address Submarine and Destroyer Delays
Army Recognition
The U.S. Navy is seeking support from South Korean and Japanese shipyards to address its deepening shipbuilding crisis, characterized by significant delays, cost overruns, and a shortage of skilled labor. The idea is that allied industrial capacity could provide critical time and operational support while American yards undertake necessary modernization.
- Ally Assistance Sought: U.S. Navy Adm. Daryl Caudle used his first overseas trip as Chief of Naval Operations in November 2025 to ask Korean and Japanese shipyards if they could help the United States overcome its shrinking warship output.
- Phased Cooperation: While allied yards are unlikely to build fully finished U.S. destroyers, several intermediate partnership models are being considered. These include shifting more maintenance and overhaul work to allied facilities, creating a joint mine countermeasures effort with Japan, and using Korean or Japanese yards to fabricate Arleigh Burke–sized hulls or large modules for outfitting in the U.S..
From framework to force multiplier: Rethinking the NTIB for a new strategic era
Jacqueline Borsboom, United States Studies Centre
The National Technology and Industrial Base (NTIB) is the critical but underused legal framework intended to seamlessly integrate the defense industrial bases of the Five Eyes nations, including the U.S. and Australia. Despite its foundational role, the NTIB's potential remains largely unrealized due to bureaucratic hurdles, high compliance costs for businesses, and a lack of sustained political support.
- Promise Unrealized: Despite Australia’s addition to the NTIB in 2017, the promise of greater access to the US defense industrial base (DIB) remains largely unrealized. The framework is underused and mired in bureaucratic inertia, imposing steep compliance costs on Australian small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs).
- NASA Blueprint: To revive the mechanism, NTIB partners should borrow lessons from NASA’s commercial space transformation, which used milestone-driven funding and regulatory agility to unlock rapid capability delivery. Revitalizing the NTIB requires resetting the narrative to focus on industrial resilience, accelerated innovation, and economic security, reflecting new political realities in member states.
Government Reports
Japanese, South Korean and U.S. ships sail together during a trilateral exercise in the Pacific, Jan. 16, 2024. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Isaiah M. Williams
Defense Budget: Clearer Guidance Is Needed to Improve Visibility into Resourcing of Pacific Deterrence Efforts
Government Accountability Office
Offshore Patrol Cutter: Coast Guard Should Gain Key Knowledge Before Buying More Ships
Government Accountability Office
Critical Mineral Resources: National Policynand Critical Minerals List
Congressional Research Service
U.S. Air Force Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA)
Congressional Research Service
Research
An unmanned aerial vehicle delivers a payload to the ballistic missile submarine USS Henry M. Jackson around the Hawaiian Islands, Oct. 19, 2020, during an event designed to test and evaluate the tactics, techniques and procedures of U.S. Strategic Command's expeditionary logistics and enhance the readiness of strategic forces. Photo: Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Devin M. Langer
Contested Logistical Resupply to the Zero Line: How Drones and Signals Require a Change in Standard Operating Procedures
Bill Edwards, Small Wars Journal
The modern battlefield, as demonstrated in Ukraine, is saturated with small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS), rendering current U.S. military logistical Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) — which rely on large, predictable movements — outdated and unsustainable. To survive and win in this "persistent eye" environment, U.S. forces must immediately transition from a "just-in-time" to a "just-in-case" logistics mentality, prioritizing smaller, more agile resupply packages, enhanced Counter-UAS (C-UAS) security, and comprehensive signature reduction.
Drones: Decoupling Supply Chains from China
Robert Tollast, RUSI
The technological advantage of Western militaries is compromised by critical vulnerabilities in the multirotor uncrewed aerial system (MUAS) supply chain, which relies heavily on Chinese-origin components and materials. This dependence poses significant risks in future peer conflicts, especially given the transformative impact of drones observed in the Russo-Ukrainian War. To mitigate these risks, NATO and allied democracies must urgently move to decouple their drone supply chains, scale up MUAS production, and build sovereign manufacturing capabilities.
