Army Secretary Eric Fanning has signed a directive that aims to establish new policies for the service branch to retain high-performing noncommissioned officers.

The U.S. Army said Friday the “Retaining a Quality Noncommissioned Officer Corps” directive will affect the entire enlisted spectrum and make changes to the Bar to the Continued Service Program, NCO Career Status Program and Retention Control Point System.

“The big change… is that the (Bar to the Continued Service Program) now affects all enlisted ranks,” said Sgt. Maj. Michael Kouneski, Fort Jackson’s command career counselor.

Kouneski added soldiers with unsatisfactory performance can now be barred from continued service despite being in the indefinite reenlistment program.

Candidates will be reviewed through three- to six-month periods before separation procedures start under the Bar to Continued Service program, the Army added.

The directive requires soldiers to wait until their 12th year of service before they could apply for reenlistment under the NCO Career Status Program.

The directive will also shorten the number of years senior NCOs can stay in the Army by reducing retention control point levels for sergeants 1st class through sergeants major.

Changes to the Retention Control Point System will take effect over a three-year period.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson has said the U.S. Navy should advance rapid prototyping and experimentation efforts in its fleet of ships in an effort to immediately address risks amid budget concerns and complex security environment, USNI News reported Thursday.

Sam LaGrone and Megan Eckstein write Richardson told USNI News in an interview that the Navy is in talks with the office of defense secretary, Congress and industry to expedite the prototyping process for technology platforms as well as respect the oversight responsibilities of each agency.

He also plans to draft an instructional document to explain the service branch’s rapid prototyping approach, according to the report.

Sailors have provided the military branch with novel concepts through various programs, such as the Tactical Advancements for the Next Generation forum and “innovation jams,” Richardson told USNI News.

He also mentioned the studies launched by the service branch, Mitre Corp. and the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Analysis on a new fleet design as well as the Navy’s plan to increase surface ships’ offensive capabilities.

U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Jesse Wilson Jr., commander of Carrier Strike Group 10, has been assigned to a new role as director of the assessment division (N81) at the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and CNO Adm. John Richardson announced Wilson’s new assignment in a Defense Department release published Friday.

Wilson will oversee the organization that works to assess naval resources and warfare requirements as well as integrates assessment results into the Investment Balance Review.

He served as a commanding officer of USS Higgins and led the ship during a six-month deployment with the USS Nimitz carrier strike group as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom in the western Pacific.

He took command tours at sea for the USS Nimitz CSG, Destroyer Squadron 23 and the U.S. Pacific Fleet’s annual humanitarian and civil assistance mission to Southeast Asia and Oceania.

Wilson also previously worked as the 27th company officer at the U.S. Naval Academy, joint warfighting analyst on the Joint Staff’s force structure, resources and assessments division (J8), campaign analyst at the OPNAV N81 assessment division, interim deputy director of the 21st Century Sailor Office, executive assistant to the chief of naval operations and director of the Joint Integrated Air and Missile Defense Organization.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein has highlighted more time home for both training and family as among his priorities to help augment training for pilots, Air Force Times reported Sunday.

Goldfein said modern day pilots receive nearly half the home-station training that he said he received when he flew F-16s, Phillip Swarts reports.

“On average I would go to three flag exercises a year, plus I would do a rotation with the National Training Center, with the Army, and that would be a normal battle rhythm,” Goldfein said Wednesday in a briefing at the Pentagon, according to the report.

“Today’s pilot, based on the size of the force, the age of the force, and continuing op tempo demand in Central Command, is getting about half of that,” he said.

The Air Force seeks to increase overall size of the force, remove extra responsibilities and expand training squadrons in order to minimize the strain on pilots and their support squadrons, Swarts reports.

Gen. John Nicholson, commander of the U.S. forces in Afghanistan, has called on India to boost military aid for the Middle Eastern nation in support of Western sanctions against Russia, Defense News reported Thursday.

Vivek Raghuvanshi writes Nicholson has met with Ajit Doval, India’s national security adviser, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, foreign secretary, and Mohan Kumar, defense secretary, to discuss a paucity of spares received by Afghan forces of Russian-made weaponry.

“Due to sanctions on Russia, it’s difficult to acquire supplies of spare parts for Russian military platforms, because much of the money is given to Afghanistan by donors who have sanctions against Russia in place,” said Nicholson.

The report noted India has transferred four Russian-made Mi-25 attack helicopters to Afghanistan’s air force to mark the first transfer of military equipment to the country.

The U.S. Navy‘s Littoral Combat Ship program has conducted a blast and fire test on a full-scale Independence-variant LCS replicate at the U.S. Army Aberdeen Test Center to evaluate the overall survivability of the platform during combat.

The Multi-Compartment Surrogate replicate underwent destructive tests that involved charges placed in several of the ship’s compartments and controlled fires, the U.S. Navy said Friday.

The Navy collected data to evaluate the ship’s failure threshold of blast-induced structural ruptures, reaction to overpressures and the effects of fire on its aluminum structure.

The Navy will use the data as a reference benchmark for computer simulations, as well as to support the Live-Fire Test and Evaluation and LFT&E Modeling and Simulation/Survivability analysis.