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Cost Estimating NewsBrief: September 19, 2025
Space Force cell explores reorg to push commercial data to military
(Breaking Defense) The Space Force’s Joint Commercial Operations (JCO) cell is in the midst of a reorganization designed to enable routine integration of space domain awareness (SDA) data and analysis from commercial operators into day-to-day military operations — not just at US Space Command, but across all the Combatant Commands. “We are in the middle of a a discussion about where the long-term stabilization of something that fully integrates acquisitions, tactical acquisitions, and integrates into existing operations across 11 combatant commands goes,” JCO Director Barbara Golf told Breaking Defense Tuesday at the annual Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies (AMOS) conference in Hawaii. Read More
DOD Financial Management: Insights into the Auditability of DOD’s Fiscal Year 2024 Balance Sheet
(U.S. Government Accountability Office) Although DOD reported over $4.1 trillion in assets in its financial statements in FY2024—a significant portion of the government’s total assets—it remains the only major federal agency that has never gotten a “clean” audit opinion (i.e., when auditors find that financial statements are presented fairly). However, we found that DOD’s components’ financial statements vary in auditability. For example, 11 DOD components (responsible for 43% of DOD’s assets) achieved clean audit opinions, but 13 (including the Army, Navy, and Air Force) didn’t. Reliable financial statements would support informed decision-making and improve mission operations. Read More
Army allowing commanders to approve 3D-printed parts for faster repairs
(Breaking Defense) The Army is expanding its use of additive manufacturing in the battlefield as the service is now allowing commanders to repair and send back out pieces of small 3D-printed equipment, instead of waiting for permission from the service’s higher ups, Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll said today. “[We’re] empowering our generals to take on that risk where we have the right to repair so that they can make these very small parts to get things back on and get them back into the hands of our soldiers. I think you’re going to think that these are kind of one-off instances. I don’t know the exact number, but my commitment to you is, or my best guess is, that this is a meaningful step forward,” Driscoll told reporters during a media roundtable today. Read More
Pentagon research official wants to have AI on every desktop in 6 to 9 months
(NextGov/FCW) The Pentagon is angling to introduce artificial intelligence across its workforce within nine months following the reorganization of its key AI office. Emil Michael, under secretary of defense for research and engineering at the Department of Defense, talked about the agency’s plans for introducing AI to its operations as it continues its modernization journey. “We want to have an AI capability on every desktop — 3 million desktops — in six or nine months,” Michael said during a Politico event on Tuesday. “We want to have it focus on applications for corporate use cases like efficiency, like you would use in your own company … for intelligence and for warfighting.” Read More
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