National Background Investigation Bureau Director Charles Phalen said the agency started preparing to move into the Defense Department upon the enactment of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act in 2017, MeriTalk reported Monday.

Phalen noted during the Government Matters program that the 2018 NDAA required the DoD to handle its portion of background investigations from NBIB.

“We have been working very closely with the department ever since the [NDAA] came out back in December, first on the partial shift, now [we are] focused completely on the whole piece,” he said.

However, the bureau still needs to wait for a presidential executive order to formalize its integration into the DoD.

Phalen noted that the executive order, which will elaborate on NBIB’s merger with DoD, is currently being processed.

He added that working with the department in the past few months has reduced the number of pending background investigations that the agency needed to handle.

Senators on both sides of the aisle are concerned that President Trump’s proposal to establish a “Space Force” would add to overhead costs at the Defense Department, The Hill reported Tuesday.

“How do we make sure we’re protecting taxpayer dollars and making sure they’re most efficiently used while achieving that objective?” Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa said.

Vice President Mike Pence said the Trump administration plans to ask Congress for an initial $8B budget to cover five years of space procurement efforts through the proposed sixth military branch.

Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I. of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that the Pentagon would first need to establish a space-dedicated combatant command as stated in the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act.

The report noted Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas is the only member of the committee who fully supports the idea of building a Space Force service.

“Our vulnerability in space and the increasing aggressiveness of our adversaries threatening our space architecture is significant and troubling and I applaud the administration elevating the focus on defending that space architecture,” Cruz said.

The General Services Administration is shutting down its reverse auction platform after five years of service, due to financial constraints, Federal News Radio reported Monday.

Erv Koehler, acting deputy commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service, wrote to GSA customers and partners that the agency will shut down the platform as it was no longer viable to continue.

He added that the platform will no longer allow the creation of new auctions after Sept. 30, but those scheduled to end after Oct. 1 will be allowed to finish.

“GSA will maintain RA system access for users through Dec. 31, allowing for the retrieval of auction-related documents,” Koehler noted.

Tim DiNapoli, director of contracting and national security acquisitions at the Government Accountability Office, said that only a small fraction of of federal reverse auctions were processed using the platform.

“It seems to me that despite their efforts, the use of the platform never seemed to pick up enough steam or visibility to make it,” he said.

The U.S. Army will perform a fourth non-developmental evaluation for additional active protection system proposals on the Stryker combat vehicle in November, Defense News reported Tuesday.

Army Spokesperson Ashley Givens announced that the service will be assessing more proposals to see if they meet the given requirements and can serve as possible alternatives to already selected APS offerings, which have been experiencing delays.

The Army’s initial options were Rafael Advanced Defense Systems’ Trophy system for the M1 Abrams tank, Israel Military Industries’ Iron Fist for the Bradley Fighting Vehicle and Artis’ Iron Curtain for Stryker.

The service’s next wave of assessment will involve putting potential systems to an initial limited test against various threats.

Rheinmetall has been invited to participate in the fourth evaluation with its Active Defense System, which was developed in partnership with Unified Business Technologies.

Lt. Gen. Stephen Fogarty, commanding general of the U.S. Army Cyber Command, participated in a discussion with Army Materiel Command leaders last week to discuss cybersecurity of the Defense Department‘s information network, DVIDS reported Friday.

Fogarty said at the meeting that ARCYBER aims to help secure the DoD information network, craft defensive and offensive strategies and deploy multiple tools in cyberspace.

“Our bread and butter is to operate and defend system networks,” he added.

Daniel Bradford, chief information officer of the Army Materiel Command’s G-2/G-6 sections, said the talks offered an opportunity for the organization to communicate its cyber and mission assurance requirements.

“Our discussions with the ARCYBER team highlighted the importance, dependencies and complexity of the joint network,” Bradford added.

The Defense Department recently claimed that China has been pursuing its military modernization objectives by acquiring foreign technology and intellectual property through legal as well as illicit means.

The DoD stated in a recent report to Congress that, to modernize its armed forces, China has been augmenting local efforts with the procurement of foreign technology, typically through technology importation, foreign direct investment and partnerships with research centers, among others.

The department noted, however, that China has also been engaging in clandestine activities, including cyber espionage and mobilizing national intelligence resources, to tap “individuals with relevant placement and access” and use them as agents to obtain heavily regulated or export-restricted material.

Military modernization is a crucial component of China’s long-term developmental goals, especially in terms of protecting national interests beyond the country’s borders.

By 2020, the Chinese military seeks to achieve a “great rise” in strategic capability as well as an increased ability to leverage information technology during conflict, and by 2035, it aims to reach “basic modernization,” the DoD reported.

Finally, by 2049, the Chinese military expects to become “world-class,” which, the Defense Department said, may be interpreted as achieving “peer capability” with the U.S.