A new report from IHS Markit says militant attacks worldwide rose from 18,987 in 2015 to 24,202 in 2016 with Syria and Iraq accounting for 45 percent of those attacks.

IHS Markit said Tuesday the Islamic State organization constituted approximately 18 percent of the global militant attacks and accounted for 39 percent of all non-militant casualties in 2016.

The findings are based on IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Center’s annual Global Attack Index and open source-based global database that covers over 250,000 militant attacks since 2009 and monitors at least 1,000 non-state armed groups across the world.

“In southeast Asia, there is an increased likelihood that the Islamic State will declare an official wilaya or province in 2017,” said Otso Iho, senior analyst at JTIC.

“The Islamic State could use the declaration as a way to project its influence globally at a time when its fortunes in Iraq and Syria are waning,” Iho added.

Matthew Henman, head of JTIC, said the Jabhat Fath al-Sham group, formerly called Jabhat al-Nusra, is likely to pose a threat in 2017.

The report noted that Jabhat Fath al-Sham claimed 687 attacks in 2016, a figure that represents a 20 percent rise from the previous year.

Militant-related violence in Ukraine rose to nearly 4,500 in 2016, while Turkey showed a 110 percent increase in insurgencies followed by Yemen at 76 percent.

The report also noted that an average of 86 militant attacks per day occurred in October 2016.

Rear Adm. Craig Faller, chief of legislative affairs for the secretary of the U.S. Navy in Washington, has been appointed senior military assistant to the Defense Department secretary.

Acting Navy Secretary Sean Stackley and Adm. John Richardson, chief of naval operations, announced Faller’s new assignment in a DoD news release published Monday.

Rear Adm. James Loeblein will replace Faller in his role at the Navy.

Faller assumed the role of chief of legislative affairs for the Navy secretary in 2014 where he served as a principal liaison between the leaders of the Department of the Navy and congressional members.

The 34-year Navy veteran is former commander and director of operations at the U.S. Central Command.

Faller has served in other leadership posts at the service branch that include chief of the Navy Recruiting Command, executive assistant to the commander of the U.S. Pacific Command and head of surface nuclear officer programs and placement at the Navy Personnel Command.

His sea assignments include roles as operations officer aboard the USS Peterson (DD 969), commanding officer of the USS Stethem (DDG 63), reactor electrical division officer on the USS South Carolina (CGN 37) and commander of the Carrier Strike Group 3.

A group of U.S. Air Force maintainers and pilots from the 388th and 419th Fighter Wings at Hill Air Force Base has deployed a Lockheed Martin-built F-35A to Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada for an air-to-air combat training exercise.

The service branch said Monday its F-35A pilots will fly the aircraft alongside other fourth- and fifth-generation aircraft platforms as part of the Red Flag exercise to demonstrate defensive and offensive counter air, enemy defense suppression and limited close air support tasks.

The conventional takeoff-and-landing jet was declared by Gen. Hawk Carlisle, head of the Air Combat Command, as combat ready in August 2016 after the aircraft met initial operational capability requirements.

“Our Reserve pilots and maintainers are looking forward to putting the F-35A weapon system to the test alongside our active duty partners,” said Col. David Smith, commander of the 419th Flight Wing.

Red Flag offers experience on multiple, intensive air combat sorties to the service branch’s aircrews while in the safety of a controlled training environment.

Senior U.S. Navy officials have decided to retain the Advanced Arresting Gear as the recovery system aboard Ford-class aircraft carriers.

The Naval Air Systems Command said Monday the AAG Resource Requirements Review Board chose to continue with AAG instead of reverting to the Mk-17 legacy recovery system after the board completed a review in November 2016.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson and Sean Stackley, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, co-chaired the board.

NAVAIR noted that AAG faced delays in developmental tests as well as design challenges in the water twister component over the past years.

Rear Adm. Mike Moran, the Navy’s program executive officer for tactical aircraft programs, said the government and contractor team implemented a build-test-fix software methodology and hardware changes in an effort to boost AAG’s performance.

The system has conducted 1,400 dead-load arrestments and 351 test arrestments of the F/A-18 Super Hornet aircraft as of December 2016.

AAG has moved forward with a land-based test program and currently undergoes commissioning tests aboard USS Gerald R. Ford, NAVAIR added.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Arizona) has proposed $7.5 billion in U.S. military funds to boost munition inventory and construct infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region through 2022, Reuters reported Monday.

David Brunnstrom writes McCain included the military funding proposal in his “Restoring American Power” white paper that seeks budget to increase the capabilities of U.S. forces and allies amid tensions over territorial claims in the South China Sea.

“These funds would boost operational military construction, increase munitions procurement, enhance capacity building with allies and partners, and expand military exercises and other training activities,” said Dustin Walker, a spokesman for McCain, according to the report.

Reuters also quoted a government official as saying that McCain’s proposal generally aligns with the Trump administration’s goals for the APAC region.

Heather Wilson, former U.S. representative from New Mexico, will be nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as secretary of the Air Force, DoD News reported Monday.

Wilson’s “distinguished military service, high level of knowledge and success in so many different fields gives me great confidence that she will lead our nation’s Air Force with the greatest competence and integrity,” Trump said in a White House news release published Monday.

Wilson currently serves as president of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.

During her 11-year tenure in Congress, she served as chairman of the House Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence and a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and House Armed Services Committee.

Wilson served on the National Security Council during President George H.W. Bush’s administration and an Air Force officer in Europe during the Cold War.

The U.S. Air Force Academy graduate is a Rhodes Scholar who holds master’s and doctoral degrees from Oxford University.

Wilson would be the third female Air Force secretary once confirmed, the report added.