Today’s D Brief: Ukraine’s incursion; Insecure VIP-flight system; US firms eye Ukraine partnerships; DOD’s new cyber czar; And a bit more...
Ukrainian forces’ incursion into Russia’s Kursk region continues into second day. The Guardian: “Official and unofficial Russian sources reported that a force of several hundred soldiers had crossed a lightly defended part of the border on Tuesday morning, in what appears to be one of the largest incursions into Russia since the war began in February 2022.”
Wall Street Journal: “Russia evacuated villages near the border as hundreds of Ukrainian troops pressed forward in fast-moving armored vehicles, according to Russian officials. Russia deployed army units, border guards and warplanes to counter Ukrainian units and said Wednesday it had halted Ukrainian forces. Russian war bloggers close to the Russian military said Ukraine seized several villages and advanced several miles in two directions.” Read that, here.
Welcome to this Wednesday edition of The D Brief, brought to you by Bradley Peniston. Share your newsletter tips, reading recommendations, or feedback here. And if you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here. On this day in 1942, Marines landed on Guadalcanal to seize a nearly-complete airfield at Guadalcanal's Lunga Point, marking the first U.S. land offensive of World War II.
Air Force aims to replace its insecure VIP flight scheduling system. The service wants a cloud-based app that can handle double the Pentagon's existing fleet of 66 VIP aircraft. The current one has "categorically inadequate" cybersecurity, according to a sources-sought notice posted on SAM.gov. Read on, here.
Warily, US companies eye co-production deals in Ukraine. Several U.S. defense companies are considering joint production inside the wartorn country, but questions remain about the safety of doing business there, the persistence of corruption, and the long-term business case, officials and executives told Audrey Decker during the recent Farnborough air show outside London.
The Pentagon has been pushing American defense contractors to increase collaboration with their Ukrainian counterparts, but U.S. firms have been slower to ink deals than European companies. “I think our industry is really eager, but at the same time, [it] has to make sense from a business case, right? And financing is an issue too, how you can actually pay for this stuff,” a State Department official said.
The official pointed to last month’s announcement from Northrop Grumman that it will make ammunition inside Ukraine. It’s the first public deal between a U.S. company and Ukraine to produce weapons inside the country, and “there are other companies that are looking at what they can do next.” More, here.
Meet the Pentagon's first-ever cyber policy chief. Last week, the Senate confirmed Michael Sulmeyer to fill a position it helped create. Sulmeyer is the first to hold the new position of assistant defense secretary for cyber policy.
Sulmeyer has previously served as principal cyber advisor to the secretary of the Army, where he supported cyber readiness and strategy matters. He previously served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the National Security Council, and Cyber Command.
His experience also includes working as director of the Cybersecurity Project at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and he has teaching and fellowship experience with the University of Texas School of Law and Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology.