The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity plans to launch new research programs in 2018 to mitigate threats associated with biological weapons, FCW reported Friday.

IARPA Director Jason Matheny told FCW in an interview that advances in biotechnology present growth opportunities for medicine, agriculture, energy and materials, but could also lead to the creation of weapons of mass destruction.

The agency will conduct the Finding Engineering-Linked Indicators program, or FELIX, to help build tools that could detect whether an organism has been engineered for use in bioweapons.

IARPA will also carry out the Ithildin program, which seeks to develop a mechanism to detect the presence of harmful chemicals at minuscule levels.

Matheny noted that other IARPA initiatives will work to optimize encryption; build superconducting computers for hardware security; and support the use of proteins to identify individuals for law enforcement purposes.

Defense Secretary James Mattis has emphasized diplomatic efforts to help the country’s allies stop North Korean nuclear threats during a joint press conference with his South Korean counterpart Song Young-moo, DoD News reported Saturday.

He told reporters Friday at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii that he believes the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is a global threat that requires an international strategy to address the problem.

“Our response to this threat remains diplomacy led, backed up with military options available to ensure that our diplomats are understood to be speaking from a position of strength,” added Mattis, a 2018 Wash100 recipient.

He also noted that U.S. and South Korea support an “international economic pressure campaign” geared toward denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.

Officials at the four U.S. service branches have called on lawmakers to change federal law that governs officer promotions across the military.

Lt. Gen. Thomas Seamands, U.S. Army personnel chief, told the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee in a written testimony that the Defense Officer Personnel Management Act of 1980 limits the flexibility that the military needs to fill officer positions, the Army said Friday.

He noted that Army leaders are studying proposed changes for the Fiscal Year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act “to modernize the DOPMA to recruit, develop, promote and retain officers for today’s operational requirements.”

Vice Adm. Robert Burke, chief of U.S. Navy personnel, said that changes to DOPMA will help the Navy compete for talent and manage its workforce more effectively.

“Just as the scope and complexity of the warfighting challenges we face on the battlefield demand a different approach, so, too, does our approach to recruiting, developing, and retaining the kind of talented force we need to compete and win in this warfighting landscape,” said Burke.

Lt. Gen. Gina Grosso, U.S. Air Force deputy chief of staff for manpower, personnel and services, testified that the proposed DOPMA modernization will offer more flexibility to address human capital needs.

Lt. Gen. Michael Rocco, deputy commandant for manpower and reserve affairs at the U.S. Marine Corps, noted that the proposed reform will create incentives needed to recruit officers with “critical skills” in cyber, information warfare, electronic warfare, intelligence and robotics, among others.

The Defense Department’s strategic capabilities office plans to test-fire its hypervelocity projectile in less than a year, Breaking Defense reported Friday.

HVP costs approximately $86,000 per round and works to travel up to 5,600 miles per hour to target incoming threats.

“That projectile is being designed to engage multiple threats,” Vincent Sabio, HVP program manager at DoD’s SCO, said Thursday at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event.

“We need to be able to address (all) types of threats: subsonic, supersonic; sea-skimming, land-hugging; coming in from above and dropping down on top of us,” he added.

Sabio said the HVP round uses the U.S. Marine Corps’ ground/air task oriented radar system for long-range surveillance operations and a radar interferometer designed to provide a 360-degree fire control capability.

The projectile can be fired from the U.S. Army’s 155 mm howitzers and the U.S. Navy’s deck guns.

Sabio noted that Army howitzers’ barrel and muzzle brake components would require modifications to facilitate HVP launches.