Roll Call
After learning that one-third of the private landlords on U.S. military bases have failed to guarantee service members a complete “tenant bill of rights” required by law, five senators have asked the Pentagon to force the companies to do so. In a six-page letter sent to Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, the senators urged him to change or kill contracts with these companies if necessary.
Yonhap
The United States is working with its allies and partners to monitor North Korea's provision of artillery shells to Russia. Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder declined to comment on whether the U.S. was seeking to interdict the North Korean shipments. "I don't want to get into specific conversations with allies and partners. Certainly, we have flagged concerns about North Korea, and we will continue to work with our allies and partners when it comes to anything that could destabilize or cause issues in the region," he told the press.
SpaceNews
U.S. Space Command announced it is adding a new component to its organization to help coordinate operations and speed up the delivery of satellite-based services to military forces in the field. The new organization, called Combined Joint Task Force-Space Operations (CJTF-SO), marks another step in the evolution of the U.S. military’s space enterprise, officials said. “To outpace our strategic competitor, the People’s Republic of China, I am rapidly building the command to compete and win in the space domain, deter aggression from extending to space, and, when necessary, prevail in conflict,” said Gen. James H. Dickinson, head of U.S. Space Command.
CNN
The Taliban likely gained access to tens of millions of dollars the U.S. transferred to the Afghan government before it collapsed, a U.S. government watchdog found. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), which monitored U.S. projects and spending during America’s longest war, said in its latest report that the Taliban likely accessed approximately $57.6 million in funds from the State Department, Department of Defense, and USAID.
Washington Technology
The Air Force is previewing its plans for the next iteration of a big-ticket cloud computing contract that will continue efforts to migrate applications and other technology assets into that shared environment. Dubbed Cloud One Next, the intended users are mission systems owners that either work in a cloud environment or are looking to move there from current on-premises data centers.
Executive Gov
Space Systems Command has selected seven innovation teams to compete in the final round of its inaugural Fight Tonight competition, which aims to develop new approaches to building more resilient space systems by 2026. SSC said up to $8 million in funding will be awarded to the winning teams to bring their ideas to completion over a period of one to four years.
Defense One
The Biden administration is looking to make covered federal contractors disclose their climate emissions, in a move that is in keeping with its broader environmental agenda but could place some heavy financial and administrative burdens on contractors, according to experts. In addition to addressing greenhouse gas emissions, this proposal will “protect the federal government’s supply chains from climate-related financial risks,” the White House said. Already more than half of federal contractors are sharing climate-related information.
One More Thing
The Associated Press
NASA’s new moon rocket blasted off on its debut flight with three test dummies aboard, bringing the U.S. a big step closer to putting astronauts back on the lunar surface for the first time since the end of the Apollo program 50 years ago. If all goes well during the three-week, make-or-break shakedown flight, the rocket will propel an empty crew capsule into a wide orbit around the moon, and then the capsule will return to Earth with a splashdown in the Pacific in December.
