Welcome to part one of our regular bi-monthly summary of recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports and primers on a range of defense, weapon system, acquisition, sustainment, pandemic, and supply chain management-related topics. Several recent issuances of potential interest to the defense acquisition workforce community include:

• Renewed Great Power Competition: Implications for Defense—Issues for Congress, Mar 10, 2022
• New U.S. Marine Corps Force Design Initiative: Force Design 2030, Mar 07, 2022
• Nonstrategic Nuclear Weapons, Mar 07, 2022
• Navy Constellation (FFG-62) Class Frigate Program: Background and Issues for Congress. Mar 02, 2022
• Navy DDG(X) Next-Generation Destroyer Program: Background and Issues for Congress, Mar 02, 2022
• Navy DDG-51 and DDG-1000 Destroyer Programs: Background and Issues for Congress, Mar 02, 2022
• Navy Light Amphibious Warship (LAW) Program: Background and Issues for Congress, Mar 02, 2022
• |Navy LPD-17 Flight II and LHA Amphibious Ship Programs: Background and Issues for Congress, Mar 02, 2022
• Coast Guard Polar Security Cutter (Polar Icebreaker) Program: Background and Issues for Congress, Feb 28, 2022
• FY2022 NDAA: Procurement Authorizations, Feb 28, 2022

As I regularly like to remind our readers when I share these bi-monthly highlights of their reports (and particularly for those not familiar with the CRS), the organization “…serves as nonpartisan shared staff to congressional committees and Members of Congress. It operates solely at the behest of and under the direction of Congress. Information in a CRS Report should not be relied upon for purposes other than public understanding of information that has been provided by CRS to Members of Congress in connection with CRS’s institutional role. CRS Reports, as a work of the United States Government, are not subject to copyright protection in the United States. Any CRS Report may be reproduced and distributed in its entirety without permission from CRS. However, as a CRS Report may include copyrighted images or material from a third party, you may need to obtain the permission of the copyright holder if you wish to copy or otherwise use copyrighted material.”

Photo courtesy of the Architect of the Capitol