The UK R&D ecosystem’s strategic capability towards AUKUS Pillar II: Barriers and opportunities
Sophia Gaston, United States Studies Center
This analysis assesses the United Kingdom’s extensive R&D ecosystem and its strategic capability to deliver on the advanced technologies mandated by AUKUS Pillar II. The report highlights that the UK is a crucial partner due to its world-class universities, established defense innovation infrastructure, and deep technical expertise in areas like AI and undersea autonomy. However, this capacity is hampered by significant domestic constraints, including a lack of consistent, scaled government funding and highly protracted security clearance processes that inhibit effective collaboration on classified research.
Building Systems Integration Capabilities: The Role of the Royal Netherlands Navy in Constructing and Innovating Warships, 1945-2024
Haico te Kulve and Wim A. Smit, The Northern Mariner
This historical analysis examines the Royal Netherlands Navy’s efforts to restore of a sizeable domestic industry capable of designing and building complex warships after the devastation of World War II. The central argument posits that successfully rebuilding this sector relied heavily upon developing and sustaining sophisticated systems integration capabilities.
Events
The 2025 Government Contracting Year-End-Review
Govology
11 December 2025
Virtual
2026 Naval Nuclear Submarine and Aircraft Carrier Suppliers Conference
NDIA Delaware Valley
21-22 January 2026
Philadelphia, PA
36th Annual NDIA Special Operations Symposium
NDIA
17-18 February 2026
Washington, DC
40th Annual National Logistics Forum
17-19 February 2026
Tampa, FL
Creative Disruptors in the Desert
Creative Defense Foundation
20-21 February 2025
La Quinta, CA
Accelerating Warfighting Capabilities
NPS 23rd Annual Acquisition Research Symposium & Innovation Summit
6-7 May 2026
Monterey, CA
One more thing...
A robotic satellite servicing unit being developed by U.S. Naval Research Laboratory’s Naval Center for Space Technology, Washington, D.C., Oct. 8, 2024. Photo: Sarah Peterson, Navy
Navy and the Nation: Five Everyday Technologies Born from Naval Research
Jameson Crabtree, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory Corporate Communications
In honor of the Navy's 250th birthday, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) highlights five foundational military innovations that have profoundly transformed modern civilian life and powered progress far beyond the fleet.
- GPS Foundation: NRL engineers developed the Timation (Time Navigation) satellite in the 1960s, which proved that satellites equipped with precise atomic clocks could provide accurate position data anywhere on Earth. This early work laid the scientific foundation for the GPS constellation now used for turn-by-turn directions, ride-sharing, and location tracking on smartphones.
- Lithium Batteries: In the 1970s, NRL was one of the first institutions to investigate lithium-based rechargeable batteries to power the Navy’s unmanned systems. The lab’s pioneering work in electrochemistry informed the commercial development of lithium-ion batteries, which are now found in nearly all portable electronic devices, including cell phones, laptops, and electric vehicles.
- Radar Technology: NRL developed the first operational radar system in the United States in 1939. This same technology now enables modern air traffic control systems, Doppler weather radar used by meteorologists to predict storms, and speed detection devices utilized by law enforcement.
- High-Speed Internet: As early as the 1970s, NRL scientists explored the use of glass fibers to transmit data using light. Their innovations in fiber optic materials and laser communications laid the groundwork for the high-speed internet and digital communications infrastructure we rely on today, supporting everything from video calls to streaming movies.
- Global Connectivity: NRL was instrumental in launching Project Vanguard and the United States’ first scientific satellite in the 1950s, initiating the era of space-based communications. This development directly informed the systems that now enable satellite TV, global broadband, GPS timing signals, and international phone and data services.
- Research Institution: For more than a century, the NRL has served as the Navy’s premier research institution, employing approximately 3,000 civilian scientists, engineers, and support personnel. Its research drives technological advances from the seafloor to space.
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