The Pentagon seeks an automated tool that determines the classification level of documents, who should be able to access them, even automatically redact information when shared with users allowed to see some, but not all, of it. And there’s more sought as well, reports NexGov on the rest of the request for information.
Responding to a growing space race with China and Russia, DoD test-fired a new rocket engine 10 times in as many days, a critical step toward a space plane that can put satellites in orbit on a daily basis, reports Defense One.
The Trump administration is preparing more tariffs targeting Chinese exports valued around $200 billion, reports The Washington Times. US trade representative Robert Lighthizer said the tariffs of 10 percent are “a result of China’s retaliation and failure to change its practices” in response to earlier US tariffs.
Navy Times reports the Chinese Communist Party newspaper Global Times denounced passage of US Navy ships through the Taiwan Strait as a “psychological game,” as the two sides square off over trade and relations with self-governing Taiwan. The editorial accused the US of adding to tensions by sailing the Japan-based guided missile destroyers USS Mustin and USS Benfold through the 100-mile-wide strait that divides Taiwan from mainland China.
Stars and Stripes reports DoD gave Congress its conditional support for opening on-base shopping to disabled veterans, Purple Heart recipients, and caregivers of severely injured veterans, potentially adding a few hundred thousand weekly shoppers to commissaries and exchanges nationwide.
More than 6,500 users who worked at more than 200 sensitive sites across the world appear to have been unknowingly broadcasting their exercise location and their name to the entire world via their Polar Flow fitness platform, including military officials working at nuclear weapons facilities, FBI and NSA employees, and Americans in the sensitive Green Zone of Bagdad, Iraq, reports Fifth Domain.
The Navy continues to roll out a new phase of work-ups for carrier strike group and amphibious ready group deployments aimed at boosting its surface warfare skills, reports Defense News.
Marine Corps Times reports the corps is looking to install antennas in its F/A-18 C/D Hornets to help the aircraft defeat GPS jammers.
Contracts:
General Dynamics Information Technology Inc., Fairfax, Virginia, was awarded a $14,303,431 modification (F406 14) to contract W91QUZ-06-D-0012 for combined mission command network operations and maintenance information technology services. Work will be performed in Seoul, Republic of Korea, with an estimated completion date of July 31, 2019. Fiscal 2018 operations and maintenance (Army) funds in the amount of $14,303,431 were obligated at the time of the award. US Army 411th Combat Support Battalion is the contracting activity.
CORRECTION: The contract announced on July 10, 2018, for $9,166,535 to Mabey Inc., Elkridge, Maryland (W56HZV-18-C-0128), has not been awarded.