Adm. Philip Davidson, head of the U.S. Fleet Forces Command, has been nominated for assignment as commander of the U.S. Pacific Command and for reappointment to the rank of admiral.

President Donald Trump’s nomination of Davidson was announced by Defense Secretary James Mattis in a Defense Department press release issued Tuesday.

Davidson assumed his current role for the U.S. Northern Command’s Naval Forces on Dec. 19, 2014 after his concurrent service as the commander of the U.S. 6th Fleet and NATO’s Naval Striking and Support Forces and as the deputy commander of the regional U.S. Naval Forces in Europe and Africa.

His command experience includes assignments to the Carrier Strike Group 8/Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group, the USS Gettysburg (CG 64) and the USS Taylor (FFG 50).

His service on land includes roles as director of maritime operations for the U.S. Fleet Forces Command, as the senior military adviser to the State Department‘s Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan and as deputy director for strategy and policy for the Joint Staff/J-5.

Earlier in his career, Davidson served on multiple staff tours of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Navy and the Joint Staff under the policy, strategy and operations billets and was the service branch’s military aide to the vice president.

Davidson’s naval career includes global deployment onboard aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers and frigates.

Capt. Jeff Dodge, manager of the U.S. Navy‘s Fire Scout program, has said the Northrop Grumman-built MQ-8C unmanned helicopter is scheduled to reach initial operational capability status by the end of the year.

Dodge added the development of MQ-8C, which is slated to undergo initial operational test and evaluation this month, builds on the MQ-8B deployment history, the Navy reported Tuesday.

The service branch also seeks to demonstrate the new helicopter’s capacity to integrate with the Link 16 data network and deliver target data to airborne weapons in real time.

Capt. Dan Mackin, manager of the Navy’s Triton program, said the branch will deploy its unmanned MQ-4C unmanned aircraft system to Guam later this year as part of an early operational capability effort.

MQ-4C, also built by Northrop, will continuously operate from five orbits to support intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions.

The Navy has conducted Triton operational test flights at Naval Air Station in Patuxent River, Maryland, over the past two months and said it plans to transfer test activities to NAS Point Mogu in California soon.

President Trump has nominated U.S. Air Force Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy to be commander of the U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

The Defense Department said TuesdayO’Shaughnessy currently leads the Pacific Air Forces and serves as air component commander at the U.S. Pacific Command and executive director of the Pacific Air Combat Operations Staff.

He assumed these roles in July 2016 after he previously served as deputy commander of United Nations Command Korea and U.S. Forces Korea, as well as air component command leader at the South Korea/U.S. Combined Forces Command and head of the 7th Air Force in South Korea.

O’Shaughnessy’s also helped shape the Defense Department‘s regional planning and policy within Asia-Pacific and Central Asian regions during his tenure as deputy director at Joint Staff J5 for politico-military affairs in Asia.

He logged more than 3,000 flight hours with the F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft.

U.S. Army Brig. Gen. John Laskodi, commanding general of the Defense Logistics Agency‘s Distribution unit, will serve as the next commanding general of the Joint Munitions and Lethality Life Cycle Management Command by summer.

The JM&L LCMC coordinates the Program Executive Office for Ammunition and the Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center with the Joint Munitions Command, DLA said Monday.

Laskodi enlisted in the Army in 1982 as a combat engineer and rose to the rank of sergeant.

His career includes command assignments for the 402nd Army Field Support Brigade in Iraq at the conclusion of Operation New Dawn, the 189th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion in Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom VII, the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Detachment of the 1st U.S. Army Support Battalion in Egypt and the 38th Ordnance Detachment in Kuwait for Operation Desert Storm.

He served the Department of the Army as director of strategy, plans and integration for the Office of the Deputy Chief of staff G-4; the Army Materiel Command as the deputy chief of staff then as the director for the Commanding General’s Initiatives Group and the Army’s Human Resources Command as chief of the Enlisted Ordnance Branch.

He was deployed with the NATO Training Mission-Iraq as G4, logistics operations officer for the organization’s Allied Land Component Command (Madrid).

His assignment to the 561st Corps Support Battalion included service as support operations officer then as the battalion executive officer and deployments for Operation Enduring Freedom I in Southwest Asia and for the Operation Iraqi Freedom I with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).

Laskodi also served as group maintenance officer for the 101st Corps Support Group, as S3 plans officer and group adjutant for the 45th Corps Support Group and as S2/3 for the 17th Corps Support Battalion.

Michael Griffin, undersecretary for research and engineering at the Defense Department, has said the U.S. should examine the potential advantages of artificial intelligence and consider integrating the technology into the national defense strategy, DoD News reported Monday.

He told audience at the New America Future of War Conference held Monday he believes that AI can help the country prepare for warfare missions in the cyber domain.

“We don’t have a mature adult in front of us in [artificial intelligence]; we have an infant,” said Griffin, a 2018 Wash100 recipient.

“But we can conclude that there might be some real advantages, and we can’t let others be the only one to mine those advantages.”

Several DoD, academic and industry professionals discussed security and defense matters during the conference hosted by Washington, D.C.-based think tank New America and Arizona State University.