The U.S. Navy has chosen Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville, Florida, as the East Coast Forward Operating Base for the Northrop Grumman-built MQ-4C Triton unmanned aircraft system.

The military service said Wednesday NS Mayport will serve as a permanent duty station of approximately 400 MQ-4C Triton UAS personnel as well as support the branch’s rotational deployments to be conducted outside the continental U.S.

Facility construction at NS Mayport is scheduled to commence this year and the first Triton UAS unit is slated to  arrive to the station by 2020.

NS Mayport will also be the launch and recovery site for four forward-based Triton drones as well as a consolidated maintenance hub for up to four additional aircraft.

Triton is designed to help operators collect maritime ISR data and support tactical and strategic missions of the Navy’s Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Force.

NS Mayport was selected out of three locations following a Navy-led environmental assessment that evaluated possible environmental impacts of basing the UAS in those facilities.

Defense Secretary James Mattis has said NATO member countries should increase their defense spending and that the U.S. government may have to “moderate its commitment” to the alliance if nations fail to do so, The Hill reported Wednesday.

Of NATO’s 28 member states, the U.S., Greece, Poland, Estonia and the U.K. are the countries that allocate 2 percent of their gross domestic product to defense efforts, Rebecca Kheel wrote.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg noted that Canada and European allies recorded a $10 billion or 3.8 percent increase in defense spending in 2016, the report noted.

Mattis also called on NATO to implement a plan this year that would establish milestone dates for allies to meet the 2 percent defense spending goal and mentioned threats posed by Russia and the Islamic State militant group, according to a report by Lolita C. Baldor for The Associated Press.

“No longer can the American taxpayer carry a disproportionate share of the defense of Western values,” Mattis said in a written statement.

His remarks come after he called NATO a “fundamental bedrock for the U.S. and all the trans-Atlantic community” in a public statement prior to the alliance’s closed-door meeting Wednesday.

NATO estimates that the U.S. government allocated 3.61 percent of its GDP to defense programs in 2016, the report added.

U.S. Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy will retire by March 4 after a 29-year career at the agency, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

Carol Leonnig writes Clancy confirmed Tuesday he plans to retire for good and move back to his house in Philadelphia.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said Clancy’s resignation presents an opportunity for President Donald Trump to appoint an outsider to lead the Secret Service and provide “a fresh set of eyes and new perspective” to the agency, Leonnig reported.

Clancy joined the Secret Service in 1984 and became the head of former President Barack Obama’s detail in 2009 until his departure from the role in 2011.

He worked as security director at Comcast‘s Philadelphia office before he returned to the government as interim director of the Secret Service when Julia Pierson stepped down in 2014.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said defense ministers from allied nations will meet this week in Brussels to discuss the current state of the global security environment, DoD News reported Tuesday.

Jim Garamone writes Stoltenberg told reporters that NATO member countries aim to address security challenges through increased defense spending.

U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis will join his foreign counterparts and Stoltenberg from Europe and North America at the international alliance’s defense ministerial meeting to tackle the ongoing efforts against extremist groups such as the Islamic State militant group and other emerging threats from the Middle East and North Africa.

The group plans to deploy four multinational battle groups in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland as part of efforts to address regional stability issues.

NATO members also pledged to invest two percent of the respective countries’ gross domestic product in defense programs, Garamone reported.

The report said defense ministers will also assess the alliance’s command structure and identify possible strategies to address hybrid warfare, hybrid threats and cyber defense issues during their meeting.

The U.S. Marine Corps‘ Task Force Southwest has demonstrated a new small unmanned aerial system designed for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions during a flight test held at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

The Instant Eye UAS works to capture imagery of battlespaces, perform reconnaissance and conduct airstrikes on selected targets, the service branch said Monday.

The drone is designed to launch and land at a 90-degree angle and equipped with a rotary wing that can support movement in tightly-confined spaces.

Isaac Brown, an intelligence specialist at Task Force Southwest, said Instant Eye will help Marines to scout ahead of obstacles and support operations in Afghanistan.

“[Instant Eye] reduces the need for forward observation… and can take some of the risk out of patrolling,” said Shaun Sorensen, a SUAS instructor with the Training and Logistics Support Activity.

Marines have practiced the use of Instant Eye at night, through and around obstacles inside and outside closed spaces to help boost the units flying skills in preparation for a nine-month deployment to Afghanistan.

Keith Kellogg, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and former director of the C4 directorate at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has been appointed to serve as national security adviser on an acting basis, the White House announced Monday.

President Donald Trump made the appointment shortly after his former national security adviser Michael Flynn resigned amid questions about the latter’s communications with some Russian government officials.

Kellogg served in the Army from 1967 to 2003 and his 36-year military career includes time as commander of the 82nd Airborne Division and two overseas tours during the Vietnam War.

He also held several leadership roles at GovCon firms such as at CACI International, Oracle and Cubic‘s defense segment after he retired from the military, The Guardian reported Tuesday.

The report said Kellogg most recently served as a member of Trump’s transition team and as executive secretary and chief of staff at the National Security Council.