House and Senate Armed Services panels are expected to address F-35 aircraft procurements, missile defense and size of the U.S. Army as they begin to reconcile this month their versions of the fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, the Washington Examiner reported Monday.

Both chambers’ NDAA versions reflect a $30 billion to $40 billion increase over President Donald Trump’s defense budget request for fiscal 2018.

The House panel proposed the acquisition of 87 Lockheed Martin-built F-35s, while the Senate committee’s NDAA covers the procurement of 94 fighter jets.

The upper chamber’s defense policy bill calls for additional 6,000 service personnel to the Army, while the House measure seeks to authorize a 17,000 increase to the service branch’s active duty, reserve and National Guard soldiers.

When it comes to missile defense budget, the lower chamber requested a $2.5 billion increase and the Senate proposed a $600 million funding hike for the Missile Defense Agency.

The House NDAA calls for the establishment of a separate Space Corps within the U.S. Air Force, a provision that was barred in the Senate’s defense policy measure.

The joint House-Senate conference committee needs to reconcile differences in their defense policy bills and send to Congress a final NDAA measure before the current continuing resolution expires in December, the report added.

A new information technology services provider for Pentagon tenants has achieved full operational capability and is now a sub-component of the Defense Information Systems Agency, Federal News Radio reported Thursday.

The Joint Service Provider was established primarily through the consolidation of three IT service organizations in the Pentagon, including the U.S. Army‘s Information Technology Agency, Washington Headquarters Services’ Enterprise Information Technology Services Directorate and the Joint Staff.

The move gives DISA control over funding and personnel that deliver most IT services for the Pentagon and other Defense Department facilities in the National Capital Region, the report stated.

Maj. Gen. Brian Dravis, director of JSP, told Federal News Radio that the consolidation of three major IT providers in the Pentagon helped decrease collective spending and manpower requirements by approximately 33 percent.

JSP said it has saved $31 million during its first full year of operations and the organization expects to achieve $354 million in additional cost savings by 2021.

Savings were also realized through the consolidation of 499 separate Pentagon IT contracts to about 200 agreements, with plans for further reorganization through DISA’s support.

JSP used some savings to deploy new IT services, including a WiFi network that is designed to deliver public internet access to Pentagon visitors as well as facilitate secure connection to DoD’s unclassified network for employees.

The U.S. Navy will hold a commissioning ceremony on Oct. 7 for the USS Washington fast attack submarine that Huntington Ingalls Industries‘ Newport News Shipbuilding company delivered in May.

Acting Navy Undersecretary Thomas Dee will deliver the principal address during the ceremony at Naval Station Norfolk, which will also feature ship sponsor Elisabeth Mabus, daughter of former Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, the Defense Department said Thursday.

Construction began in 2011 for the submarine dubbed SSN 787, which is the 14th Virginia-class nuclear submarine and the fourth in its class under Block III.

Newport News turned over the ship to the Navy in May after the submarine passed the Board of Inspection and Survey sea trials.

Virginia-class submarines are designed to operate in littoral and deep waters while engaging in anti-submarine, anti-surface ship, strike, irregular and mine warfare; special operations support; and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations for sea control, power projection, forward presence, maritime security and deterrence.

Block III submarines under the Virginia class feature two large-diameter Virginia Payload Tubes instead of 12 individual launch tubes on the bow.

President Donald Trump intends to nominate Synovision Solutions President and CEO Bruce Jette to be assistant secretary of the U.S. Army for acquisition, technology and logistics.

The White House released Thursday the president’s announcement of candidates for possible positions in the administration, including Jette.

Jette most recently led Synovision, which has worked with government and military agencies such as the Defense Department Office of the Secretary, Army and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to provide management and technical consulting, engineering and project management services.

He has previous experience in the public sector as strategic science adviser to the Army chief of staff, senior research officer with the Army Research Laboratory as well as founder and director of the Army Rapid Equipping Force.

He served as a brigade and battalion operations officer for some of the Army’s units based in the U.S. and Germany and is a recipient of service awards including the Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit and Bronze Star Medal.

Jette is an alumnus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the United States Military Academy.

The Senate received the nomination and has referred it to the armed services committee Thursday.

Rear Adm. Mary Riggs, commander of the U.S. Navy‘s Reserve Component Expeditionary Medicine, has been assigned as director of research and development at the Defense Health Agency.

Navy Secretary Richard Spencer and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson announced Riggs’ new assignment in a Defense Department press release published Thursday.

Riggs previously served as deputy director of the military branch’s Nurse Corps and reserve policy and integration office; deputy chief of staff at the Reserve Navy Medicine Education and Training Command; and commanding officer of the Operational Health Support Unit-Portsmouth.

During her civilian career, she pursued pharmaceutical research and development projects and established a clinical research organization that conducted scientific clinical trials of experimental cardiovascular drugs.

She graduated magna cum laude from the Catholic University of America with a bachelor’s degree in nursing earned her master’s degree in physiology and biophysics from Georgetown University.