Leslie Smith, recently-tasked as 66th inspector general of the U.S. Army, has been promoted to lieutenant general during a ceremony conducted Feb. 9 at Fort McNair, Washington, D.C.

With this, Smith replaces David Quantock who has stepped down from the role in February after years of service since December 2014, the Army said Wednesday.

Gen. Mark Milley, Army chief of staff, administered the ceremony that had soldiers and Smith’s family and friends in attendance.

Milley gave recognition to past officers who precede Smith, and also noted that the latter was among the few, out of over 6,000 second lieutenants, to have reached the rank of general officer.

Smith expressed his gratitude for the people in his life, as well as peers and officers within the Army, who have influenced his values and work as a commissioned officer.

The U.S. Army wants contractors to deliver prototypes of the service branch’s future robotic, optionally-manned combat vehicles by 2019, Breaking Defense reported Thursday.

Brig. Gen. David Lesperance, head of the Army’s Cross-Functional Team on future ground vehicles, told reporters that defense contractors and “non-traditional companies” are currently developing concepts for the Next-Generation Combat Vehicle.

Lesperance added that NGCV program performers will conduct experimentation, modeling and simulation in the next six to 12 months.

He noted that he wants NGCV experimental prototypes to enter shakedown tests in 2019, then undergo full field tests with an operational combat unit in 2020.

The Army will gather soldiers’ feedback and refine the vehicle design before conducting a second round of field tests in 2022 and a third in 2024.

The new NGCV timeline is two years ahead of the original program schedule.

Lesperance said the new combat vehicles are designed to feature less weight and size than current platforms, as well as showcase optimized performance for urban combat.

Steven Walker, director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has said that his investment priorities for DARPA are aligned with President Donald Trump’s National Security Strategy and Defense Secretary James Mattis’ National Defense Strategy, DoD News reported Thursday.

Walker, a 2018 Wash100 recipient, told House Armed Services Committee members at a hearing Wednesday that his first priority is to develop technologies in the areas of cybersecurity, biosecurity and defense against weapons of mass destruction.

He added that DARPA’s second investment priority is to stay ahead of peer competitors in Europe and Asia.

“The [United States] can no longer be dominant across all scenarios, but it needs to be highly lethal in select ones.”

The DARPA director noted that the U.S. military needs to obtain new technologies across physical, space and electromagnetic spectrum domains.

DARPA’s third priority is to effectively complete global stabilization efforts and the fourth is to continue research in science and technology.

Lt. Gen. Paul Nakasone, the White House’s nominee to head the National Security Agency and the U.S. Cyber Command, has said he plans to prioritize talent recruitment and retention efforts and continue to assess control mechanisms to protect networks from cyber threats once confirmed, DoD News reported Thursday.

“My intent is to look to ensure the security of the enterprise and the security of the network initiatives that NSA has undertaken to date are timely, are accurate, are on target to ensure that we continue to have the safeguard of our national treasures,” Nakasone, commander of the Army Cybercom, said Thursday during his Senate confirmation hearing.

He cited the significance of public-private partnerships in the advancement and implementation of new technologies that work to address security risks.

“If confirmed, I know that a strong public-private partnership will be needed to ensure this country benefits from the leading-edge technology being developed and implemented today and into the future,” Nakasone, a 2018 Wash100 recipient, told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Heather Wilson, secretary of the U.S. Air Force, has said the military branch’s fiscal year 2019 budget request will support efforts to boost space systems security and shift to multi-domain operations.

Wilson, a 2018 Wash100 inductee, told the House appropriations committee that the proposed $156.3 billion budget will help deter threat actors that seek to inhibit the Air Force’s space operations, the service branch said Wednesday.

The FY 2019 budget will also fund changes in the Air Force’s battlefield command, control and communications processes, Wilson added.

She noted that the Air Force will continue to prioritize force readiness.

The budget request includes funds to expand pilot training; address experience shortfalls; provide incentive pay and bonuses; optimize administrative support at the squadron level; and support flying hours to executable levels.

The proposed funding will also fill gaps in space, nuclear, cyber and intelligence career fields, as well as aid the Air Force’s air-to-ground integration force.

The U.S. Air Force and NATO have partnered to deal with pilot shortage, a problem that other NATO members have also been experiencing.

The Joint Jet Pilot Training program’s Steering Committee conducted a study on the matter, and found that the shortage of usable pilots stems from the lack of instructors and available simulators, among other reasons, the Air Force said Wednesday.

The study focused on the capacities and limitations of courses with the T-6A Texan II and T-38C Talon trainers, as well as fundamental courses under the program that aim to address the pilot training needs of NATO partners.

The committee observed that limits in instructors and simulators prevent the program from increasing the number of participants able to undergo training, which leads to a shortage in mission-ready pilots.

Col. Andrea Themely, commander of the 80th Flying Training Wing, stated that the maintenance cost for the T-38C continues to go up, and that the arrival date of the new T-X trainer to Sheppard Air Force Base has not yet been decided.

She added that Sheppard AFB should be given priority for the new trainers, as the base holds the largest T-38 fleet within the Air Education and Training Command, and is home to the service’s sole fighter-centric flight training program.

“Almost 50 percent of the total U.S. Air Force students that fly fighters come from Sheppard Air Force Base,” she said.

“This is the only fighter training pipeline for our partners from Germany, Norway, the Netherlands and Denmark,” she added.

The T-X is being developed to replace the T-38 for flight training exercises.