Maj. Gen. David Thompson, vice commander of the Air Force Space Command, has said the Air Force plans to tap commercial contractors to operate its satellite constellations on a daily basis in order to allow the service branch to focus on other duties, C4ISRNET reported Thursday.

He told Satellite 2017 conference attendees Wednesday in Washington that the plan comes as the military branch shifts its focus on efforts to understand and respond to the current threat environment, Mark Pomerleau wrote.

Thompson noted that the Air Force is finalizing a request for proposals for a program that seeks to make contractors operators of wideband satellite communications systems from remote areas.

The report said Thompson expects the program to occur in 2018.

He also described at the event other Air Force space architecture programs such as the Space and Missile System Center’s Enterprise Ground Services and the Air Force Satellite Control Network, according to the report.

The U.S. Air Force and Australia’s jointly-operated space surveillance radar system has achieved full operational capability status following completion of a relocation effort that began in 2014.

Australia’s defense department said Tuesday the C-band radar system was transferred from Antigua to the Harold E. Holt Naval Communication Station in Western Australia.

Australian defense minister Marise Payne said the system works to provide coverage in the southern and eastern hemisphere, track hundreds of objects and identify space debris and satellites.

Payne added that the C-band radar operates as a sensor node in the U.S. global space surveillance network.

The relocation project was completed on schedule through a partnership between the Air Force with the Australian defense force’s capability acquisition and sustainment group, Payne stated.

Air Force Gen. John Hyten, head of the U.S. Strategic Command, has said the U.S. Navy could work with the U.S. Air Force to develop an airborne command-and-control aircraft that will replace the Navy’s E-6B fleet, Defense News reported Wednesday.

Aaron Mehta writes Hyten told Congress members the Navy has started planning for the development of an E-6B replacement aircraft and that the service branch aims to deploy the platform by 2038.

“We’re only 20 years from 2038, so if you’re going to build large aircraft with huge command and control [requirements], you have to start thinking about those things right now,” said Hyten, an inductee into Executive Mosaic‘s Wash100 for 2017.

E-6B is based on Boeing‘s 707 commercial aircraft and designed to provide airborne command, control and communications support.

Adm. Bill Moran, vice chief of naval operations, said the E-6B replacement program could align the Air Force’s efforts to replace other 707-based command and control platforms such as the E-8C joint surveillance target attack radar system, E-3 airborne warning and control system and OC-135B Open Skies aircraft, FlightGlobal reported Wednesday.

Moran added that the Navy and Air Force should consider a joint program since the two military branches have similar requirements for aircraft size and shape, capacity and endurance.

WikiLeaks has released more than 7,000 webpages of documents on software tools and techniques alleged used by CIA and allied intelligence agencies to gain access to computers, smartphones and other personal devices, the New York Times reported Tuesday.

Andrew Lehren, Matthew Rosenberg and Scott Shane write that the WikiLeaks release dubbed Vault 7 covers instructions on how to compromise computer tools such as Skype and commercial antivirus programs.

The report said the documents, dated from 2013 to 2016, are from CIA’s Center for Cyber Intelligence and have potentially been circulated among former government hackers and contractors, one of whom WikiLeaks claims to be a source.

James Lewis, a cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the New York Times he believes a foreign state instead might have led the hacking and delivered the information to WikiLeaks.

Reuters reported Wednesday that U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials also believe a contractor might have breached security and provided the hacking documents.

The report noted companies that have worked with CIA are looking into their computer logs, access allocation and communications to determine if any of their contractors may have been involved in the breach.

Both the Senate and House intelligence committees plan to open inquiries into the data breach, the report added.

“CIA is legally prohibited from conducting electronic surveillance targeting individuals here at home, including our fellow Americans, and CIA does not do so,” the agency noted in a statement issued Wednesday.

“[The WikiLeaks disclosures] not only jeopardize U.S. personnel and operations, but also equip our adversaries with tools and information to do us harm.”