Patrick Shanahan, senior vice president of supply chain and operations at Boeing, has been approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee to serve as deputy defense secretary, DoD Buzz reported Wednesday.

The panel sent Shanahan’s nomination to the full Senate floor through a voice vote Wednesday three months after President Donald Trump nominated him for the post.

The committee voted on his nomination after he stated his position on whether the U.S. government should supply lethal defensive equipment to Ukraine amid Russia’s aggression.

Shanahan will succeed Robert Work in the Defense Department role once approved by the full Senate.

The 30-year Boeing veteran previously served as VP and general manager of the aerospace company’s missile defense systems and rotorcraft systems segments.

Jens Stoltenberg, NATO secretary general, said that the alliance has committed to continue supporting Afghanistan and its forces through 2017 and beyond, DoD News reported Thursday.

The report noted that approximately 39 countries will collaborate to help boost security in Afghanistan through the delivery of funding assistance for Afghan security forces and the deployment of troops under the Resolute Support Mission.

NATO member states have planned to increase military spending in response to President Donald Trump’s recommendation for allies to spend more for national defense.

“We count on our Afghan partners to make good on their commitments, including: key reforms on good governance and the rule of law, fighting corruption and protecting the rights of women and girls,” said Stoltenberg.

Stoltenberg discussed the impact of burden-sharing at NATO summits in Wales and Warsaw wherein allies have agreed to spend two percent of gross domestic products on security technologies.

The House Armed Services Committee voted Wednesday on its version of fiscal 2018 defense policy bill that would establish a new military branch to oversee the U.S. Air Force’s space programs and missions, Federal News Radio reported Thursday.

Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Alabama) and Jim Cooper (D-Tennessee) introduced into the House panel’s National Defense Authorization Act a provision that would direct the Defense Department to form the U.S. Space Corps by January 2019 and order the Air Force secretary to manage the new organization.

The measure would also require the appointment of a Space Corps chief of staff and ask DoD to report to Congress in March and August 2018 on how it will establish the new military branch.

“We started working on it vigorously in September, and we’ve had countless meetings with a number of experts who have advised us as to how this should be construed,” Rogers said.

“This idea for a space corps as one of the solutions to Air Force space came from the Rumsfeld Commission in 2001,” he added.

The Senate Armed Services Committee’s defense policy bill for fiscal 2018 would provide the U.S. Air Force with $1.2 billion in funds to acquire a new light attack aircraft through the OA-X procurement program, Defense News reported Thursday.

The Senate panel approved its version of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act through a unanimous vote Wednesday.

“The idea behind putting in funding is to actually move this program along,” a Senate aide told reporters Thursday.

“The best way to do that is to provide funding to get the program started.”

The Air Force plans to decide on the potential OA-X program once it conducts a flight demonstration in August at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico.

A team composed of Sierra Nevada and Embraer’s defense and security business will participate in the event to demonstrate the A-29 Super Tucano aircraft.

Textron will also showcase the Scorpion jet and AT-6 aircraft at the event, the report added.

Lt. Col. James McGuyer, deputy chief of the Joint Improvised-Threat Defeat Organization‘s technology strategy division, has said JIDO seeks technologies it can field immediately to counter improvised threats such as unmanned aerial vehicles.

The U.S. Army said Wednesday McGuyer told audience at a Lab Day event held in May at the Pentagon he believes the government and industry should cooperate to get platforms out to the field.

He added that JIDO works to track methods and materials that adversaries use to create explosive devices and shares collected information with combatant commanders and allies.

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency absorbed JIDO, formerly the Joint Improvised-Threat Defeat Agency, in October to comply with a 2016 National Defense Authorization Act provision.

JIDO was established to help foster mission collaboration and the integration of management offices in the contracts, facilities, financial management, human resources, logistics management, security and counterintelligence areas.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said NATO member states plan a 4.3 percent increase in military spending this year amid President Donald Trump’s call for allies to pay more for their own defense, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.

“I welcome the strong focus of President Trump on defense spending and burden sharing, because it is important that we deliver,” Stoltenberg said at a news conference Wednesday in Brussels.

“European allies should invest more in defense not only to please the United States, but they should invest more in defense because it is in their own interests.”

The spending increase planned for 2017 reflects a $12 billion rise from the 2016 levels.

NATO announced Wednesday that only five out of 29 member states met their defense spending goals in 2018.

Romania plans to reach its spending target this year, with Latvia and Lithuania to follow suit in 2018.

Reuters also reported that NATO member countries plan to develop national plans that would detail how they will meet the defense spending levels at 2 percent of their gross domestic product by 2024, acquire new weapon systems and track warfighters’ contributions to missions.

Stoltenberg said alliance members would allocate the increase in defense budget to military training and exercises, pensions, salaries, equipment and efforts to accelerate NATO troop deployment, the report added.