Thomas Modly, acting secretary of the U.S. Navy, said during a radio interview that he met with some professionals from both inside and outside the military service to develop recommendations for achieving the branch's 355-ship goal, Inside Defense reported Friday.

Modly told radio show host Hugh Hewitt he wants to provide fleet expansion ideas to Defense Secretary Mark Esper, a 2019 Wash100 Award recipient, according to the report.

The Navy aims to grow its fleet to 355 ships, including unmanned vessels, over a 10-year period.

The Air Force Research Laboratory hosted a two-day event in Dayton, Ohio, for military and industry  representatives to discuss research and development of sensing platforms designed to collect aviators'  physiological data.

More than 150 people from the U.S. Air Force, Navy and the private sector attended the Physiological Episodes Mitigation Technology Summit and Industry Day that took place at the Wright Brothers Institute’s Small Business Hub, USAF said Friday.

James Christensen, an AFRL team lead, said the service branch seeks to update or add a new technology via the Integrated Cockpit Sensing program.

“We are considering the needs of legacy platforms while also influencing early design of new aircraft to better accommodate sensing of the pilot’s physical state and ensure their ability to fly safely and accomplish the mission,” Christensen added.

USAF has observed a surge in physiological episodes, partly due to aging aircraft units, while the Navy has monitored PEs over the past decade.

Brig. Gen. Gregor Leist, lead for the Air Force Physiological Episodes Action Team, said both service branches share data on the matter.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) told Defense News in an interview published Friday that he will prioritize acquisition reform.

“I’m a big believer in competition and commercial off-the-shelf technology. We need to make sure we encourage as many competitors as possible,” Smith said. “I’m thinking of small businesses that might be intimidated by the bureaucracy and able to offer the ideas that they have, thus reducing the competition for goods and services that can help the military.”

He said he believes accelerating the decision-making process could help encourage competition.

Smith also discussed the need for a coherent strategy for national security and the need to focus on emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, hypersonics and quantum computing amid the threats posed by Russia and China.

He said he hopes to come up with a clear Democratic national security policy.  “The clearest declaration of what a Democratic national security policy would look like will come from two places: my committee, and whoever our eventual nominee is. And yes, I think it would be worth it to have that conversation,” Smith added.

Byron Callan, an analyst for Capital Alpha Partners, said he expects a widespread deployment of surface-to-air missile interceptors and precision-guided weapons amid tensions between the U.S. and Iran, Defense One reported Friday.

Callan told investors in a note that Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Aerojet Rocketdyne may benefit from the "immediate knee-jerk reaction" due to these companies' level of exposure in the weapons segment.

Roman Schweizer, an analyst for Cowen and Company, noted that the U.S. is likely to increase deployments to the Middle East and adds funds to the Pentagon's overseas contingency operations account in the wake of a major conflict.

The OCO account is exempt from the estimated $738B and $740B defense caps for fiscal years 2020 and 2021, respectively, according to the report.

Stocks in Lockheed, Northrop Grumman and L3Harris Technologies climbed Friday morning after the Department of Defense announced the death of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.