The Senate voted 81-7 Wednesday to confirm John Rood, formerly vice president for international sales at Lockheed Martin, as defense undersecretary for policy, Defense News reported Wednesday.

Rood will fill the third top civilian role at the Defense Department with responsibility over homeland defense, arms control, assessment of war plans, bilateral relations with allies, technologies and regional policies associated with combatant commands.

His confirmation came nearly three months after the Trump administration nominated him for the post.

Rood joined Lockheed in 2014 after time as VP for U.S. business development at Raytheon.

He has two decades of government experience at several federal agencies such as the departments of State and Defense, CIA and the National Security Council.

David Trachtenberg, who has been acting DoD undersecretary for policy since October, will transition to deputy role as a result of Rood’s confirmation, the report added.

The Defense Department has unveiled an award competition for industry-university teams to explore autonomous, sensing and mobility platforms as part of a new DoD pilot program.

DoD said Wednesday its Defense Enterprise Science Initiative program seeks to spur collaborative basic research efforts focused on end-use technology applications that can help address U.S. national defense and security challenges.

A basic research organization at the Pentagon’s Office of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering serves as DESI sponsor.

The department also partnered with the U.S. Air Force‘s Office of Scientific Research, the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Army Research Office to implement the initiative.

DoD’s broad agency announcement on the program can be found here.

U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Vincent Santiago, who currently serves at the 3rd Marine Division in Japan, has been appointed as first command senior enlisted leader for the Defense Security Cooperation Agency in Virginia.

The Office of the Senior Enlisted Adviser to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff announced Santiago’s new assignment in a press release published Wednesday on the  Defense Department website.

Hailing from Guam, Santiago joined the Marine Corps in September 1989 and elevated to private first class after he completed recruit training.

He was promoted to corporal and eventually placed in the 1st Marine Division in 1991.

In 1997, Santiago was transferred to Okinawa, Japan, where he served under the 3rd Maintenance Mattalion of the 3rd Force Service Support Group.

The sergeant major was appointed to his current post with the 3rd marine division in 2013.

Santiago received military awards such as the Marine Corps Achievement Medal with two gold stars and the Meritorious Service Medal with two gold stars.

President Donald Trump has announced plans to nominate Kevin Fahey, vice president of combat vehicles and armaments at Cypress International, as assistant secretary of defense for acquisition, the White House reported Wednesday.

Fahey joined Cypress in January 2016 and since then has overseen several focus areas at the Alexandria, Virginia-based consulting services firm that include acquisition and program management; ground combat and related support systems for the Defense Department; cyber; and Army portfolio.

Prior to Cypress, he previously worked at the office of the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology as executive director of systems engineering and integration.

He also held program executive roles for combat support, ammunition and ground combat systems in the U.S. Army.

Fahey is a recipient of numerous awards such as the Presidential Distinguished Rank Award and the Superior Civilian Service Award.

Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the U.S. government has received reports that North Korea might conduct another missile test, Reuters reported Tuesday.

Haley told reporters that tighter measures must be employed against North Korea if it launches a new missile.

She added that the U.S. government would not recognize talks between South and North Korea if they do not involve efforts to stop the nuclear weapons programs of the latter country.

“North Korea can talk to anyone they want, but the U.S. is not going to recognize it or acknowledge it until they agree to ban the nuclear weapons that they have,” Haley noted.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said in a speech on Monday that he is open to dialogue with South Korea, to which the latter responded with an offer for talks on Jan.9.

Vice Adm. Thomas Moore, head of the Naval Sea Systems Command, has said the service branch plans to hand over some maintenance work on submarines and aircraft carriers to smaller repair companies to help the Navy keep pace with increasing maintenance requirements, USNI News reported Tuesday.

“I think there’s an opportunity for us here to provide some stability to the private sector and then actually provide us a little more stability in the public yards to focus on the key work we need to get done,” Moore told the publication in a Dec. 18 interview.

“So we’re going to lean forward a little bit on trying to contract out more of this work to them on a regular basis rather than on an ad hoc basis.”

The Navy also seeks the help of larger shipbuilding firms such as Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding business and General Dynamics’ Electric Boat subsidiary to take over entire maintenance availabilities when it comes to carriers and submarines to help streamline workloads at public and private shipyards, he noted.