Estonia has launched a new defense organization that will work to consolidate procurements of the country’s defense ministry and subordinate establishments.

The defense ministry said Monday the Estonian Centre for Defence Investments will also oversee defense construction activity and property management.

Estonian Defense Minister Margus Tsahkna said ECDI will free defense forces from non-military tasks and provide common management for procurement- and infrastructure-related matters.

The country’s defense spending volume for 2017 is $166 million and ECDI aims to carry out 500 procurements and 100 infrastructure projects.

EDIC will begin operations with 120 personnel and Rauno Sirk, former chief of staff of Estonia’s air force headquarters, will serve as director of the new institution.

Capt. David Bretz, previously deputy commodore of the U.S. Navy‘s Destroyer Squadron 31, has officially succeeded Capt. Charles Johnson as DESRON-31 commander during a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl-Harbor Hickam.

Johnson, who will move on to report to the commander of U.S. 6th Fleet in Naples, Italy, was awarded the Legion of Merit at the ceremony, the Navy said Friday.

“Capt. Bretz is ready to lead the DESRON-31 team in the face of a rapidly changing maritime security environment,” said Rear Adm. John Fuller, Naval Surface Group Middle Pacific commander.

Bretz has been assigned to USS Arleigh Burke and USS Thorn and served as an engineering officer in USS Mahan, executive officer in USS James E. Williams and commanding officer of USS Whirlwind and USS Jason Dunham.

He was a congressional liaison for the director of surface warfare at the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations and director of the White House liaison office at the Department of the Navy.

Bretz is the recipient of military awards such as the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Joint Service Commendation Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal and Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal.

The Defense Logistics Agency has appointed Ben Harvey, former logistics planner at the Army Materiel Command, as deputy director for DLA’s distribution unit in Richmond, Virginia.

Harvey held a variety of positions in the U.S. Army, such as tank company executive officer for the 24th Infantry Division, tank company commander in the 3rd Infantry Division, J5 future plans officer and J9 Director for DLA Distribution headquarters, DLA said Tuesday.

He is a former range safety officer at the Wildflecken Training Area, cavalry headquarters troop commander in 2d Armored Cavalry Regiment and J3 planner in Joint Task Force Civil Support.

He was assigned to several local and international U.S. camps and took part in the Desert Shield, Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom operations.

Harvey was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal, Joint Service Commendation Medal, Joint Service Achievement Medal, Army Commendation Medal with “V” Device, National Defense Service Medal, Overseas Ribbon, Kuwaiti Liberation Medal, Southwest Asia Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism and the Korean Defense Medal.

The defense ministry of Japan has proposed nearly $30.7 million in new subsidies for municipalities that allow U.S. forces to conduct tactical drills, The Mainichi reported Tuesday.

Japan will award the new subsidies once the U.S. military realignment fund for local governments expires in March 2017, according to the report.

The report said the U.S. and Japan signed an agreement in 2006 to transfer combat exercises from U.S. military bases in Kadena, Misawa and Iwakuni to the Japanese air self-defense force’s six bases in Chitose, Misawa and Hyakuri, Komatsu, Tsuiki and Nyutabaru.

Japan has subsidized municipalities that host U.S. military drills around JASDF bases since 2007, Mainichi reports.

President-elect Donald Trump needs to complete his first spending plan for the Defense Department before a continuing resolution that currently funds government operations expires in April, Military Times reported Monday.

Leo Shane writes Trump’s first budget request will establish a baseline for at least four years of defense spending.

The report said Trump looks to grow the force size in the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps; increase U.S. Navy ships and U.S. Air Force fighter aircraft; modernize nuclear weapons systems; and boost cybersecurity investment.

The incoming administration’s plans could increase active-duty force by approximately 140,000 personnel, Shane reported.

The U.S. Navy has begun to fire electromagnetic railgun hypervelocity projectiles from an Army howitzer through a series of developmental tests in an effort to expedite the deployment of the rounds to battlefields, Scout Warrior reported Monday.

Kris Osborn writes the hypervelocity projectile, which costs $25,000 per round, is designed as a kinetic energy warhead and works to travel up to 5,600 miles per hour to target hostile weapons systems, vehicle bunkers, aircraft and enemy missiles at greater distances.

William Roper, director of the Defense Department’s strategic capabilities office, told Scout Warrior that a 155m howitzer has a muzzle breach that works to capture some of the hypervelocity projectile’s propellant in order to make firing operations safer for warfighters.

The Navy plans to equip its fleet of surface ships such as destroyers and cruisers with electromagnetic railgun HVPs, Osborn reports.

Service branch officials also told the publication that the Navy has started to assess the possible integration of electromagnetic railguns with its DDG 1000 destroyer ships by mid-2020s.