The U.S. Army aims to acquire and create new vertical lift aircraft variants for operations in the 2030s and beyond, Defense News reported Tuesday.

Future vertical lift was listed third among top modernization priorities when the Army stoop up a new command in the fall.

Brig. Gen. Frank Tate, director of Army aviation in the service branch’s Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Planning and Training, said the service branch looks to change its methods for acquiring assets such as vertical lift aircraft.

The report noted the Army developed a new concept on how it aims to acquire future helicopters along with technologies that can boost the capacities of the FVL.

Tate said the service branch will separate work for the procurement of aircraft airframe with work to create mission systems.

He suggested the Army to establish a digital backbone architecture for mission systems, software and hardware students in a similar way that apps are created for Apple and Samsung products.

President Donald Trump has vowed to rebuild the U.S. military strength and called on lawmakers to fully fund defense operations and put an end to military spending cuts in his first state of the union address, Defense News reported Tuesday.

Trump cited the threats posed by foreign countries such as North Korea, Iran, China and Russia as well as terrorism to national security and pledged to launch “a campaign of maximum pressure” against North Korea’s nuclear missile initiatives.

“In confronting these dangers, we know that weakness is the surest path to conflict, and unmatched power is the surest means of our defense,” he said.

He also mentioned his administration’s military strategy in Afghanistan as well as the role of U.S. military missions against the Islamic State militant group in the Middle East, the report added.

U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Alan Lynn, director of the Defense Information Systems Agency, has said he believes the current DISA structure better supports clients because of the agency’s mission partner engagement model.

The retiring DISA director also credited the designation of responsibilities to individuals for each focus areas including business and development, operations and resource management as a factor in the development of the agency, the agency said Monday.

“I think [from when I first served at DISA to now] we have a much sharper focus on the customer … The agency wasn’t designed back then to support customers as well as it is now,” said Lynn.

“DISA is leaning forward and has put a mission engagement person in every mission partner organization,” he added.

He talked about three project he was proud to have been part of including the development of the DISA civilian workforce, the transformation of the Defense Department‘s mobility capacities and the creation of the Joint Force Headquarters-Department of Defense Information Network.

DISA noted Lynn will retire from active duty following a 38-year career in service on Feb. 2.

U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Nancy Norton will succeed Lynn for the DISA directorship role and command of the JFHQ-DODIN.

Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan has called on Defense Department personnel to read and “internalize” the U.S. military’s new defense strategy, which was partially unveiled on Jan. 19, DoD News reported Monday.

Shanahan said the more than two million employees of DoD should understand the new National Defense Strategy to help boost the lethality of the joint force, reinforce existing alliances and create new partnerships.

He added that DoD is creating its fiscal year 2019 budget based on the strategy’s framework.

The National Defense Strategy would also serve as the foundation for DoD’s initiatives in FY 2020, according to Shanahan.

The deputy defense secretary noted that the strategy prioritizes investments in people in an effort to achieve “greater will and greater jointness.”

The Senate has confirmed Rickey Dale James, a manager at family farming business A.C. Riley Cotton Company, as assistant secretary of the U.S. Army for civil works and head of the Army Corps of Engineers, the Northern Kentucky Tribune reported Monday.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) said James will help address water infrastructure needs across U.S. in his new role.

James has served on the Mississippi River Commission for 36 years beginning December 1981.

He was a member of the board of directors of the U.S. Bank of Sikeston in Missouri and the New Madrid County Board of Education.

James has a degree in civil engineering from the University of Kentucky.