Michael Bayer, chairman of the Defense Business Board, has noted that the Defense Department will need to tackle certain issues as part of transition efforts after the presidential election in November, DoD News reported Tuesday.

Karen Parrish writes a DBB report highlights focus points for the transition team that include personnel changes or adjustments, measures to control overhead costs as well as policy direction for the incoming team under the new president.

“It is imperative that the department’s leaders are ready to begin work on inauguration day,” Bayer told DoD News.

Bayer, who is president and CEO of Dumbarton Strategies, said the DBB report recommends a transformation of the role of the deputy defense secretary into a chief management officer who would manage DoD operations similar to a chief operating officer.

The report added other priority areas include an orientation program and confirmation preparation for selected appointees of the incoming president.

DBB serves to advise DoD senior leaders on business practices and consists of 26 board members from the audit and finance, corporate governance, economics, executive management, healthcare, human resources and technology sectors.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter will meet with other senior defense officials from South and Central America in Trinidad and Tobago to discuss the development of a regional policy that seeks to facilitate humanitarian and disaster relief efforts during natural disasters, The Washington Times reported Monday.

Carlo Muñoz writes a senior U.S. defense official told the publication that defense leaders will focus their discussion on the regional humanitarian policy as part of the Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas’ biannual meeting.

Defense officials from Central and South America drafted the structure of the proposed policy in Chile and initially proposed the regional strategy for humanitarian operations during the consortium’s meeting in Uruguay, according to the report.

The news of a regionwide disaster response policy comes as the U.S. leads humanitarian operations in Haiti in response to Hurricane Matthew’s impact, the report said.

A U.S. Navy aircraft carrier has arrived in San Diego after a six-day sea trial test to mark the official completion of a 20-month extended planned incremental availability.

The Navy said Tuesday USS Nimitz went through sea trials to assess its ship readiness through an evaluation of crew performance and ship equipment operability using system checks and drills.

Evaluations included the activation of the ship’s countermeasure washdown and aqueous film forming foam systems, sea and anchor and precision anchoring exercises and ship self-defense weapon testing as well as man overboard drills.

Ensign Lester Quinlin, air boatswain for the V-2 maintenance program, said the certification of the ship’s catapults will play a role in the launch of aircraft from the carrier.

The Navy noted it has also tested the ship’s MK-38 25mm machine gun, MK-15 Phalanx Close-In Weapons System and .50-caliber machine guns.

Carrier Strike Group 11 and Carrier Air Wing 11 will join USS Nimitz to conduct flight operations and work on a flight deck certification upon the aircraft carrier’s return to sea.

The Defense Department’s spectrum team has received n award from National Intelligence Director James Clapper for the group’s work in support of U.S. intelligence agencies, DoD News reported Tuesday.

Cheryl Pellerin writes Clapper presented the National Intelligence Meritorious Unit Citation to two members of the team in recognition of their work on strategies and technologies to use radio frequency spectrum over the past several years.

That spectrum effort takes its mandate from a June 2010 memorandum by President Barack Obama that required executive branch departments, agencies and offices to help the Federal Communications Commission produce 500 megahertz of federal and nonfederal spectrum over 10 years.

The memo directed that the spectrum be compatible with mobile and fixed wireless broadband and be available for licensing by the FCC or for shared access, the report says.

Pellerin writes the spectrum team earned the citation for its effort to protect operations and carry out the president’s memo.