President Donald Trump on Friday signed another continuing resolution to keep federal agencies operational through Jan. 19 at current spending levels, Military.com reported Friday.

Trump approved the four-week government funding extension a day after Congress passed the measure to avert another government shutdown.

The new CR provides $4 billion in funds for the Defense Department’s missile defense initiatives that include $200 million for the construction of a new missile base in Alaska.

The measure also sets aside $2.1 billion for the Veterans Choice Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs and another $674 million for repair work on the U.S. Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyers – USS Fitzgerald and USS John S. McCain.

Defense One also reported that the $4 billion in funds for missile defense projects seek to help the Pentagon counter North Korea’s ballistic missile threat and appear to support the emergency budget request that DoD issued in November.

The Pentagon’s November request includes $884 million in funds for the U.S. Army to procure 147 PAC-3 Patriot interceptors and fund updates to ATACMS missiles and Patriot launchers.

The emergency spending request also covers $256 million in funds for the U.S. Air Force’s research and development work; $60 million for the Navy’s “classified programs” R&D efforts; and $1.2 billion for the Missile Defense Agency’s 50 more THAAD interceptors and 16 additional SM-3 interceptors.

Troops from Marine Air Control Squadron 4 and other marine groups have gathered in Okinawa Dec. 4 to participate in a 12-day exercise on airfield construction.

The Voodoo Magic exercise trained marines’ skills in operating without an airfield and taking over an already established airfield, the Defense Department said Friday.

Teams of six to eight marines underwent 72-hour exercises wherein they helped construct a runway for aircraft can refuel.

“In all the prerequisites and everything required of them, MACS-4 accomplished everything,” said Lt. Chris Danforth, air traffic control officer at the U.S. Marine Corps.

The exercise marks MACS-4’s first assessment under the Marine Corps Combat Readiness Evaluation.

The Trump administration has halted plans to survey multiple U.S. contractors that would have been part of a broader defense industrial base review, Defense News reported Wednesday.

The report said the U.S. government now intends to use information that federal agencies already gather instead of seeking proprietary data from defense companies to identify market gaps and weaknesses.

Adam Stump, a Pentagon spokesperson, was quoted as saying by Defense News that the poll may still occur under the second phase of the cross-government data collection initiative.

The decision stems from the challenge of drafting a non-invasive questionnaire and obtaining approval from the Office of Management and Budget, the report noted.

The Government Accountability Office has said the U.S. Navy needs to perform additional development and test activities to validate the maturity of multiple technologies on the future Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines.

Components that require further development and tests include the integrated power system, nuclear reactor, common missile compartment, propulsor and related coordinated stern systems, GAO said in a report issued Thursday.

According to the report, it is unclear whether the technologies will operate as intended, face delays or necessitate more costs than planned.

GAO added that unexpected delays could push the deployment of the first Columbia-class submarine past the 2031 target date.

The Navy plans to build 12 Columbia-class submarines to replace 14 Ohio-class vessels, which currently serve as the sea-based leg of the U.S. nuclear triad and will retire starting 2027.

The report revealed that the Navy did not classify the underdeveloped technologies as critical in the service branch’s 2015 Technology Readiness Assessment.

GAO noted that the failure to identify the technologies as critical may limit Congress’ view into the program’s technology risks and their potential impact on cost, schedule and performance goals.

Congress does not require the Navy to deliver progress reports on the program until fiscal year 2020, when lawmakers are scheduled to authorize $8.7 billion for the lead submarine construction.

GAO said regular reports on technology development activities could inform decision makers on remaining technical risks as the Navy requests for increased funding levels.

The government watchdog initially recommended additional reports on the Columbia-class program, but removed the suggestion because of a new law that implements the requirement.

Japan has approved a $45.8 billion defense budget for the year beginning April 1, including $1.2 billion for ballistic missile defense programs, Reuters reported Friday.

The budget will fund purchases of the Raytheon-made Standard Missile-3 Block IIA interceptors; updates for the Patriot missile batteries; and preparations for the establishment of two ground-based Aegis ballistic missile defense systems, the report said.

Japan also allocated $19.4 million for the procurement of medium-range air-launched cruise missiles meant to protect the country against potential ballistic missile launches of North Korea.

The country looks to buy $2.5 billion worth of U.S.-made defense equipment through the U.S. government’s Foreign Military Sales program.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has introduced a new project called the Subterranean Challenge which aims to discover new strategies on how to map, navigate and scour through underground environments.

DARPA said Thursday it invites research teams worldwide to send proposals for methods that can help address challenges related to subsurface network mapping and unpredictable factors that impact the development of tunnels, underground urban spaces and other cave networks.

“The DARPA Subterranean Challenge aims to provide previously unimaginable situational awareness capabilities for operations underground,” said Timothy Chung, a program manager at the DARPA tactical technology office.

“Through the DARPA Subterranean Challenge, we are inviting the scientific and engineering communities—as well as the public—to use their creativity and resourcefulness to come up with new technologies and concepts to make the inaccessible accessible,” added Fred Kennedy, director of the DARPA TTO.

DARPA will award approximately $2.8 million in prizes for selected winners of both the Systems and Virtual tracks of the SubT challenge.

The agency will host a proposers day for the challenge on Jan. 18, 2018 in Arlington, Virginia and a broad agency announcement will be posted on the FedBizOpps website in the coming months.