The U.S. Air Force has established a program that seeks to train airmen in defensive cyber operations of the service branch’s weapons systems and increase their capacity to manage  unit missions in cyberspace.

The service branch  said Friday it aims to address risks in air and space superiority, command-and-control, global strike, ISR and rapid global mobility missions under the Cyber Squadron Initiative.

Selected from existing manpower, the Air Force has organized, equipped and trained 15 initial cyber squadrons, dubbed pathfinder units, to support various applications for their respective wings’ missions.

“Air Force core missions are cyber dependent, and the complexities and threats in this environment have grown exponentially,” said Lt. Gen. William Bender, chief information dominance officer and chief information officer of the Air Force.

“We are leaning forward to tailor the cyber force by leveraging industry partners and the joint information environment to perform basic [information technology] services, thereby enabling airmen to move away from a unitary focus on IT service delivery toward a holistic cyberspace approach that includes active mission defense and mission assurance.”

The Air Force noted that pathfinder airmen will ultimately work to help commanders understand cyber-related risks to military operations.

The U.S. Army is developing a strategy to reduce the logistics tails of the service branch’s  units in multi-domain combat operations, Defense News reported Monday.

The Demand Reduction strategy is meant to address the Army’s mission to operate in smaller, more dispersed units while providing required water, fuel, power and equipment to warfighters, according to the report.

Col. Stephanie Gradford, chief of the Army Capabilities Integration Center’s sustainment division, told reporters the service branch aims to increase its capacity to maintain freedom of movement during operations, especially in austere environments.

The report said ARCIC plans to help the Army achieve reduced logistics through commercial and military technologies such as additive manufacturing, three-dimensional printing, alternate fuels, advanced power generation, autonomy, artificial intelligence and laser weapons.

Gradford noted the Army expects to finalize its Demand Reduction strategy by the end of 2017.

The Senate has approved Heather Wilson, president of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, to assume the U.S Air Force‘s top civilian position through a 76-22 vote.

She will be sworn in as Air Force secretary within a week and replace Lisa Disbrow, who headed the service branch on an acting basis since January 20, the Air Force said Monday.

“I look forward to getting to work, focusing on readiness, modernization, development of leaders and research for the future,” said Wilson.

Wilson served as an Air Force officer during the Cold War and worked for the National Security Council Staff during the George H.W. Bush administration.

She also held the adviser role at multiple scientific and defense organizations before and after she served in Congress for more than 10 years.

Between 1998 and 2009, she served on different House committees such as the lower chamber’s Armed Services, Intelligence and Energy and Commerce committees.

U.S. Air Force pilots from the 34th Fighter Squadron and supporting units from Hill Air Force Base in Utah flew eight F-35As at a military air base near Lakenheath, England, as part of the aircraft’s first training deployment to Europe.

The service branch said Monday that the squadron performed approximately 76 sorties throughout more than 154 flying hours alongside F-15 aircraft flown by pilots from the 48th Fighter Wing.

The F-35A aircraft also forward deployed to Bulgaria and Estonia in efforts to maximize training opportunities and establish partnerships with allied air forces as well as familiarize the pilots with Europe’s diverse operating conditions.

“This exercise provided our pilots with the opportunity to practice working together to solve complex tactical scenarios using integrated operations that optimized both the F-35 and F-15’s capabilities,” said Lt. Col. Jason Zumwalt, commander of the 493rd Fighter Squadron.

“This deployment was a great opportunity for the 34th FS and the 48th FW to practice 4th and 5th generation fighter integration tactics.”

The Air Force’s active-duty 388th and reserve 419th Fighter Wings began joint training exercises at the Lakenheath facility in April, which included basic fighter maneuvers and air combat maneuvers performed alongside the U.K. air force and other NATO allies.

The U.S. Navy has commenced an effort to modernize its performance evaluation system  in a move to evaluate a sailor’s performance with standards-based objective measures and boost talent matching aspects of counseling and formal reports.

The service branch said Sunday it aims to test a conceptual prototype platform simultaneously with its current NAVFIT 98 performance evaluation system this fall.

“First, we want a system that provides more meaningful, frequent and useful feedback to Sailors,”  said Vice Adm. Robert Burke, chief of naval personnel.

“Second, we want to objectively measure Sailors’ performance. Third, we want to remove artificialities in our current system, such as the tendency of reporting seniors to rate individuals by seniority rather than talent.”

The Navy seeks to eliminate the forced distribution competitive categories and include warfare communities’ specific-objective measures in its evaluation system.

The updated system will work to provide feedback on reporting seniors’ performance grades as well as support formal and informal counseling activities at the service branch.