The U.S. military has returned 10,000 acres of land in Okinawa to the Japanese government in a ceremony held at Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s office in Tokyo, DoD News reported Wednesday.

Jim Garamone writes the transfer of land on Okinawa’s Northern Training Area will work to reduce U.S. military footprint in the island by 20 percent.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said the two governments aim to demonstrate their commitment to realign U.S. forces through the return of property slated earlier this week.

“[The land transfer] is an important step in the Okinawa consolidation plan, which will eventually result in the transfer of 60 acres of land south of Kadena Air Base,” said U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy.

Officials said U.S. and Japanese forces will continue to train on the remainder of the 19,300-acre Northern Training Area, Garamone reported.

The U.S. military also plans to give back a majority of American facilities near Kadena Air Base and relocate Marine Corps Air Station Futenma as part of efforts to consolidate U.S. installations in Okinawa, DoD News stated.

A Defense Department-launched crowdsourcing effort has received nearly 100 submissions of proposals designed to address operational challenges on power projection, counter-power projection and changes in joint force operational and organizational constructs, DoD News reported Wednesday.

Cheryl Pellerin writes the three chairs of the Operational Challenges Crowdsourcing Initiative selected two top papers and several submissions on systems that can potentially aid efforts to address operational challenges.

DoD’s Office of Strategy and Force Development launched the crowdsourcing effort in November to collect ideas that can support the department’s efforts.

“We launched the initiative to try to inspire creative thinking inside and outside the department on some key operational challenges that face the U.S. military, and to try to contribute to the department’s ongoing third-offset efforts,” said Mara Karlin, deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development.

One of the proposals from Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment researchers involved potential changes in posture and investment priorities to help boost the military’s capacity to conduct sustained operations in the Asia Pacific.

Another proposal from U.S. Army leaders involved an operational concept for amphibious assault strategy that can help project power and boost battle networks.

Brig. Gen. William Cooley, program executive for programs and integration at the Missile Defense Agency, has been appointed as commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson AF Base in Ohio, the Defense Department announced Wednesday.

He will lead the laboratory’s efforts to discover, build and integrate warfighting technologies for U.S. air, space and cyber forces.

Cooley joined MDA in August last year and managed a portfolio of ground-based midcourse defense, global deployment, targets and countermeasures as well as the agency’s Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System, joint U.S.-Israel efforts and classified programs.

The 28-year military veteran previously held leadership roles at the Space and Missile Systems Center’s global positioning systems directorate, Phillips Research Site and Materiel Wing and AFRL’s space vehicles directorate.

Some of his previous assignments also include service as program manager for the Air Force’s Distributed Common Ground System, program element monitor for military satellite communications and staff officer of the Warrior Preparation Center at Einsiedlerhof Air Station in Germany.

The U.K. defense ministry will establish a new agency that will manage the development of a new class of nuclear ballistic missile submarines designed to replace the naval force’s Vanguard-class submarines in support of the country’s $38.4 billion nuclear deterrent program, Defense News reported Wednesday.

Andrew Chuter writes the ministry also appointed former railway construction chief Robert Holden as interim chairman to help set up the new body that will begin operations in April and oversee the construction of four Dreadnought-class missile submarines.

Michael Fallon, U.K. defense secretary, said in the 2016 update to parliament that personnel working on the new submarine program at the defense equipment and support organization will transfer to the new executive agency effective April 1.

Tony Douglas, CEO of the DE&S organization, said in his Dec. 20 letter to staff, that the U.K. government has begun to develop proposals to advance the development of the Dreadnoughts through an alliance between the defense ministry and contractors BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce, Chuter reports.

Rolls-Royce has started development work on a nuclear raising plant called PWR3, while BAE will build 16 units that will comprise the four Dreadnought submarines for the Royal Navy, Defense News added.