Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan has said the Nuclear Posture Review is a “tailored nuclear deterrent strategy” that seeks to respond to current security needs and aims to reflect the country’s commitment to arms control and nonproliferation, DoD News reported Friday.

The NPR says the U.S. would only consider the deployment of nuclear weapons in the event of “significant non-nuclear strategic attacks” and other “extreme circumstances,” Shanahan said at a Pentagon press briefing with Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette and Thomas Shannon, undersecretary for political affairs at the State Department.

The document seeks to modernize the command-and-control system and the nuclear triad’s components that include submarine-launched ballistic missiles, ground-based intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear-based aircraft.

The U.S. has begun the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent program that seeks to replace Minuteman III missiles by 2029 and update 450 ICBM launch facilities to support the deployment of 400 ICBMs, according to the review.

The country has started an initiative to build and field the B-21 Raider bomber aircraft by mid-2020s as a replacement for the U.S. military’s B-2A Spirit and B-52H Stratofortress bombers.

The document also states the U.S. government’s plan to deploy 12 Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines to replace the fleet of 14 Ohio-class submarines.

The NPR’s release came two weeks after the Defense Department unveiled the National Defense Strategy and nearly two months after the Trump administration issued the National Security Strategy.

U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Nancy Norton has assumed her new roles as director of the Defense Information Systems Agency and commander of the Joint Force Headquarters-Department of Defense Information Network.

She succeeds U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Alan Lynn, who retired from military after a 38-year career, DISA said Thursday.

Norton, a 2018 Wash100 recipient, will lead DISA’s global organization of military, civilian and contractor personnel who help build and manage joint, interoperable, command and control systems as well as a global enterprise infrastructure.

She will also oversee and synchronize defensive cyberspace functions across the Defense Department in her commander position.

JFHQ-DoDIN is a component of the U.S. Cyber Command and reached full operational capability status Jan. 31.

The Defense Department on Thursday officially split the acquisition, technology and logistics office into two new units – defense undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment and undersecretary for research and engineering – as part of reorganization, Federal News Radio reported Thursday.

Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan wrote in a Wednesday memo the A&S office will oversee the Defense Logistics Agency; Defense Contract Management Agency; Defense Acquisition University; Defense Threat Reduction Agency; and the office of economic adjustment.

The R&E office will be responsible for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; Defense Innovation Unit Experimental; Defense Microelectronics Activity; DoD Test Resource Management Center; Defense Technical Information Center; and the Pentagon’s strategic capabilities office.

Shanahan also set a June 1 deadline for the submission of a plan on the realignment of authorities, staff and resources across the two offices and a proposal on how the office of strategy and design will act as a bridge between A&S and other defense components in the development of the national defense strategy and other strategic guidance.

Ben FitzGerald officially assumed his duties as director of OS&D on Jan. 2 weeks after his appointment.

Ellen Lord, defense undersecretary for A&S, told reporters Thursday that acquisition personnel will not experience any changes at this time.

“Current state is what it was yesterday… We have been very clear in saying we are not doing a big reduction in force or anything like that,” she noted.

Lord, a 2018 Wash100 recipient, said she will name a human resources lead to focus on talent acquisition and leadership development; hire a finance head; and appoint another executive to focus on software development processes in order to kick off her efforts.

Michael Griffin, the White House’s nominee for the R&D undersecretary role and a Wash100 recipient, is still awaiting Senate confirmation.

Maj. Gen. Clinton Crosier, director of operational capability requirements for the U.S. Air Force deputy chief of staff for strategic plans and requirements, has been appointed as director of warfighting integration capability within the same office, the Defense Department said Thursday.

In his current role, Crosier develops policy for operational capabilities-based requirements and oversees the creation of requirements documents for the approval of the Joint Requirements Oversight Council.

Crosier joined the Air Force in 1988 and has since assumed posts of increasing responsibility, such as director of plans and policy at the U.S. Strategic Command; deputy director of Stratcom’s global operations directorate; and director of strategic plans, programs, requirements and assessments at the Air Force Global Strike Command.

His experience spans intercontinental ballistic missile and space operations, including stints as director of space forces at the U.S. Central Command; commander of the 460th Space Wing; and space and missile adviser to the Secretary of the Air Force Action Group, among others.

Crosier holds a degree in aerospace engineering from Iowa State University, which he attended on an Air Force Reserve Officers’ Training Corps scholarship.

The U.S. Army has begun to deploy a lighter variant of its tactical network called the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical as part of a plan to field the on-the-move communications platform to priority light infantry units over the next years, Defense News reported Wednesday.

Paul Mehney, an Army spokesman, told Defense News that the WIN-T Tactical Communications Node-Lite and the Network Operations Security Center-Lite were delivered to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii.

TCN-L is designed to provide beyond-line-of-sight and high-bandwidth line-of-sight communications while on-the-move or at the halt, as well as support deployment at stationary command posts.

NOSC works to help soldiers manage and secure the tactical network.

The service branch conducted an operational test of TCN-L and NOSC at the Network Integration Evaluation event in July 2017, which yielded mostly positive soldier feedback, the report noted.

The Army is scheduled to stop the acquisition of the second increment of WIN-T by the end of fiscal year 2018 because the current network does not meet future warfighting requirements.

The U.S. Army aims to acquire and create new vertical lift aircraft variants for operations in the 2030s and beyond, Defense News reported Tuesday.

Future vertical lift was listed third among top modernization priorities when the Army stoop up a new command in the fall.

Brig. Gen. Frank Tate, director of Army aviation in the service branch’s Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Planning and Training, said the service branch looks to change its methods for acquiring assets such as vertical lift aircraft.

The report noted the Army developed a new concept on how it aims to acquire future helicopters along with technologies that can boost the capacities of the FVL.

Tate said the service branch will separate work for the procurement of aircraft airframe with work to create mission systems.

He suggested the Army to establish a digital backbone architecture for mission systems, software and hardware students in a similar way that apps are created for Apple and Samsung products.