Defense Secretary James Mattis has said another continuing resolution would affect the Defense Department‘s modernization efforts since it would prevent the launch of new programs, Defense News reported.

Mattis told reporters Monday that a stopgap funding measure “creates unpredictability” and hampers DoD’s capacity to address new threats.

“We cannot start new programs, so where you’re trying to adjust to the changing character of warfare — electronic warfare, space issues, cyber issues, counter-[unmanned aircraft systems] efforts… we cannot start those new programs,” said Mattis, an inductee into Executive Mosaic‘s Wash100 for 2017.

He added that budget instability would also force industry to postpone technology development initiatives.

Congress might opt for a continuing resolution to prevent a government shutdown when fiscal year 2017 ends in September, the report noted.

The F-35 Joint Program Office has assigned a total of 16 software integration functions to the Air Force Sustainment Center and the U.S. Navy.

The U.S. Air Force said Wednesday its 402nd Software Maintenance Group at Robins Air Force Base and the Ogden Air Logistics Complex at Hill AFB will offer software sustainment services in support of the F-35 aircraft.

Vice Adm. Mat Winter, director of the Joint Strike Fighter program, also directed the Naval Air Systems Command and Air Force Materiel Command to plan activation of depots where both commands will help sustain F-35 software.

JPO asked AFMC and NAVAIR sustainment units along with their industry partners to submit initial implementation plans to the office within 180 days.

Winter said the plans must cover designations for specific centers of industrial and technical excellence as well as requirements for schedule and resource requirements.

The conventional takeoff-and-landing variant of the Lockheed Martin-built aircraft achieved an initial operating capability in August 2016.

The U.S. Navy plans to commission its first purpose-built expeditionary sea base at a ceremony that will take place at the Khalifa bin Salman Port in Al Hidd, Bahrain, on Thursday.

USNS Lewis B. Puller is built to replace interim afloat forward staging base USS Ponce and will be commanded by Navy Capt. Adan Cruz, the Defense Department said Wednesday.

General Dynamics‘ NASSCO subsidiary turned over the vessel to the service branch in June 2015 after the shipbuilder incorporated repair spaces, a flight deck, equipment, fuel storage and additional spaces for up to 250 service members.

T-ESB 3 will be the second ship to bear the name of Lt. Gen. Lewis Burwell Puller, who served in the military during World War II and the Korean War and received the Navy Cross on five separate occasions throughout his career with the U.S. Marine Corps.

DoD noted the floating base will help increase the service branch’s operational flexibility and support TF 51/5’s joint forces in efforts to mitigate potential threats within the 5th Fleet area of operations.

The Defense Department has delegated regional warehousing capability to Australia and the Netherlands as part of DoD’s F-35 Global Support Solution strategy.

Both countries will manage the international fighter program’s aviation inventory through warehouse and distribution facilities located across the European and Pacific regions, according to an article published Wednesday on Lockheed Martin‘s F-35 website.

“Our mission is to deliver and sustain an affordable, capable and combat-ready F-35 weapon system that provides the U.S. and International warfighters with a dominate battlefield advantage,” said Vice Adm. Mat Winter, F-35 Program Executive Officer.

“To do that successfully, the U.S. Services and our allies need to have the right parts delivered at the right time and having a solid warehousing plan helps to make it happen.”

DoD based the assignments on data the F-35 Joint Program Office collected from partner nations, foreign military sales customers and other industries.

Future assignments will cover the delivery of additional components, support equipment, full mission simulators, autonomic logistics information systems and maintenance training devices.

Defense Secretary James Mattis has said the White House is considering a proposal to boost the presence of private security contractors in Afghanistan in an effort to transition some of U.S. troops’ combat duties to such contractors, DoD Buzz reported Tuesday.

“It’s part of the options being considered,” Mattis, an inductee into Executive Mosaic’s Wash100 for 2017, told reporters Monday at the Pentagon.

“And the president’s open to the advice of the secretary of state, and myself and the director of the CIA,” he added.

The proposal was suggested by Erik Prince, a former Navy SEAL officer and founder of private security firm Blackwater that now runs as Academi, through a May 31 opinion piece published in The Wall Street Journal.

Prince also told USA Today his proposal would involve the deployment of 5,500 private contractors to Afghanistan to advise local forces and a 90-aircraft private air force to perform close air support missions.

The Government Accountability Office has found that the U.S. Air Force‘s oversight and acquisition programs for the Nuclear Command, Control and Communications system face challenges in meeting requirements in the long run.

GAO said in a report published Tuesday the Air Force expressed an awareness of NC3’s short-term sustainment needs but does not possess the resources to sustain the system’s long-term needs.

Four of the service branch’s eight NC3 acquisition programs have compressed schedules that may result in delay while two others have plans to immediately proceed with development without key systems engineering assessments that work to check feasibility and affordability, the government watchdog added.

The report noted that leaders of the NC3 program executive office indicated a commitment to review and modify acquisition strategies before they are finalized.

NC3 functions to ensure a connection between the president and the military’s nuclear forces in case of a nuclear event.