The U.S. Air Force has conducted a sequenced bilateral mission alongside its counterparts from South Korea and Japan in response to North Korea’s recent ballistic missile and nuclear activities.

The service branch said Monday two of the Pacific Air Forces’ B-1B Lancer bombers joined F-2 and F-15 fighter jets of Japanese and South Korean air forces, respectively, to conduct intercept and formation training over a 10-hour mission.

North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile July 28 that landed in the Sea of Japan approximately 103 miles from the coast of Hokkaido, DoD News reported Monday.

Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters the combined missile launches exercises aimed to showcase the U.S.-South Korea alliance’s capacity to help defend the latter country from potential threats.

The Missile Defense Agency and the U.S. Army‘s 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade collaborated on a missile defense test Friday that utilized the Lockheed Martin-built Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system.

U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley has said he wants future Army combat vehicles to include active protection systems (APS), lighter armor and an option for unmanned operations, DoD Buzz reported Friday.

Milley said at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. that the Army should install APS and other technologies into the M1 Abrams, M2/M3 Bradley and M1126 Stryker vehicles to maintain their relevance for decades.

“If we can discover a material — and I’ve got a lot of research and development going into it — if we can discover a material that is significantly lighter in weight that gives you the same armor protection, that would be a real significant breakthrough,” said Milley.

He added that the Army also seeks to incorporate advanced weapon systems such as lasers and railguns into the military branch’s combat vehicles, National Defense reported.

Milley noted that the M1 tank looks the same as it did when it was first deployed in the 1980s but technologies inside the vehicle have undergone upgrades and modifications over the years.

The general noted that mechanized warfare between ground armies will remain a challenge.

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers has introduced legislation that would direct the Department of Homeland Security to field “smart” border security technologies along the southern U.S. border.

A press release posted Thursday on Rep. Will Hurd’s (R-Texas) website stated that the Secure Miles with All Resources and Technology Act would also require the DHS secretary to submit a report on physical barriers, technologies and other platforms that can be used to secure the U.S.-Mexico border.

Hurd said Customs and Border Patrol agents need technologies such as sensors, radar, light detection and ranging, fiber optics, drones and cameras to detect activity across the border and perform interdiction.

SMART Act would authorize $110 million for programs meant to foster border security coordination between CBP and state, county, tribal and other governmental law enforcement entities.

The bill would also establish a two-year grant program to upgrade emergency communication platforms in the southern border region, including multiband radios and communication networks.

Hurd introduced SMART Act alongside Reps. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), David Valadao (R-California), Steve Knight (R-CA), Steve Pearce (R-New Mexico), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pennsylvania), and Keith Rothfus (R-PA).

Soldiers from the U.S. Army‘s 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade teamed up with Missile Defense Agency personnel to perform a missile defense test which utilized a Lockheed Martin-developed area defense system, DoD News reported Sunday.

The report noted that the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System was used to detect, monitor and engage a medium-range target ballistic missile launched from a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III aircraft.

The 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade soldiers used actual combat scenario procedures to perform fire control, launcher and radar operations as part of the test dubbed Flight Experiment THAAD-01.

Lt. Gen. Sam Greaves, director of the Missile Defense Agency, said that the data collected from the test will help efforts to update the THAAD weapon system as well as the agency’s capacity to model and simulate operations.

FET-01 was the 15th successful intercept mission for the THAAD weapon system which was designed to eliminate incoming targets using hit-to-kill technology.