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.

Heather Wilson, U.S. Air Force secretary, has told the congressional armed services committee the service branch aims to open a three-star vice commander of the Air Force Space Command position to help the U.S. Space Command oversee space-related operations, Space News reported Tuesday.

The move will support broader Air Force plans to meet requirements under a legislative mandate to prioritize space activities on the service branch’s agenda.

The selected candidate will be based in Washington, D.C. and tasked to help the Air Force Space Command equip, organize and train space forces.

Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said the committee will observe how the Air Force implements National Defense Authorization Act provisions related to space management.

Congress nixed previous plans to establish a three-star deputy chief of staff for space operations post in the 2018 NDAA and members of the House Armed Services Committee’s strategic forces subcommittee pushed for space forces to have autonomy within the Air Force.

The U.S. Navy will modify the number of mission equipment that the service branch plans to buy for the Freedom– and Independence-class littoral combat ships in the fiscal year 2019 budget, Defense News reported Tuesday.

Capt. Ted Zobel, LCS mission module program manager, told reporters that the Navy will unveil changes to the planned acquisition of three LCS mission modules during the release of the FY 2019 budget request.

Zobel did not specify which mission modules would be increased or lessened, but stated that the changes resulted from the Navy’s decision to acquire 32 LCS instead of 55 and to install semi-permanent mission equipment instead of fielding interchangeable packages as originally planned.

The three mission modules are comprised of weapons, sensors and unmanned systems meant to support surface warfare, mine countermeasures and anti-submarine warfare, the report noted.

Lockheed Martin leads work on the Freedom-class LCS, while an Austal USA-led team builds the Independence variant ships.

Teams from the U.S. Army have completed training for a new weapon system as part of the Atlantic Resolve effort that aims to rotate troops within the European theater to protect NATO allies within the region.

The Army said Tuesday the teams underwent 40 hours of training on using the Javelin system through a computer-based basic skills trainer that allows for virtual practice sessions without the use of actual munitions.

The trainer system also enabled soldiers to experience using the Javelin in simulated environments representing current locations in Europe.

The sessions included misfire and malfunction scenarios to evaluate the soldiers’ capacities to react and address such problems.

Jointly developed by Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, the Javelin was designed as a shoulder-fired anti-armor weapon built with a self-guiding tracking system and the capacity to fire at ranges covering thousands of meters.

The weapon was made to be used against armored vehicles, tanks, caves and bunkers.