The Government Accountability Office has found that the Defense Department has named an infrastructure manager to oversee the Chemical and Biological Defense Program and has begun to define the manager’s responsibilities and roles through three phases.

DoD completed in October 2016 the initial phase that covers the clarification of the position’s responsibilities over the management of laboratories, support facilities and other physical infrastructure, GAO said in a report published Friday.

The second phase covers the development of a strategic investment plan, Biosafety Taskforce study, core competencies review and an infrastructure composition and disposition report.

CBDP officials told GAO that they expect phase two to conclude by the end of this year.

Phase three involves the clarification of the infrastructure manager’s responsibilities over the program’s intellectual infrastructure or the staff’s skills and knowledge, according to the report.

The agency also found that program officials will commence the last stage upon the second phase’s completion and expect to complete the final phase by the end of 2018.

A pair of B-1B Lancer bomber aircraft from the Andersen Air Force Base in Guam have completed a 10-hour sequenced bilateral mission with fighter jets from Japan and South Korea, DoD News reported Saturday.

U.S. Air Force officials said the exercise was conducted in response to recent North Korean actions that included an intercontinental ballistic missile launch on July 3.

“We continue to train with our Japanese allies to ensure we are ready to defend ourselves from attack,” said Lt. Gen. Jerry Martinez, commander of U.S. Forces Japan.

Pilots flew the B-1B Lancers to the Korean Peninsula to collaborate with the USAF’s F-16 units and South Korea’s F-15 jets and practice attack capacities using inert weapons.

The bomber aircraft also integrated with Japan’s F-2 planes over the East China Sea.

Col. Matthew Kelly, formerly MV-22 military lead for the V-22 Osprey program, has assumed leadership of the V-22 Joint Program Office within the Naval Air Systems Command and succeeded former program manager Col. Dan Robinson.

NAVAIR said Thursday Kelly will lead PMA-275’s work to oversee the full lifecycle of the tiltrotor aircraft as it supports the U.S. Marine Corps‘ medium-lift assault requirement as MV-22; the Air Force Special Operations Command‘s infiltration, exfiltration and resupply missions as CV-22; and the Joint Force Maritime Component Commander’s logistics needs as CMV-22B.

“In addition to the accomplishments of the CMV-22 and the [Japanese foreign military sale] case, the focus of each member of the V-22 Joint Program Office team has been to support the Marines and Airmen in the field through working to increase readiness levels,” Robinson, who will move on to the NAVAIR 6.0 Logistics and Industrial Operations team, said during the change-of-command ceremony Wednesday.

Lt. Gen. Jon Davis, deputy commandant of the Marine Corps for aviation, has noted the service is working to execute the Common Configuration Readiness and Modernization plan to re-baseline the first 129 V-22 units based on a recent independent readiness review.

Bell and Boeing collaborated to build the joint service multirole combat aircraft.