Dana Deasy, chief information officer of the Defense Department, discussed his plans to pursue innovation and collaboration for DoD’s information technology initiatives under the National Defense Strategy.

He told members of the DoD IT community at the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association’s Defensive Cyber Operations Symposium Wednesday in Baltimore about his priority, the Defense Information Systems Agency said Friday.

“The three tenets are lethality, alliances, and reform,” Deasy said, advising the community to align efforts with the DoD mission through the National Defense Strategy.

He added that he seeks innovation in the fields of cyber, cloud, IT environment and approaches to data integration such as artificial intelligence, big data and machine learning.

Deasy, who was named CIO of DoD in April and formally assumed the role on May 7 after his tenure with JPMorgan Chase, also noted the value of IT collaboration with other federal organizations, the industry and academia.

Maj. Gen. Loretta Reynolds, commander of the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Cyber Command, has been nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as deputy commandant for information and commander of the Marine Corps Forces Strategic Command.

Trump also endorsed Reynolds for promotion to the rank of lieutenant general, Defense Secretary James Mattis announced in a Defense Department news release published Friday.

C4ISRNET reported that Reynolds is set to succeed Lt. Gen. Daniel O’Donohue, who is due to transition to the Joint Staff in a new position.

The Marine Corps formed the deputy commandant for information role in the summer of 2017 in an effort to align cyber, electronic warfare, signals intelligence and other information-related capability through a single structure.

Reynolds previously served as commander of the I Marine Expeditionary Force Headquarters Group and commanding general of the Marine Corps Recruit Depot/Eastern Recruiting Region at Parris Island in South Carolina.

The 32-year Marine Corps veteran also served as an acquisition project officer at the Marine Corps Systems Command and principal director under the office of the defense undersecretary for the Asia and Pacific.

A fiscal 2019 defense appropriations bill crafted by the House Armed Services Committee contains language that would require a Defense Department component to manage commercially hosted payloads, SpaceNews reported Wednesday.

Rep. Donald Norcross, D-N.J., introduced the language as amendment to the panel’s version of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act.

The amendment calls for DoD and U.S. Air Force leaders to assign an office that would coordinate processes, data and lessons learned concerning the use of hosted payload services from industry.

Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told SpaceNews he believes industry offers multiple opportunities for military services to increase payload capacity and resiliency.

The report said some commercial satellite operators view national security payloads as a potential business opportunity that can also work to help address a military requirement.

The U.S. Navy has conducted a live-fire missile exercise with USS Milwaukee, concluding the first phase of the surface-to-surface missile module developmental testing under the Littoral Combat Ship Mission Modules program.

The Freedom variant LCS launched four longbow Hellfire missiles to inshore craft targets in a simulated complex warfighting scenario, during the test that took place Friday off the coast of Virginia, the Navy said Wednesday.

The ship’s crew made use of radars and various systems to detect the missiles’ targets.

The exercise also marks the first LCS-based integrated firing of an SSMM. The Navy expects to field and achieve initial operational capability of the SSMM in 2019.

Shawn Johnston, captain of LCS Squadron Two, stated that the SSMM testing’s next phase will be performed with the USS Detroit LCS.