Gen. Stephen Wilson, vice chief of staff at the U.S. Air Force, has said the military service’s leaders believe the branch must have funding stability to provide airmen with equipment needed to modernize the nuclear triad.

He discussed the service branch’s plans to boost the nuclear triad’s flexibility, responsiveness, survivability and visibility at a Mitchell Institute-hosted breakfast event at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, the Air Force said Friday.

Wilson noted that the Air Force plans to replace ground-based strategic deterrent missiles with the Minuteman III and update long-range standoff missiles to make the system compatible with nuclear-capable bombers.

The service branch maintains two legs of the nuclear triad that includes aircraft designed to carry nuclear weapons; more than 400 intercontinental ballistic missiles; nearly 30,000 airmen; and 75 percent of the nuclear command, control and communications system built to connect the U.S. president with senior military leaders.

President Donald Trump’s proposed a $183 billion budget for the Air Force would cover procurement, operations and maintenance and research, development, testing and evaluation programs in fiscal 2018.

President Donald Trump has urged NATO member countries to meet commitments to spend 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense, DoD News reported Thursday.

Trump said at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium that the 2 percent commitment is the “bare minimum” for addressing current threats and is not enough to meet modernization, readiness and force size needs.

“If all NATO members had spent just 2 percent of their GDP on defense last year, we would have had another $119 billion for our collective defense and for the financing of additional NATO reserves,” he added.

Trump noted that 23 of 28 NATO members have yet to meet their defense spending commitments.

The president stated NATO must increase its focus on terrorism, immigration and threats from Russia as well as nations along NATO’s eastern and southern borders.

U.S. Navy Vice Adm. David Lewis, former commander of the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, has assumed leadership of the Defense Contract Management Agency.

DCMA said Wednesday Lewis succeeded Air Force Lt. Gen. Wendy Masiello, who retired after 36 years of service in the U.S. Air Force.

James MacStravic, acting defense undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, led the change-of-command ceremony at Fort Lee in Prince George County, Virginia.

Lewis was nominated to serve as DCMA director and elevate to the rank of vice admiral in March.

The 38-year Navy veteran said he aims to continue the agency’s efforts to ensure the delivery of products to U.S. warfighters and train agency employees to work “smarter.”

Lewis previously served as vice commander of the Naval Sea Systems Command and a program executive officer for ships at the service branch.

His assignments ashore include time as assistant chief of staff for maintenance and engineering, commander of the Naval Surface Forces, Navy secretariat staff and NAVSEA staff.

Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch, military deputy of the U.S. Air Force’s acquisition office, has said the service branch’s decision to award L3 Technologies a contract to perform systems integration work on the Compass Call electronic attack aircraft recapitalization program stems from the company’s familiarity with the mission equipment, Defense News reported Thursday.

The Air Force announced plans earlier this month to authorize L3 to decide on a new aircraft that will replace the military branch’s fleet of EC-130H Compass Call planes and host the 10 existing electronic warfare and mission platforms.

“L3 has played that role as the systems integrator as we have modernized these aircraft for the last 15 years,” Bunch told lawmakers during a congressional hearing Thursday.

“They are the ones that are very familiar with the mission equipment that is on there,” he added.

Bunch noted the service will thoroughly evaluate the aircraft selection process “to ensure that it was comprehensive, impartial and compliant with all the applicable statutes and regulations.”

His remarks came days after Boeing challenged the Air Force’s award of the systems integration contract to L3 through a protest filed with the Government Accountability Office on May 19, Defense One reported Wednesday.

“The Air Force’s approach is inconsistent with Congress’s direction in the 2017 [National Defense Authorization Act] and seems to ignore inherent and obvious conflicts of interest,” Caroline Hutcheson, a spokeswoman for Boeing, said in an email statement.

“We believe that the U.S. Air Force and taxpayer would be best served by a fair and open competition, and that the Air Force can still meet its stated timeline of replacing the aging fleet of EC-130Hs within 10 years,” Hutcheson added.

GAO is expected to decide on the protest by Aug. 28, the report added.

Navy Vice Adm. Mathias Winter, formerly deputy program executive officer for the Defense Department‘s F-35 joint program office, has officially assumed the F-35 JPO chief post, The Hill reported Thursday.

Winter succeeded Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, who is set to retire in June after he led the office for nearly five years, during a ceremony held Thursday at Fort Myer in Virginia.

Winter said he plans to “provide timely continuous communications, make prudent transparent decisions, and deliver on our commitments through crisp, accountable execution” as his office moves to follow-on development and full-rate production phases for the Lockheed Martin-built F-35 fighter jet.

He assumed the position two months after he was nominated as the next F-35 JPO chief.

Winter previously served as chief of naval research, assistant commander for test and evaluation at the Naval Air Systems Command, program executive officer for unmanned aviation and strike weapons and director of innovation technology requirements, test and evaluation.

Defense Secretary James Mattis directed other Defense Department officials to allocate funds for the full production of six “preferred” munitions as they prepared a fiscal year 2018 budget plan, Defense News reported Tuesday.

John Roth, deputy comptroller for program budget at DoD, told reporters Tuesday that the department increased its funding request for selected munitions to $3.5 billion in a move to address inventory gaps.

The proposed budget would cover the procurement of Hellfire missiles worth $713.9 million; Joint Direct Attack Munitions worth $874.3 million; Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems worth $889.5; small diameter bombs worth $504.1 million; Tomahawk missiles worth $381.6 million; and Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems worth $200 million.

Roth added the figures reflect the maximum production capacity of companies that produce the six munition systems for the U.S. military.

DoD seeks $16.4 billion in funds to buy weapons such as tactical missiles, conventional ammunition and strategic missiles, reported Defense News.