The Defense Department has stepped up its strategy to assess potential systems against intercontinental ballistic missile threats, Reuters reported Wednesday.

DoD elevated anti-ICBM technology assessment efforts following the completion of a simulated ICBM interception test last month at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

A June 6 department memo seen by Reuters says the Boeing-built Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system offers a capacity to protect the homeland from multiple intermediate-range and intercontinental missile threats using basic countermeasures.

Vice Adm. Jim Syring, director of the Missile Defense Agency, said during a congressional hearing the U.S. defense program still has room for improvement despite DoD’s efforts to address challenges related to the system’s reliability over the past five years.

James MacStravic serves as the Under Secretary of Defense for acquisition, technology and logistics in the Defense Department, where he gives the the secretary of defense information on acquisition, contract administration and the defense industrial base. His role supports DoD’s efforts to boost the purchasing power and performance capacity of the defense acquisition enterprise.

MacStravic will also offer logistics and material readiness, operational energy, chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, research and engineering data to the defense secretary.

The DoD veteran held various roles within the Office of the Secretary of Defense including principal deputy assistant secretary of defense, strategic adviser and the deputy assistant secretary of defense for tactical warfare systems.

He served as a member of the U.S. Air Force where he was named a deputy director at the service branch’s Aerial Networking Systems and the Joint STARS program offices.

MacStravic also held various roles within the Naval Sea Systems Command including as a principal naval architect and head of the process control division.

He received a bachelor’s degree in naval architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in finance from the George Mason University.

Lt. Gen. Gwen Bingham, U.S. Army assistant chief of staff for installation management, has told lawmakers that the Army needs another round of base realignment and closure, or BRAC, to remove excess facilities and redirect maintenance funds toward other readiness efforts.

Bingham told the Senate Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on military construction, veterans affairs and related agencies that the Army pays to maintain approximately 161 million square feet of excess infrastructure, the Army said Thursday.

She added that another round of BRAC would eliminate the need to maintain excess infrastructure and allow the Army to use cost savings to repair needed facilities and support readiness priorities.

“The Army has infrastructure capacity in excess of any foreseeable future force structure, not always located where it is needed, but consuming precious dollars that could be better invested elsewhere,” Bingham stated.

The Army’s fiscal year 2018 budget request allots $1.79 billion for facilities — including $1.2 billion for military construction, $529 million for family housing and $58 million for the execution of the last BRAC round, which started in 2005.

Bingham said the budget request is lower than what the Army needs but could help mitigate the accelerated degradation of the military branch’s facilities.

The Army faces $10.8 billion in deferred maintenance backlog, which accounts for approximately 22 percent of the the service’s buildings and means that more than one in five buildings are deteriorating.

Bingham told senators the Army works to sustain facilities in good condition to prevent degradation; apply resources to modernize or demolish facilities; and consolidate personnel into well-maintained facilities then eliminate deteriorated buildings under the Reduce the Footprint initiative.

The U.S. Army has begun to assess its entire communications system as part of efforts to streamline the military branch’s information technology procurement process, Breaking Defense reported Wednesday.

Acting Army Secretary Robert Speer and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told reporters that the review will produce recommendations on streamlining IT acquisition and that some of the recommendations will be sent to Defense Secretary James Mattis for his strategic readiness review.

“What we want to make sure is that the Army, as part of a joint force, has the ability to effectively conduct mission command,” said Milley.

“A key component of that is to be able to communicate — voice, digital, video, and so on — in any environment, globally… and against any foe,” he added.

The report said Milley expects the service branch to complete the system review in four to six weeks.

He noted the Army will coordinate some recommendations with the Joint Staff and the Defense Department as well as authorization and appropriations committees in Congress.

U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Scott Howell, head of the Special Operations Joint Task Force and the NATO Special Operations Component Command in Afghanistan, will be nominated as vice commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command.

The Defense Department said Wednesday President Donald Trump also endorsed Howell for promotion to the rank of lieutenant general.

The 29-year Air Force veteran leads all U.S. and NATO special operations teams that operate in Afghanistan in his current role.

He served as a command pilot and recorded more than 2,600 flight hours with rotary-wing aircraft such as UH-1N, UH-1H, TH-53, CH-47, MH-6 and MH-53 J/M.

Howell held various positions within the Air Staff and the Air Force Special Operations Command, the 37th Air Rescue Squadron, 1st Cavalry Division, 20th Special Operations Squadron, 21st Special Operations Squadron and the 20th Special Operations Squadron.