The Department of Defense is redirecting approximately $1.5 billion in funds allocated for several defense programs toward the Trump administration’s plan to construct 80 additional miles of border wall, The Washington Post reported Sunday. The funds will come from the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile and surveillance plane program called Airborne Warning and Control System, according to a DoD document obtained by the Post.

“The funds were drawn from a variety of sources, including cost savings, programmatic changes and revised requirements,” DoD said in a statement Friday.

The Pentagon will also shift funds from a “space test experiment” with the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency, two “overseas contingency operations” accounts, the department’s Blended Retirement System and savings from Hellfire and air-launched cruise missiles, according to the document.

Ellen Lord, undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment at the Department of Defense, said she approved a new program that “will convene trusted sources of private capital with innovative companies critical to defense industrial base and national security.”

Lord, a 2019 Wash100 winner, said Friday in a press briefing the Trusted Capital Marketplace is a public-private partnership that seeks to launch a pilot program that will help small- and medium-sized firms produce “emerging defense and commercial technologies.”

“The first step is to set up a website infrastructure to bring providers of trusted capital together with businesses looking for capital infusions,” she noted. “I’m constrained legally from introducing one company to one venture capitalist, for instance.  However, what we can do is segment the marketplace and then put in companies that need capital infusions that we think have critical technology for us.”

She said the Pentagon issued two weeks ago a request for proposals through an other transaction authority to look for a website provider and has identified at least 50 companies that could participate in the pilot program, which is expected to be launched in July.

Lord also mentioned the program’s potential benefits to small firms.

“So a lot of these companies are small, innovative companies that, frankly, don’t either have the resources or the sophistication in terms of the contacts to reach sources of capital,” she said. “And what we’re trying to do is enable that so that they don’t have to, frankly, go through a lot of time and expense with legal firms to try to ferret out who is out there.”

The Department of Defense is supporting a national effort to prevent the spread of diseases across the U.S. and allied countries. The government’s 2019 Global Health Security Strategy aims to foster international collaboration with foreign nations and organizations to avert and address disease outbreaks, DoD said Thursday. 

The strategy highlights the country’s intended health security efforts including boosted international support and homeland resiliency against infectious diseases.

“The Department of Defense is pleased to be a part of the U.S. government’s strong commitment to global health security and the global health security agenda,” said Lt. Col. Carla Gleason, a DoD spokesperson.

The U.S. Marine Corps received a new task to lead a global mission to deter operations of terrorist groups in the cyberspace, Fifth Domain reported Thursday. 

Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace Command leads the Joint Task Force-Ares mission, which launches cyber counter-offensive operations against the Islamic State group. Maj. Gen. Matthew Glavy, commander of MARFORCYBER, said the command is coordinating efforts with the Central Command and the Operation Inherent Resolve as part of the task force. 

MARFORCYBER also took on the lead to provide planning, targeting, intelligence and cyber capabilities for combatant commands under the Joint Force Headquarters-Cyber. The new Joint Force Headquarters-Cyber Marines assists the Special Operations Command in counterterrorism operations, including disrupting the financial, messaging and networks of terrorists.

Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Pentagon should continue investting in new technologies, particularly artificial intelligence, quantum computing and directed energy weapons, to retain U.S. dominance across all domains, National Defense Magazine reported Thursday. Dunford said that the U.S. is in a great power competition with Russia and China, which both are investing in weapons to undermine the ability to project power and operate across domains.

“I’m confident that today, the United States can deter a nuclear war. I’m confident today that we can protect the homeland and I’m confident today that we have a competitive advantage over any potential adversary,” he said in an interview with National Defense Industrial Association CEO Hawk Carlisle and National Defense Magazine Managing Editor Jon Harper.

Dunford said the Department of Defense hopes to secure funding for fiscal year 2020 to help the military sustain the competitive advantage in land, sea, air, space and cyber domains. He noted the funding should prioritize space and cyberspace as it is now critical to establish superiority in the electromagnetic spectrum. Partnerships with the private sector is also another area that DoD should put more attention, the general said. 

“It’s impossible for me to imagine … us maintaining a competitive advantage in the future unless we have a very unique and close relationship with industry,” he said. 

Dunford has been recognized with NDIA’s Dwight D. Eisenhower Award for efforts to increase public awareness of the U.S. national defense.