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.

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.