The U.S. Navy’s Standard Missile-3 Block IIA effectively intercepted a medium-range ballistic missile after being launched from the Aegis Weapon System on an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer.

SM-3 Blk IIA was part of the Stellar Sisyphus flight test conducted by the U.S. Navy and the Missile Defense Agency, which announced the event’s results on Thursday.

The objective of the test was to gather data on complex target discrimination and interception from multiple sensors and varying viewing angles.

The Navy used the USS McCampbell and USS Jack Lucas to launch the weapon systems.

The demo “was a key milestone in giving our Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense ships increased sensing and tracking tools to combat threat proliferation,” remarked Lt. Gen. Heath Collins, director of MDA. ”This was an incredible accomplishment and I commend the U.S. Navy Sailors, the MDA team and our industry partners,” the Wash100 winner added.

Collins will deliver a keynote speech at the Potomac Officers Club’s Space Summit on March 5. Register here for this industry-leading gathering on all things shaping the GovCon space domain now!

The White House has issued a national security memorandum outlining safeguards and ensuring accountability concerning transferred defense articles and defense services.

The memorandum requires the Secretary of State to secure written assurances from foreign governments receiving defense services and articles from the U.S. Departments of State and Defense, the White House said Thursday.

The document also requires the secretaries of State and Defense to submit no later than 90 days from now a congressional report addressing the defense articles and defense services provided by the two departments.

The congressional report should include any new assurances obtained, an assessment of any credible reports, a description of procedures used to make the assessment and an analysis and evaluation of any reports indicating that the use of such defense services and articles “has been found to be inconsistent with established best practices for mitigating civilian harm.”

In the event that the reliability or credibility of assurances provided by the foreign country has been put into question, the secretary of State or Defense should report to the president and state the necessary steps to be taken to remediate the situation.

“Such remediation could include actions from refreshing the assurances to suspending any further transfers of defense articles or, as appropriate, defense services,” the memorandum reads.

The Department of Defense’s Zero Trust Portfolio Management Office will provide training to combatant commands to guide their implementation of the zero trust capabilities and technologies to secure enterprise-wide assets, Federal News Network reported Thursday.

Randy Resnick, director of the Zero Trust Portfolio Management Office and a 2024 Wash100 awardee, said his office is working with Defense Acquisition University to develop training courses, which will be available to DOD personnel with a common access card.

“It’s not mandatory for anybody to take the zero trust courses, but we’re working toward that model where it would actually either be mandatory to take the ZT 101 or thereabouts or roll it into the existing cyber courses and essentially update the cyber course to include zero trust,” Resnick said.

In January, Resnick and his team visited European Command to tackle DOD’s zero trust implementation goals. The team has two trips planned over the next month to visit Space Command and Northern Command in Colorado and Africa Command.

“What we’re trying to do is to talk about zero trust, the importance of it and talk live about what their requirements are, and talk about their implementation plans,” Resnick said.