Vice Adm. Mary Jackson, former commander of Navy Region Southeast, officially assumed the role of commander of the Navy Installations Command during a change-of-command ceremony held Friday in Washington.

The service branch said Friday Jackson succeeded Vice Adm. Dixon Smith, who served as the fifth CNIC and managed 71 Navy installations under 11 regions that include transmitter sites, missile ranges, schools, naval magazines and fuel storage sites.

Former President Barack Obama nominated Jackson for the CNIC position in November last year.

Her sea assignments have included service as assistant operations officer and navigator on USS Willamette, executive officer of USS Stout and operations officer of the USS Briscoe and USS Vella Gulf.

She previously commanded the USS McFaul guided missile destroyer, which served as the flagship for the Combined Task Force Iraqi Maritime and Destroyer Squadron 50 in the Arabian Gulf and the North Arabian Sea.

Jackson also held various positions at the U.S. Naval Academy, U.S. Joint Forces Command, Naval Surface Forces, Atlantic Fleet, Navy Personnel Command and Naval Station Norfolk.

Heather Wilson, the White House’s nominee for the U.S. Air Force secretary post, has said she plans to prioritize efforts to raise awareness of threats to space assets once confirmed, Space News reported Friday.

Phillip Swarts writes Wilson, a former U.S. representative from New Mexico, told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee during her confirmation hearing Thursday that space will continue to be a “contested domain in any future conflict.”

She added she would seek to introduce changes to the Air Force’s acquisition process and advance efforts to increase the service branch’s investment in research and development initiatives.

Prior to the hearing, Wilson also responded to written questions about space such as her commitment to ceasing U.S. reliance’s on Russian-built RD-180 rocket engines as well as support to competition in the launch of national security payloads and development of offensive capabilities for space control to help counter threats to space assets, the report added.

Capt. John Dougherty, formerly class desk officer for the U.S. Navy‘s unmanned carrier aviation program office, has taken a new role as manager of the service branch’s precision strike weapons program office.

The Navy said Thursday that Dougherty will oversee 30 programs that cost more than $4.7 billion combined, including the Naval Air Systems Command’s foreign military sales portfolio.

He succeeded Capt. Jaime Engdahl, who will retire in July after a 27-year military career.

The service branch previously assigned Dougherty to various roles at NAVAIR such as airborne and rockets pyrotechnics integrated product team lead for the direct and time sensitive strike weapons program office; deputy director of development for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program office; and weapon systems integration and radar integrated product team lead for F/A-18 & EA-18G program office.

Dougherty also supported combat strike missions during Operations Southern Watch and Enduring Freedom as a pilot for Strike Fighter Squadron 125.

He has recorded more than 1,200 hours and 300 carrier landings as an F/A-18 command pilot.

Air Force Gen. John Hyten, head of the U.S. Strategic Command, has said the federal government should boost spending on efforts to modernize the country’s nuclear arsenal by 2.5 percent to three percent, DoD News reported Friday.

Jim Garamone writes Hyten told audience at the annual Military Reporters and Editors meeting that nuclear modernization will require nearly six percent of the defense budget.

Hyten, an inductee into Executive Mosaic‘s Wash100 for 2017, added nuclear weapons currently account for approximately 3.5 percent of the budget.

“When you think of the survival of our nation — and I think that is the most important reason we have a military… the backstop of all of that is the nuclear enterprise,” he said.

Hyten noted submarines are the “most survivable” element of the nuclear triad while intercontinental ballistic missiles are the “most ready” and bomber aircraft are the “most flexible.”

President Donald Trump has said he will take unilateral action to restrain North Korea’s nuclear weapons program if China does not cooperate with the U.S. to address the problem, CNN reported Monday.

Eli Watkins writes Trump will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week to discuss nuclear threats from North Korea and possible measures to reduce the U.S. trade deficit in China.

The U.S. thinks China should heighten financial pressure against North Korea given that China accounts for approximately 70 percent of North Korea’s trade, Watkins reported.

“China will either decide to help us with North Korea or they won’t… If China is not going to solve North Korea, we will,” Trump told the Financial Times in an interview.

Reuters reported Sunday that Trump’s national security advisers have begun to review economic and military  strategies they believe can disrupt North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs.

A U.S. government official told Reuters the review “de-emphasizes direct military action.”

The report said Trump and Xi could also discuss Chinese presence in the South China Sea, where nearly $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes annually.