
The Pentagon is working toward establishing a new forum for Indo-Pacific partners’ weapons chiefs to gather and discuss growing co-production opportunities, the department’s acquisition chief said. Bill LaPlante, the under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, told reporters the Partnership for Indo-Pacific Industrial Resilience (PIPIR) initiative would likely follow a similar blueprint to the gathering of European countries’ national armaments directors that was borne out of efforts to discuss Ukraine assistance and production cooperation opportunities. “What we’re doing in…