The Defense Department plans to induct some 60,000 civilian personnel in the next round of switchovers to the new National Security Personnel System, starting in October. The latest effort, called Spiral 1.2, follows Spiral 1.1, comprising 11,000 employees, which, officials say, achieved a 99.9 percent technical accuracy rate—that is all personnel and pay actions went smoothly. DOD expects all 60,000 personnel—all non-union employees—to be shifted to NSPS by the end of January 2007. The Pentagon still is embroiled in a legal dispute with union officials.
The Defense Innovation Unit is gearing up for the first flight of its commercially developed hypersonic testbed as soon as the end of February—part of a larger project to quickly increase the cadence of the Pentagon’s hypersonic flight testing and field advanced, high-speed systems and components at scale.
