Lt. Col. Carla Gleason, spokesperson for the Department of Defense, has confirmed that David Trachtenberg is stepping down as deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, Defense News reported Saturday. Trachtenberg’s retirement followed his comments to the media on Turkey’s removal from the F-35 program.

Prior to his confirmation in 2017, Trachtenberg served as CEO of Shortwaver Consulting and held leadership roles at CACI International. He also spent time with the House Armed Services Committee and was principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for international security policy for two years.

According to Gleason, the Pentagon will name a replacement for Trachtenberg at a “later time”.

The Defense Logistics Agency released a new plan to address global supply chain security issues including counterfeit platform components and compromised Commercial and Government Entity supplier codes. DLA said Thursday that the Supply Chain Security Strategy collates input from Col. Scott Ritzel, executive director of the agency’s Nuclear Enterprise Support Office, as well as 20 DLA professionals.

Lt. Gen. Darrell Williams, director of the DLA, wrote in a statement on the DLA strategy’s webpage that the plan requires participation from every agency member because supply chain disruption is “not an option for the warfighter.”

“We operate a global supply chain that’s vulnerable to various threats, whether it be cyber or nefarious actors who are intentionally trying to either disrupt supply chains or present themselves as legitimate vendors,” Ritzel noted.

The U.S. Navy has set a commissioning ceremony for LCS 17, the littoral combat ship to be named USS Indianapolis on Oct. 26 in Burns Harbor, Ind. Jill Donnelly, the wife of former Sen. Joe Donnelly, will order the activation of the LCS as the vessel’s sponsor, the Navy said Thursday.

“The future USS Indianapolis honors more than a city, it pays tribute to the legacy of those who served during the final days of World War II on board USS Indianapolis (CA-35),” said Richard Spencer, secretary at the Navy. 

The future USS Indianapolis is the fourth ship named after the capital of Indiana and is designed to conduct mine countermeasures, surface and anti-submarine warfare missions. The ship is slated to be stationed at Naval Station Mayport following the ceremony.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is working on modernizing its systems and fortifying software security at the supply chain level, Federal Times reported Friday. Adrian Monza, chief of the Department of Homeland Security component’s cyber defense branch, told the publication that USCIS is launching “very significant” modernization efforts and that other agencies must be able to defend their networks against threats to financial databases. 

“It’s only a matter of time until someone gets the bright idea and says, ‘Hey this is a great way into government systems as well,’” he said. “And, so, focusing on identifying that supply chain and securing it is really a focus for us.”

Previously, the U.S. Air Force conducted a series of penetration tests to address vulnerabilities in the service branch’s systems that were in place over the past four years.

Penny Mordaunt, U.K. secretary of state for defense, said the U.K. government will send eight individuals to the U.S. in the next 18 months to support the Combined Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, SpaceNews reported Thursday. She announced at the Air and Space Power Conference 2019 in London that the British government will also team up with the U.S. on the Operation Olympic Defender, a program launched by U.S. Strategic Command in 2013 to build up deterrence against adversaries in space.

Mordaunt said the U.K. government plans to make a $34M investment to launch a constellation of small satellites in support of a transatlantic collaboration – Team Artemis – that hopes to conduct research into small satellites and their wider role in military operations. The report said the U.K. air force has partnered with Virgin Orbit to provide launch services for the small satellite program.

The General Services Administration and National Archives and Records Administration officially unveiled a market research tool to help agencies identify electronic records management platforms that meet their requirements, Nextgov reported Thursday.

The ERM tool provides information on contractors for 11 record types, including desktop applications, electronic messages, cloud, databases and digital media. The two agencies have also announced the launch of a new special item number – SIN 51 600 – for ERM products and services under GSA’s Schedule 36.

“SIN 51 600 provides a comprehensive capability to solve the complex challenges posed by the movement, manipulation, archiving, security, and management of electronic records,” according to GSA’s Discovery website. “This SIN also includes any ancillary supplies and/or services necessary to provide a total electronic records management solution.”