John Rood, defense undersecretary for policy, has said building a network of space-based sensors designed to detect and track missile threats is “not a provocative act” and would allow the U.S. to prepare for possible attacks, SpaceNews reported Tuesday.

“If the U.S. pursues a space sensor layer, it watches, it detects what others are doing,” he said Tuesday at a Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance-organized forum on Capitol Hill.

“If we’re attacked, we can deal with it, that’s what we want,” he added.

Rood noted that the Defense Department has started to consider the potential security and technological implications of having space-based missile interceptors but is not yet ready to advance the concept.

“Those are bridges yet to be crossed,” he added.

Rood joined Michael Griffin, defense undersecretary of defense for research and engineering; and Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves, director of the Missile Defense Agency; at the forum.

The Department of Energy has chosen 36 projects worth a combined value of $80M to support a research and development program that aims to reduce the cost of bio-based drop-in fuels by 2022.

The department said Tuesday it expects the bioenergy effort to allow consumers to choose from a range of low-cost transportation energy resources.

“Developing all of our domestic energy resources is critical to keeping our nation prosperous and secure,” said Secretary of Energy Rick Perry.

Sixteen of the projects will focus on fostering catalysts and new biological systems, identifying ways to leverage waste streams and developing co-products for biofuel production, in an effort to reduce the cost of fuels from biomass and waste feedstocks.

The DOE added that 10 selections will study integration processes for biopower production, while seven will boost the uptake and conversion of carbon dioxide emissions to maximize carbon utilization and the productivity of algae systems.

Lastly, three initiatives will examine affordable and sustainable non-food dedicated energy crops that can be used as feedstocks to produce of biofuels, bioproducts, and biopower.

The National Defense Industrial Association has found that the revised Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement and continued development of the National Institute of Standards and Technology cybersecurity framework create burdens on defense contracting, National Defense reported Tuesday.

The study, “Implementing Cybersecurity in DoD Supply Chains,” describes how defense contractors are responding to increasing regulation requirements.

The findings also show that the majority of respondents do not have high understanding of the NIST cybersecurity framework and DFARS.

Michigan State University’s Department of Supply Chain Management conducted the study in partnership with NDIA.

The Defense Department has received a recommendation from the Government Accountability Office directing military departments and the Defense Logistics Agency to follow a criteria for measuring the performance of utilities privatization contracts.

The GAO said in a report published Tuesday that military departments have failed to note the costs and reliability of utility commodities and modifications, as well as evaluate contractor performance during utility privatization efforts for military installations.

The agency believes the DoD will have a difficult time managing utility reformation programs and long-term procurement vehicles without a standard for monitoring the performance of such contracts.

GAO also recommended the DoD develop procedures that inform military departments about contractor defense information related to utilities privatization contracts.

The DoD includes a clause in its utilities privatization contracts that requires contractors to protect data processed, stored and transmitted in their information or industrial control systems.

DLA and military department officials have admitted to not implementing the clause so that DoD can develop procedures pointing out the contractor’s defense information associated with utilities privatization contracts.

The procedures will assure military departments and DLA that such information are secure.

Kirstjen Nielsen, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, and counterparts in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the U.K. have issued a joint statement that lays out a framework to engage and discuss with industry the challenges and benefits of encryption.

Security officials and attorneys general under the “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance released the Statement of Principles on Access to Evidence and Encryption at this year’s Five Country Ministerial in Australia, DHS said Thursday.

The statement seeks to address data access challenges posed by encryption to law enforcement and intelligence agencies through the implementation of three principles: mutual responsibility; rule of law and due process; and freedom of choice for lawful access platforms.

The officials agreed to work together to safeguard critical infrastructure and further build up collaboration between cyber offices to improve cyber threat monitoring efforts.

They also announced plans to form a new group, Aviation Security 5, to streamline information sharing about threats to the aviation sector.

Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan has said the Defense Department wants to choose and deploy the “right” technical platform and capability in order to ensure the country’s military edge in the space domain, DoD News reported Friday.

“And when you pick the wrong product, no matter how talented the team or how many resources there are, you lose,” Shanahan said Aug. 27 at the U.S. Air Force’s space and missile systems center in California.

“Acquisition is a huge enabler, but getting the product right is, in my mind, the most important thing we can do.”

He cited some of the department’s priorities for command and control, space situational awareness, Missile Defense Agency and the proposed space force.

“If you want to know what I think about the Space Force [it’s this]: How do we deliver warfighting capability more quickly?” he added.

The Rand Corporation said that the U.S. Air Force faces capacity limitations in responding to the potential demands and challenges posed by different future security scenarios.

Researchers from the Rand Corporation described in a report entitled “Is the USAF Flying Force Large Enough?” four hypothetical future scenarios that the Air Force could face, namely: a scenario similar to the Cold War and characterized by a prolonged conflict like the Vietnam War; another Cold War scenario but this time characterized by a short conflict like the Kosovo War; a peace enforcement scenario similar to the one faced by the U.S. in the 1990s; and a scenario in which global counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations is predominant, much like what the U.S. military is facing today.

The Rand Corporation reported that under all four scenarios, the USAF, with its fleet of aircraft from fiscal year 2017, would experience a shortfall in one class of aircraft or another, with the peace enforcement scenario being the “most stressful to capacity.”

In addition, the Rand Corporation found that none of the USAF classes of aircraft performed robustly across all four scenarios, with fighter aircraft coming the closest, performing well in three out of four hypothetical futures.

The researchers went on to note that protracted military operations are a cause of the Air Force’s capacity limitations and recommended that military and political leadership explore “more force structure, develop alternative force presentation models that may more efficiently use existing forces” and become “more aware of the risks and costs of prolonged operations.”

The Defense Department has created a road map meant to help military services align unmanned technology projects and goals and with DoD’s strategic vision.

The document obtained by USNI News cites interoperability, autonomy, network security and human-machine collaboration as four themes that can serve as the foundational areas of interest for accelerating the use of unmanned systems.

DoD said interoperability will provide the basis for future advances in warfighting as it has already contributed to the deployment of autonomous technologies.

The road map also noted that advances in autonomy will help boost the productivity of manned and unmanned systems.

The department additionally stressed the need to encourage human-machine teaming in combat operations, as well as address vulnerabilities to prevent attacks on networked connections.

Lastly, DoD said supporting policy, requirements and acquisition environments should match advancements in technology.

“To ensure our military advantage, emphasis should be placed on the evolution, availability and employment of unmanned technology,” the agency said in the road map.