Lt. Gen. Viktor Poznikhir, first deputy head of the main operations department for Russia’s general staff, said the country will work with China to develop a response to the U.S. missile defense program, the Washington Free Beacon reported Tuesday.

Morgan Chalfant writes the two nations have began efforts to counter the U.S. missile defense program and cited joint military drills that Russia and China have held in the South China Sea such as exercises on missile strike defense.

“The missile defense system considerably shifts the balance of offensive weapons, allowing the planning of a more efficient pre-emptive strike,” said Poznikhir.

“Russian military experts believe that the U.S. hopes to gain the capability to strike any region of the world, including Russia and China, with nuclear-tipped missiles with impunity.”

The Defense Department has pledged $10 million to aid the Colombian government’s humanitarian mine clearance operations as part of the U.S.’ continued support for the ongoing peace process in Colombia, DoD News reported Monday.

DoD News reports that Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and his Colombian counterpart Luis Carlos Villegas talked about bilateral military relations Monday over the phone.

“The two defense leaders discussed the status of the peace talks and a range of shared security issues,” said Peter Cook, the Pentagon’s press secretary.

Cook added that Carter postponed his trip to Colombia due to Hurricane Matthew and invited Villegas for a meeting at the Pentagon.

The Defense Department has said several efforts are underway to address so-called “ghost” soldiers in Afghanistan such as person-by-person verification and biometric registration, Stars and Stripes reported Friday.

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said in a letter to DoD that there are gaps between the number of assigned Afghan forces and the actual head count of persons in service, Phillip Wellman wrote.

SIGAR asked DoD for an update on previously proposed measures to account for Afghan security forces, Wellman reported.

DoD said biometric enrollments of Afghan personnel will be completed in July 2017 to give DoD and Afghanistan’s defense ministry a representation of actual force strength, the report stated.

The U.S. has spent $68 billion since 2002 to aid Afghanistan’s national defense and security forces in the fight against the Taliban and other militant groups.

The USS Zumwalt guided missile destroyer has sailed from Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia in preparation for a commissioning ceremony in Baltimore, USNI News reported Friday.

The ship left earlier than scheduled in an effort to avoid Hurricane Matthew after it received repairs at the naval station, Sam LaGrone writes.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson will deliver the principal address during the commissioning ceremony scheduled for Oct. 15 that will also feature ship co-sponsors Ann Zumwalt and Mouzetta Zumwalt-Weathers, the report said.

The U.S. Navy will assign the ship to Naval Station San Diego in California where it will undergo a combat systems activation period prior to entering service in 2018.

The U.S. and Nordic and Baltic nations have conducted multilateral security meetings in Finland over two days to address regional security threats and beef up the U.S.-Nordic-Baltic cooperation, DoD News reported Friday.

Lisa Ferdinando writes Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work arrived in the Finnish capital of Helsinki Thursday to meet with the representatives of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden.

The report said Work also inked a statement of intent with Finnish Defense Minister Jussi Niinisto to bolster collaboration on defense issues between the U.S. and Finland.

“It expresses our shared desire to cooperate on security issues of mutual concern and to ensure that our militaries can work together to confront [those issues],” the U.S. deputy defense secretary said.

Work also participated in a U.S.-Finland-Sweden meeting, where he and his counterparts Finnish Defense Secretary Jukka Juusti and Swedish Defense Secretary Jan Salestrand agreed to trilateral sessions scheduled in Washington in late 2016, according to the report.

Ferdinando writes discussions during the overall meeting covered regional security concerns such as the Islamic State militant group and Russia’s behavior in the Baltic Sea, including that country’s reported breaches into the airspace in Finland and Estonia.

Work described Russia’s alleged airspace violations as “dangerous and unprofessional,” the report said.

Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work was set to discuss security challenges with the Baltic and Nordic countries during his two-day visit to Finland, DoD News reported Friday.

Lisa Ferdinando writes Work’s visit focused on defense cooperation and regional alliance amid threats arising from Russia’s behavior in the Baltic Sea.

“This is a chance for us really just to exchange views on Russia, talk about areas of cooperation and explore — when we add Sweden — more that we can do in a trilateral sense,” Work told DoD News.

Soon after his arrival in Finland, the report said Work observed as Finnish troops conducted a beach assault and hostage rescue mission and toured onboard a jet-powered Rauma-class missile boat in Helsinki.

The U.S. deputy defense secretary seeks to establish an agreement for cooperation with Finland and Sweden, Ferdinando writes.

Lt. Gen. James McConville, deputy chief of staff for personnel at the U.S. Army, said the military service will roll out a new software platform designed to manage human resources and pay processes for the Army as well as the branch’s National Guard and Reserve components.

The Army said Wednesday the Integrated Personnel and Pay System-Army software will  replace 45 independent systems and seeks to help branch leaders track potential talents across all three Army components.

“It’ll be the first time in the history of the Army that we have all three components, the active, the Guard and the Reserve on one system,” said McConville.

McConville added that the IPPS-A can help the service branch define a soldier by as many as 25 variables as opposed to the previous method that only classifies service members by rank and occupational specialty.

Maj. Gen. Wilson Shoffner, director of the Army’s talent management task force, said the service branch will also implement an assignment interactive module designed to serve as a “bridge” to the new personnel software.

CACI International was awarded a five-year, $159 million prime contract by the Army in May 2015 to support the development and implementation of the IPPS-A.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has discussed plans to double the number of U.S. Marines in the Australian city of Darwin by 2020 with Australia’s Defense Minister Marise Payne during a bilateral meeting held in Washington, Reuters reported Thursday.

Tom Westbrook writes the two countries have reached a cost-sharing agreement in principle  to increase U.S. military presence in Australia’s tropical north where approximately 2,500 soldiers are currently stationed.

The two countries agreed to co-invest $1.52 billion in infrastructure that will support military operations in northern Australia as well as other share costs associated with the 25-year deployment plan, according to the report.

The report said the U.S. and Australia also want to conduct joint training and exercises that could seek participation from other Asia-Pacific allies.

“The two sides will now finalize a cost sharing implementing arrangement to capture the terms, pursuant to the force posture agreement,” Commander Gary Ross, a Defense Department spokesman, told Reuters.