The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has launched a new program that aims to study and identify marine organisms that could help sensor systems detect and track the activities of manned underwater vehicles and drones in strategic waters.

The Persistent Aquatic Living Sensors program also seeks to investigate the responses of marine life to such vehicles and build a network of hardware systems that will work to collect, interpret and relay the organisms’ signals and behaviors to end users, DARPA said Friday.

“The U.S. Navy’s current approach to detecting and monitoring underwater vehicles is hardware-centric and resource intensive,” said Lori Adornato, PALS program manager at DARPA’s biological technologies office.

“If we can tap into the innate sensing capabilities of living organisms that are ubiquitous in the oceans, we can extend our ability to track adversary activity and do so discreetly, on a persistent basis, and with enough precision to characterize the size and type of adversary vehicles.”

DARPA expects PALS to be a four-year research initiative that will incorporate insights from various areas such as biology, analytics, physics, chemistry, machine learning and electrical engineering.

The agency said it will host a proposers day on March 2 in Arlington, Virginia, to discuss the PALS program with interested vendors.

Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan has said the Nuclear Posture Review is a “tailored nuclear deterrent strategy” that seeks to respond to current security needs and aims to reflect the country’s commitment to arms control and nonproliferation, DoD News reported Friday.

The NPR says the U.S. would only consider the deployment of nuclear weapons in the event of “significant non-nuclear strategic attacks” and other “extreme circumstances,” Shanahan said at a Pentagon press briefing with Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette and Thomas Shannon, undersecretary for political affairs at the State Department.

The document seeks to modernize the command-and-control system and the nuclear triad’s components that include submarine-launched ballistic missiles, ground-based intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear-based aircraft.

The U.S. has begun the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent program that seeks to replace Minuteman III missiles by 2029 and update 450 ICBM launch facilities to support the deployment of 400 ICBMs, according to the review.

The country has started an initiative to build and field the B-21 Raider bomber aircraft by mid-2020s as a replacement for the U.S. military’s B-2A Spirit and B-52H Stratofortress bombers.

The document also states the U.S. government’s plan to deploy 12 Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines to replace the fleet of 14 Ohio-class submarines.

The NPR’s release came two weeks after the Defense Department unveiled the National Defense Strategy and nearly two months after the Trump administration issued the National Security Strategy.

U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Nancy Norton has assumed her new roles as director of the Defense Information Systems Agency and commander of the Joint Force Headquarters-Department of Defense Information Network.

She succeeds U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Alan Lynn, who retired from military after a 38-year career, DISA said Thursday.

Norton, a 2018 Wash100 recipient, will lead DISA’s global organization of military, civilian and contractor personnel who help build and manage joint, interoperable, command and control systems as well as a global enterprise infrastructure.

She will also oversee and synchronize defensive cyberspace functions across the Defense Department in her commander position.

JFHQ-DoDIN is a component of the U.S. Cyber Command and reached full operational capability status Jan. 31.

The Defense Department on Thursday officially split the acquisition, technology and logistics office into two new units – defense undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment and undersecretary for research and engineering – as part of reorganization, Federal News Radio reported Thursday.

Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan wrote in a Wednesday memo the A&S office will oversee the Defense Logistics Agency; Defense Contract Management Agency; Defense Acquisition University; Defense Threat Reduction Agency; and the office of economic adjustment.

The R&E office will be responsible for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; Defense Innovation Unit Experimental; Defense Microelectronics Activity; DoD Test Resource Management Center; Defense Technical Information Center; and the Pentagon’s strategic capabilities office.

Shanahan also set a June 1 deadline for the submission of a plan on the realignment of authorities, staff and resources across the two offices and a proposal on how the office of strategy and design will act as a bridge between A&S and other defense components in the development of the national defense strategy and other strategic guidance.

Ben FitzGerald officially assumed his duties as director of OS&D on Jan. 2 weeks after his appointment.

Ellen Lord, defense undersecretary for A&S, told reporters Thursday that acquisition personnel will not experience any changes at this time.

“Current state is what it was yesterday… We have been very clear in saying we are not doing a big reduction in force or anything like that,” she noted.

Lord, a 2018 Wash100 recipient, said she will name a human resources lead to focus on talent acquisition and leadership development; hire a finance head; and appoint another executive to focus on software development processes in order to kick off her efforts.

Michael Griffin, the White House’s nominee for the R&D undersecretary role and a Wash100 recipient, is still awaiting Senate confirmation.

Maj. Gen. Clinton Crosier, director of operational capability requirements for the U.S. Air Force deputy chief of staff for strategic plans and requirements, has been appointed as director of warfighting integration capability within the same office, the Defense Department said Thursday.

In his current role, Crosier develops policy for operational capabilities-based requirements and oversees the creation of requirements documents for the approval of the Joint Requirements Oversight Council.

Crosier joined the Air Force in 1988 and has since assumed posts of increasing responsibility, such as director of plans and policy at the U.S. Strategic Command; deputy director of Stratcom’s global operations directorate; and director of strategic plans, programs, requirements and assessments at the Air Force Global Strike Command.

His experience spans intercontinental ballistic missile and space operations, including stints as director of space forces at the U.S. Central Command; commander of the 460th Space Wing; and space and missile adviser to the Secretary of the Air Force Action Group, among others.

Crosier holds a degree in aerospace engineering from Iowa State University, which he attended on an Air Force Reserve Officers’ Training Corps scholarship.