The U.S. Army aims to field a pair of new weapon attachments in the next 18 months in an effort to help dismounted soldiers detect and engage targets through darkness, fog and smoke.

The service branch said Tuesday it expects to deploy the Enhanced Night Vision Goggle III system in the second quarter of 2018 and the Family of Weapons Sights-Individual  technology in the first quarter of 2019.

In 2015, the Army awarded a potential $434 million contract to BAE Systems and a potential $367 million contract to Leonardo DRS for the production of integrated night vision and thermal weapon systems.

ENVG III will feature night vision image intensification tubes from Harris and L3 Technologies.

FWS-I is designed to integrate with M4 and M16 rifles and transmit sight pictures to helmet-mounted ENVG III systems wirelessly.

The Army noted the weapon sights technology can also operate with the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, M141 Bunker Defeat Munition and the M136 AT4 Light Anti-Tank Weapon.

The Defense Department has released its plan to split the undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics role into two positions in which an undersecretary will focus on acquisition and sustainment – USDA&S – and another one will handle research and engineering functions – USDR&E – as part of a reorganization effort, Defense News reported Wednesday.

DoD also proposed the creation of a chief management officer position under the new acquisition structure it submitted to Congress on Tuesday in compliance with the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act.

The DoD report said the new USDR&E role will oversee five offices and these include the:

• Defense Science Board
• Missile Defense Agency
• Strategic Intelligence Analysis Cell
• Assistant defense secretary research and technology
• Assistant defense secretary for advanced capabilities

Three offices will operate under the ASD for research and tech organization and these include the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency as well as the deputy assistant defense secretaries for laboratories and personnel and for research and technology investments.

The ASD for advanced capabilities organization will have four units and these include the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental; Strategic Capabilities Office; DASD for prototyping and experimentation; and DASD for mission engineering and integration.

The USDA&S position will oversee three offices: ASD for acquisition; ASD for sustainment; and ASD for nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

The ASD for acquisition office will be responsible for four sub-offices that include the DASD for defense procurement and DASD for industrial base, while the ASD for sustainment will manage three units that include the DASD for material readiness as well as the Defense Logistics Agency.

On Tuesday, the Senate approved the nomination of former Textron Systems President and CEO Ellen Lord as the department’s acquisition chief.

Lord will oversee the current AT&L office and is expected to be reconfirmed to serve as undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment once DoD implements the new organizational structure in February.

Army Maj. Gen. Charles Hooper, formerly chief of the military cooperation office at U.S. embassy in Cairo, has taken a new role as Defense Security Cooperation Agency director, Defense News reported Wednesday.

He has also been promoted to the rank of three-star lieutenant general and succeeded Navy Vice Adm. Joseph Rixey.

Rixey, who led DSCA from September 2013 to July 2017, retired after 39 years of military service.

Hooper joined the Army in 1979 as an infantryman and later served in various assignments that include senior country director for China, Taiwan and Mongolia at the Defense Department; chief of U.S. Army International Affairs; defense attache in U.S. embassy in Beijing; deputy director of strategy at U.S. Pacific Command; and director of strategy, plans and programs at U.S. Africa Command.

As DSCA director, he will lead DoD’s point office for foreign military sales and programs designed to help address U.S. allies’ capability requirements or gaps.

Adm. Paul Zukunft, commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, has said he estimates that U.S. shipyards can help build the service branch’s first heavy icebreaker within 20-year timeframe for less than $1 billion, Breaking Defense reported Tuesday.

Zukunft told audience at a Center for Strategic and International Studies-hosted event Tuesday that the real cost of the icebreaker acquisition lies in developing local shipyards’ capacity to construct such vessels since Polar Star, the last heavy icebreaker to be built in U.S., was commissioned 40 years ago.

The report said he seeks to demonstrate to industry that construction of an icebreaker fleet is a “worthwhile investment.”

Zukunft noted the Coast Guard aims to deploy the first new icebreaker by 2023 to replace Polar Star.

The service branch currently plans to build three heavy and three medium icebreakers in two phases.

The U.S. Air Force and Boeing are close to reaching a deal to procure two 747-8 aircraft that will be converted into presidential planes, Defense One reported Tuesday.

“We’re working through the final stages of coordination to purchase two commercial 747-8 aircraft and expect to award a contract soon,” said Ann Stefanek, a spokeswoman for the Air Force.

Sources familiar with the deal said Boeing originally manufactured the 747-8 planes in response to the 2013 order by Russian airline Transaero that filed for bankruptcy in 2015.

The report said the average list price for a Boeing 747-8 aircraft is worth approximately $386.8 million and that the Defense Department could disclose the deal as early as this week.

The Air Force plans to allocate approximately $3.2 billion in funds to purchase two Air Force One planes from 2018 to 2022 based on DoD’s fiscal 2018 budget request filed with Congress in February, the report added.

Defense News also reported that Boeing currently stores the two undelivered 747-8s at Southern California Logistics Airport near the Mojave Desert.

Caroline Hutcheson, a Boeing spokeswoman, said the company is in talks with the service branch over a deal for a pair of 747-8s but did not confirm the details about the proposed transaction.