The Defense Department has requested $20 million in funds from Congress to counter drone threats posed by the Islamic State organization in addition to the existing $189.7 million budget to combat hostile networks, Defense News reported Saturday.

Jen Judson writes DoD would put the money into the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Fund to buy tools designed to identify and counter enemies’ unmanned aerial systems that carry improvised explosive devices.

The report said the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization serves to counter IED threats that proliferated during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and will operate as a permanent entity under the Defense Threat Reduction Agency by late 2016.

David Small, a JIDO spokesman, told Defense News the organization will assist in the U.S. Army’s efforts to counter small drone activities based on requests from the U.S. Central Command.

Small added the organization aims to address the UAS threat in collaboration with other agencies and explore potential systems to produce the needed technology within two years, according to the report.

The State Department‘s newly-established Global Engagement Center wants to create a global network of third party partners to support its messaging campaign against the Islamic State militant organization, C4ISR & Networks reported Monday.

Meagen LaGraffe, chief of staff to the coordinator and special envoy of the GEC, told a New America Foundation event Thursday that GEC has veered from its previous direct engagement approach “to focus more on partner driven content and credible third party voices,” Mark Pomerleau reported.

“The approach we’re taking to build a network of credible third party voices all across the world in regions that span the globe and also sort of transregionally functional partnerships so that we can cultivate and build not only themes and messages but also consistent messengers for anti-[Islamic State group] narratives,” said LaGraffe.

LaGraffe further said GEC coordinates its efforts with the Defense Department including the work of the Cyber Command which is tasked to interrupt the IS group’s cyber operations.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said the North Atlantic Council has cleared a plan to deploy in 2017 multinational battalions to the eastern part that marks the alliance’s border with Russia, DoD News reported Friday.

Stoltenberg said at the two-day Warsaw Summit that kicked off Friday in Poland that the U.S. will serve as the lead country for the battalion in Poland, Canada in Latvia, Germany in Lithuania and the U.K. in Estonia, Jim Garamone writes.

“[The battalions] demonstrate the strength of the transatlantic bond, and they make clear that an attack on one ally would be considered an attack on the whole alliance,” he said.

Stoltenberg noted that NATO officials also declared initial operational capability for the Ballistic Missile Defense system, Garamone reports.

“This means the U.S. ships based in Spain, the radar in Turkey and the interceptor site in Romania are now able to work together under NATO command and control,” he said.

Stoltenberg also discussed cyber space as a new operational domain as well as NATO member countries’ pledge to increase their defense spending and plan to engage in a dialogue with Russia, according to the report.