Vice Adm. Mathias Winter, head of the F-35 joint program office, has said he forecasts that another continuing resolution could slow down the development and testing of F-35 fighter aircraft beginning April 2018, Defense News reported.

Winter told reporters at a Defense News-hosted conference the F-35 program will remain on track until December even under the current stopgap funding measure, but he noted the program would need to request additional funds in January to maintain the pace of activities.

“Right now, based upon the current plan, we should see no major impact until the April time frame,” Winter said.

“We’ll be on track as we’re executing through December. In January, we’ll see where we are.”

Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) said at the same forum that Congress will likely pass a continuing resolution to fund government operations until December.

The Government Accountability Office has stated that the Defense Department must continue efforts to mitigate issues related to persistent maintenance, training and readiness of the U.S. Navy fleet.

GAO said in a report published Thursday that the Navy currently faces issues related to the manning, training and maintenance of its fleet, issues that are hindering plans to grow the naval arsenal by up to 30 percent.

The government watchdog agency listed points of concern regarding the naval fleet covering the potential degrading ship readiness of vessels deployed overseas and the lack of a capacity to perform maintenance operations within a given schedule.

The report added that the Navy’s move to reduce crew sizes may also lead to safety risks and sailors being overworked.

GAO has made recommendations on the assessment of risks related to overseas basing, planning and sustained management, sailor workload and ship crew sizing strategies.

U.S. Navy Secretary Richard Spencer has said that military service will meet with several companies to obtain insights into how the private sector responds to disasters as part of a strategic readiness review on the branch’s operational safety procedures, Defense News reported Wednesday.

Spencer added the Navy wants to work with B.P., Crowley Maritime and other ship operators that had dealt with disasters at sea in efforts to avoid fatal collisions.

The service branch started to review its disaster response procedures following separate USS Fitzgerald and USS John S. McCain collisions that happened in the summer.

DoD Buzz reported Wednesday that Spencer and other Navy officials also want to gather input from Boeing, Maersk and the Sandia National Laboratories on how to rebuild after a major disaster and safety crisis.

“We’re going to [look at] this as best practices for people who have come out the other side,” said Spencer.

“We really do expect this to be a learning experience as we’re set to go forward.”

Dawn Meyerriecks, CIA deputy director for science and technology, has said she aims to increase government leaders’ confidence in artificial intelligence-aided analysis, Defense One reported Wednesday.

Meyerriecks told the audience at the Intelligence and National Security Summit that there is a need to convince leaders, including the president, to accept intelligence gathered through AI platforms.

“One of the things that’s a challenge for the current AI community, one of the things I’m positive will get addressed, is… you can’t go to leadership and make a recommendation based on a process that no one understands,” she noted.

Meyerriecks added that CIA currently has 137 artificial intelligence-related pilot projects, including tools that automatically tag objects in videos as well as platforms that predict events using big data and correlational evidence.