The Defense Department has chosen 24 multidisciplinary research projects to receive a total of $169 million in funds under a grant program for U.S. universities.

DoD said Monday the research teams will perform work under the 2018 Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative over a five-year period, subject to research progress and funding availability.

“MURI supports research by funding teams of investigators that include more than one traditional science and engineering discipline in order to accelerate the research progress,” said Dale Ormond, principal director for research in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.

Ormond added that the program also aids the education and training of graduate students in “cutting-edge” research areas.

The respective research offices of the U.S. Air Force, Army and Navy solicited proposals across 24 topic areas relevant to the U.S. military, receiving 436 responses in total.

A panel of DoD experts selected the 24 research proposals, which could involve 64 U.S. academic institutions.

Australia funded research teams to partner with two U.S. MURI teams as part of an effort to boost alliances and increase collaborations.

Previous MURI initiatives included the fabrication of nanoscale and microscale structures; the use of vision algorithms with sensors to build low-power, low-latency and compact vision systems; and the development of fully optical data control and switching systems, among others.

The Defense Logistics Agency and the U.S. Transportation Command launched on Feb. 12 a follow-on contract to the Defense Transportation Coordination Initiative.

DLA said Monday the launch of the Defense Freight Transportation Services contract came six years after the agency’s distribution division and headquarters transportation policy started to work with Transcom to draft the performance work statement and move the contract to the source selection process.

Sherri Troup, head of distribution transportation operations at DLA, noted about the changes in the DFTS contract.

“All eligible freight not covered under other contracts is included as well as visibility of pricing, which are both features not included in the previous contract,” Troup said.

DLA and the Defense Contract Management Agency have become the primary users of the DFTS contract, which also offers a three-tier pricing strategy and tracking of key performance indicators.

DTCI was introduced in 2008 to allow commercial third-party vendors to coordinate and manage transportation requirements in order to facilitate shipments across the Defense Department.

The U.S. Army has assembled two Security Force Assistance Brigades and requested funds to establish an additional three SFABs next fiscal year, Stars and Stripes reported Sunday.

Each unit will perform the bulk of Defense Department missions to advise, train and assist partner forces who conduct traditional ground operations.

“There will always be a need to help build allied or partnered forces, so the SFABs can take on that mission, which is far better than us doing it with our combat brigade soldiers,” Army Secretary Mark Esper, a 2018 Wash100 recipient, was quoted as saying by Stars and Stripes.

Esper told the publication that forming new units will allow 58 of the service branch’s brigade combat teams to focus on combat readiness efforts.

The first SAFB has started passing on its lessons learned in training Afghan troops to the second SAFB, which the Army deployed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina in January.

Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan has said that the Defense Department focused on the execution of the National Defense Strategy in March, DoD News reported Thursday.

Shanahan told the audience at an event hosted by the Center for a New American Security that his first execution priority is to move forward with military readiness efforts to help ensure that DoD officials are spending money properly.

The second execution priority is to address risks facing programs of record to complete projects ahead of schedule and within budget, Shanahan added.

He noted that the third and most important execution priority is to accelerate modernization.

DoD officials are also working to reform the department’s business processes and research and development strategy, Shanahan said.

The department is taking a “rip off and deploy” approach, which involves the adoption of concepts that already exist in the private sector.