Air Force Gen. John Hyten, head of the U.S. Strategic Command, has listed three near-term goals that the Defense Department needs to achieve in space programs, Space News reported Tuesday.

Hyten, a 2018 Wash100 inductee, told Space News in an interview that DoD needs to bring down launch costs to less than $100 million.

He added that recent contract awards show a decrease in space launch rates, but they have yet to reach the desired cost level.

The U.S. military also needs to shorten the development timelines for satellites to three to five years, Hyten stated.

The Stratcom commander noted that commercial satellite makers have achieved those short timelines, but the military is “not there yet.”

Hyten said the third goal is to build modular spacecraft that can accommodate the integration of new payloads.

President Donald Trump looks to deploy U.S. troops to help the country’s border with Mexico, DoD News reported Tuesday.

“Until we can have a wall and proper security, we’re going to be guarding our border with the military,” he said Tuesday at a meeting with the presidents of the three Baltic countries.

Trump also told reporters during a follow-on news conference that he is considering withdrawing U.S. forces from Syria, where nearly 2,000 service members help fight against Islamic State militants.

The Defense Department intends to shut down the F-35 program office and have each service branch oversee their own offices for the fighter jet program, Defense News reported Tuesday.

Ellen Lord, defense undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment, wrote a letter to Congress outlining nine near-term actions that seek to advance the establishment of F-35 program offices specific to the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, including the appointment of service deputies and development of a plan for the implementation of fleet management offices.

“In order to effectively integrate and sustain the F-35 in the joint force, the military departments must have more direct ownership of the F-35 program and leverage organic capabilities, processes and infrastructure,” Lord, a 2018 Wash100 recipient, noted in the March 27 letter initially obtained by Inside Defense.

DoD intends for the Air Force to manage an F-35A office and for the Navy and Marine Corps to oversee the F-35B/C offices, according to the letter.

Cmdr. Patrick Evans, a spokesman for DoD, told the publication that the Pentagon plans to set up a plan to move F-35 management to service-run offices over the next year and execute such a transition through three phases.

The U.S. Air Force is sending five CV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft to a military air base in Tokyo earlier than previously anticipated.

U.S. Forces Japan said Tuesday the CV-22 units, built by Bell-Boeing, will arrive at Yokota Air Base later this week as part of the branch’s efforts to help address regional security concerns within the Pacific Command’s area of responsibility and comply with the 2018 National Defense Strategy.

USAF originally planned to deploy the aircraft to the installation sometime in 2020.

Ospreys will also support training around the region in the coming months and disaster response efforts.

The branch plans to send more training support personnel there and an additional five aircraft as part of a phased-basing effort, USFJ noted.

CV-22 integrates a helicopter’s vertical flight capacity with the range and speed of a fixed-wing plane.

The Defense Department has chosen 24 multidisciplinary research projects to receive a total of $169 million in funds under a grant program for U.S. universities.

DoD said Monday the research teams will perform work under the 2018 Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative over a five-year period, subject to research progress and funding availability.

“MURI supports research by funding teams of investigators that include more than one traditional science and engineering discipline in order to accelerate the research progress,” said Dale Ormond, principal director for research in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.

Ormond added that the program also aids the education and training of graduate students in “cutting-edge” research areas.

The respective research offices of the U.S. Air Force, Army and Navy solicited proposals across 24 topic areas relevant to the U.S. military, receiving 436 responses in total.

A panel of DoD experts selected the 24 research proposals, which could involve 64 U.S. academic institutions.

Australia funded research teams to partner with two U.S. MURI teams as part of an effort to boost alliances and increase collaborations.

Previous MURI initiatives included the fabrication of nanoscale and microscale structures; the use of vision algorithms with sensors to build low-power, low-latency and compact vision systems; and the development of fully optical data control and switching systems, among others.