Greetings from the second annual Defense Innovation Days conference here in Rhode Island at the Newport Marriott hotel overlooking the beautiful Narragansett Bay. The big news on Day One of the conference was Frank Kendall’s decision to soften his plan to increase oversight over contractor research-and-development projects that are funded in part by taxpayers. The Pentagon acquisition chief’s revised plan, laid out in a white paper obtained by Morning D, comes after industry executives complained the proposal could curtail their ability to pursue high-risk innovative projects.

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A new report urges Pakistan to undertake several nuclear-related initiatives that would help the country be viewed as a “normal” state possessing nuclear weapons, addressing “widely held perceptions that its nuclear deterrence practices are a major source of danger in South Asia.” The report from the Stimson Center, being released today, says a commercial pathway to becoming a mainstream nuclear power is not available for Pakistan like it is for India.

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