Will Roper, the Trump administration’s nominee for the U.S. Air Force assistant secretary for acquisition role, has said he plans to find ways on how to reduce the F-35 aircraft’s sustainment costs once confirmed, Defense News reported Thursday.

“If I get confirmed, one of the first things I want to look at is the sustainment plan to make sure that there are not optimistic assumptions for this confluence of events that all happen together to get the price down,” Roper told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee during his confirmation hearing Thursday.

He noted that failure to manage sustainment costs could result in a “bow wave” that could potentially prompt the service branch to block F-35 upgrades, look at force structure or expand inventory through procurement of more fighter jets.

Roper, who currently serves as director of the Defense Department’s strategic capabilities office, said he intends to subject the F-35 program to an in-depth analysis that seeks to identify emerging technology platforms and industry practices that could help reduce the aircraft’s sustainment costs, the report added.

The U.S. Marine Corps‘ F-35B fighter aircraft will deploy onboard the U.S. Navy‘s USS Wasp amphibious assault ship to support slated regional patrol missions.

The Wasp vessel, which will replace USS Bonhomme Richard as the 7th fleet’s forward-deployed amphibious assault ship, has been equipped with capacities required to land and launch the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter, the Navy said Saturday.

Capt. Colby Howard, commanding officer of USS Wasp, said the ship is ready to perform various military missions that range from crisis response to disaster relief alongside its F-35B companion.

Expeditionary Strike Group 7, which consists of USS Wasp and other amphibious vessels, will team up with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit to serve as an on-call crisis response force in the Pacific region.

Wasp departed from Norfolk, Virginia in August then headed to the Caribbean to aid areas in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Dominica that were struck by Hurrican Irma.

The crew also assisted Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria which was dubbed as the worst natural disaster recorded in the American commonwealth island’s history.

The U.S. Marine Corps‘ Warfighting Laboratory/Futures Directorate has signed a two-year agreement with MD5, the Defense Department‘s technology accelerator for national security, to form group that will serve as adversaries in Marine experiments.

USMC said Wednesday the Adaptive Threat Force will be formed to challenge experimental Marines teams with situations that require adaptive thinking and response.

“Through this agreement, MD5 will create experimental security threats to the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory to test the lab’s readiness when it comes to future security threats,” said MD5 Director Morgan Plummer.

Lt. Col. Dan Schmitt, field testing branch head for the MCWL/FD’s experiment division, said that mimicry of a real potential adversary is required in order to test the performance of future technologies and concepts.

The Pentagon established MD5 to support the establishment of technology-based ventures that will work to help address the government’s national security, economic, security and social goals.

The U.S. military continues to train local security forces in Syria as part of efforts to stop activities of the Islamic State militant organization, facilitate stabilization and meet campaign objectives in the region.

Syrian security forces are tasked to prevent members of the militant group from escaping the country, integrate local security in liberated areas, protect the population and eliminate potential threats to allies and partners, the Defense Department said Wednesday.

The U.S. and its global coalition allies continue to pursue a shared commitment to destroy the Islamic State militant group and re-stabilize Syrian territories.

DoD also acknowledged security concerns from NATO ally Turkey and assured the U.S. will be transparent about ongoing counterterrorism efforts in Syria.

The Food and Drug Administration and the Defense Department have kicked off a joint program to speed up the development and availability of emergency medical products for the U.S. military.

FDA said Tuesday the program’s framework was established through a bill, which authorized DoD to request the accelerated development and evaluation of medical products meant to diagnose, treat or prevent life-threatening conditions affecting U.S. service members.

“The FDA is fully committed to working closely with our federal partners in the DoD to expedite availability of medical products essential to the health of our military service members, particularly those products used to treat injuries in battlefield settings,” said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb.

FDA will work with the office of the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs to gain a better understanding of deployed personnel’s medical needs and fast-track the review of DoD’s priority medical products.

The agency will also provide technical advice to DoD’s Health Affairs office to support the rapid production of medical goods for the military, as well as identify opportunities to accelerate the availability of products that are under development.

FDA and Health Affairs will host one or more workshops this year to discuss the scientific and clinical development of products that are crucial to servicemen’s health.

Findings from the workshop will help FDA create a guidance document for commercial product developers that seek to fulfill the urgent medical needs of the U.S. military.

The program’s first phase will be carried out by Health Affairs and FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research and will address DoD’s high-priority need for biological products such as freeze-dried plasma, cold-stored platelets and cryopreserved platelets.