The U.S. Air Force (USAF) will move to decommission 17 of its 62 B-1B Lancer bombers to pave the way for fleet modernization efforts and help maintainers focus more on each of the remaining 45 aircraft.

USAF said it will keep four of the B-1B planes that are set for retirement in Type 2000 storage to maintain aircraft systems in a reclaimable condition.

“Due to the wear and tear placed on the B-1 fleet over the past two decades, maintaining these bombers would cost 10s of millions of dollars per aircraft to get back to status quo," said Gen. Tim Ray, commander of the Air Force Global Strike Command.

Ray added that the branch has been preparing for the B-21 Raider deployment.

Northrop Grumman won the contract to build USAF's B-21 Long Range Strike Bomber in October 2015 and aims to roll out the first aircraft in early 2022.

A 2018 Congressional Budget Office report stated that the service was looking to buy up to 100 bombers at a total cost of $80 billion in 2016 dollars.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has published a planning guide meant to help public safety officials and first responders improve interoperable communications to address issues caused by changes to emergency communications landscape.

The Emergency Communication Technical Assistance guide for fiscal year 2021 covers workshops for Statewide Communication Interoperability Plan; awareness webinars on cybersecurity, alerts and warnings, and grants for emergency communications; and review and development of governance and standard operating procedure.

The guide builds on the National Emergency Communications Plan that was updated in 2019 to highlight needs for better emergency communications capabilities and for a strategic plan for interoperable communications.

Technology and infrastructure, communication coordination, planning and procedures, and cybersecurity are four of six strategic goals set by the NECP. The plan also gives emphasis on governance and leadership, and training, exercises and evaluation.

CISA's Interoperable Communications Technical Assistance Program created this year's TA/SCIP Guide.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has recommended that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) develop a policy to record the rationale for award decisions with regard to Countering Violent Extremism grant programs. 

DHS should also initiate steps to ensure that CVE grantees gather and submit project performance data to assess whether individual grant recipients and the overall program achieve the intended outcomes, GAO said in a report publicly released Friday.

DHS complied with the Office of Management and Budget guidance with regard to reviewing applications for its CVE grant program in 2016, but failed to document the rationale for its final award decisions.

“However, after DHS announced its selection of 31 applications for awards, it ran a new process resulting in revised selections, which was based on additional selection criteria not expressly listed in the grant announcement. While DHS officials explained to GAO how these additional criteria aligned with the grant announcement, these explanations do not appear in DHS's award documentation,” the report reads.

When it comes to data collection, the congressional watchdog found that the grant recipients did not gather the type of performance data DHS needed to assess the effectiveness of the grants.

President Biden said the U.S. remains committed to the transatlantic alliance and will work closely with partners in the European Union to address the shared security threats and other challenges, Military Times reported Friday.

“The transatlantic alliance is back. And we are not looking backward; we are looking forward, together,” Biden said Friday in a speech during the virtual Munich Security Conference. “The United States is fully committed to our NATO Alliance, and I welcome Europe’s growing investment in the military capabilities that enable our shared defense.”

He cited the role of the alliance in countering the Islamic State militant organization and the U.S. commitment to consulting with NATO allies when it comes to military missions in Afghanistan.

“We remain committed to ensuring that Afghanistan never again provides a base for terrorist attacks against the United States and our partners and our interests,” he added.

Biden said he has ordered to halt the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Germany and lift the cap on the number of U.S. forces that should be deployed to the European country.

In his speech, Biden highlighted the need to defend and strengthen democracy and the importance of transatlantic cooperation to address the threats posed by Russia, China and Iran.

He also cited the need to collaborate to address climate change by accelerating commitments to reduce emissions and strengthen global health systems to fight the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide and the resurgence of Ebola in Africa.

“We have to work together to strengthen and reform the World Health Organization. We need a U.N. system focused on biological threats that can move quickly to trigger action,” Biden added.