The INSIDER daily digest -- October 26, 2026

This Monday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on two defense contractors suing the Navy for excluding them from competing in the Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel program, a nascent Army counter-drone effort and more. We start off with a deep dive into a lawsuit involving the Navy's Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel program: SPECIAL REPORT: Defense start-up lawsuit against Navy could reshape OTA protests As the Navy attempts to move forward with the initial phase of its Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel program, a federal lawsuit could threaten to alter the process the Defense Department currently relies on to speed up acquisition and rapidly deliver capabilities to the fleet.

On Oct. 23, L3Harris Technologies announced a three-year contract which moves the company into the second phase of the Army's eXtended Range Counter-sUAS Missile (XRC) program: L3Harris wins $60 million Army deal to develop longer-range C-UAS missile L3Harris Technologies has secured a contract worth up to $60 million to develop a new Army interceptor designed to shoot down drones at greater distances -- advancing a missile development effort the service is expanding as it seeks more capable, affordable defenses against unmanned aircraft.

Army Col. Joseph Mroszczyk, director of the Space and Missile Defense Command's Transformation Integration Directorate for Space Superiority and High Altitude, spoke at the recent AUSA Conference: Army aims to network space warfare systems for remote operations in 2027 The Army has developed space warfare systems that cannot yet be operated remotely or monitored through a common network -- a capability gap the service plans to address through experiments next year as it seeks to integrate space operations more closely with battlefield command and control.

The Army is seeking to foster technology for fielding inexpensive rockets en masse that are compatible with multiple types of launchers: DEVCOM piloting informal 'rodeo' approach to testing for DSFT As the Army Combat Capabilities Development Command's Aviation and Missile Center (DEVCOM AvMC) moves out on its science and technology development of the Direct Support Fires Technology initiative, the command wants to be more welcoming to industry and is trying out a newer, less-prescriptive testing approach.

Our colleagues at Inside Cybersecurity attended the CS5 East conference, an annual event hosted by the Cyber AB to bring together the CMMC ecosystem: Cyber AB chief encourages assessment ecosystem to expect 'reformation' as phase two suspension continues NATIONAL HARBOR, MD -- The assessment ecosystem for the Pentagon's Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program should be looking at other cybersecurity frameworks in preparation for the results from a "pause" on phase two of the initiative, according to accreditation body CEO Matthew Travis.