The Defense Department has selected 23 multidisciplinary research projects to receive up to $163 million over five years as part of a grant program designed for U.S. universities.

DoD said Friday the Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative for fiscal 2017 will involve 55 academic institutions and complement other DoD efforts that support traditional, single-investigator university research grants.

The department awarded $162 million in MURI grants to 23 research projects during fiscal 2016.

Dale Ormond, principal director for research at DoD’s Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, said MURI supports investigator teams that include more than one traditional science and engineering discipline in an effort to accelerate research progress.

Ormond added the program also helps educate and train graduate students in research.

The Army Research Office, Air Force Office of Scientific Research and Office of Naval Research solicited proposals in 23 topic areas and received 315 white papers.

A panel of DoD officials selected the final awardees after two rounds of merit-based reviews.

MURI has supported research projects related to artificial intelligence, compressive sensing, automated scene recognition, optoelectronics, mid-infrared imaging technology and direct brain-computer communication over the past three decades.

Maj. Gen. Anthony Funkhouser, former commanding general of the U.S. Army‘s Center for Initial Military Training, has been assigned as deputy commanding general for military and international operations at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Defense Department announced Friday.

The Army commissioned Funkhouser to the rank of second lieutenant at USACE after he graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1985.

He previously served as commandant and chief of staff at the U.S. Army Engineer School in Missouri, commander of USACE’s northwest division and chief of the joint capabilities division at the Joint Staff.

His combat and operational assignments have included positions within the 5th, 17th and 91st Engineer Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, 5th and 317th Engineer Battalion Corps.

Funkhouser is a licensed professional engineer in Virginia and a recipient of various military awards such as the Defense Superior Service Medal and Army Achievement Medal.

The U.S. Air Force has fielded several Lockheed Martin-built F-35A Lightning II aircraft in England for the first time to carry out training exercises with NATO member countries, the Defense Department said Saturday.

The F-35A fighter jets from the 419th and 388th fighter wings at Hill Air Force Base in Utah arrived Saturday at England-based Royal Air Force Lakenheath and will stay for several weeks in Europe to train with allied countries as part of the European Reassurance Initiative.

The deployment seeks to help the Air Force demonstrate the fighter jet’s operational capabilities and streamline the requirements for positioning the aircraft in Europe as the continent prepares to get F-35As by early 2020s, DoD said in a separate news release published Friday.

The service branch’s Air Mobility Command supported the F-35A deployment in Europe and several refueling planes from four various military bases offered at least 400,000 pounds of fuel during the “tanker bridge” operation between the U.S. and Europe.

The military branch used C-5 Galaxy and C-17 Globemaster III aircraft to fly staff and maintenance equipment to England.

Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pennsylvania) has introduced a bill that seeks to prevent the U.S. Army from phasing out a variant of the Patriot missile system used to intercept ballistic missiles.

The Patriot Inventory Protection Act would keep the MIM-104 Patriot Guidance Enhanced Missile TBM in the Army’s inventory in an effort to mitigate a potential shortage of Patriot missiles and bring work to the Letterkenny Army Depot, Shuster’s office said April 6.

Letterkenny primarily serves as the Army’s missile depot and GEM-T is a major driver of the depot’s workload.

Shuster’s office noted it would cost approximately $359,000 to recertify each GEM-T while the price of a new missile system could amount to $5 million.

The Army decided not to recertify the system in fiscal 2013 due to spending challenges that the military branch attributed to the implementation of the Budget Control Act, Defense News reported Thursday.

Jen Judson writes a congressional staffer said the service branch wants to retain the GEM-T variant if funds become available.

The proposed legislation would require the Army to evaluate its capacity to meet requirements and operational needs if GEM-Ts were taken out of the inventory, Judson reported.

The U.S. Navy has evaluated the launch-and-recovery functions of a Northrop Grumman-built MQ-8C Fire Scout helicopter and its interoperability with a littoral combat ship as part of an interface test.

The Navy said Tuesday its MQ-8C unmanned autonomous helicopter has returned from the USS Montgomery after the helicopter completed more than 37 recovery missions over a seven-day period to assess the helicopter’s capacity for continued operations in environments with electromagnetic interference, pitch, roll and wind challenges.

Fire Scout functions alongside the Sikorsky-built MH-60 manned helicopter to help extend the range and endurance of ship-based operations as well as provide situational awareness and precision target data to the service branch.

Richard Gorman, Fire Scout lead assistant program manager for test and evaluation, said the test will help establish the flight envelope for the execution of MQ-8C deployments aboard littoral combat ships.

Capt. Jeff Dodge, Fire Scout program manager, said the evaluation also helped the service branch verify the helicopter’s capacity to serve as a Navy maritime platform.

Adm. Paul Zukunft, commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, has said a lack of full-year appropriations would harm the service branch’s readiness programs, DoD News reported Wednesday.

Lisa Ferdinando writes Zukunft told reporters Wednesday that a continuing resolution would “sideline” military branches including the Coast Guard and that his biggest concern is to achieve budget certainty.

A continuing resolution that currently funds government operations is set to expire April 28.

The report said the Coast Guard aims to grow its fleet of 58 fast-response cutters; add a ninth national security cutter; and expand its fleet of six icebreakers for missions in the polar regions.

Zukunft added the branch faces an increasing backlog of shore maintenance works.