Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has appointed John Abizaid, a retired U.S. Army general and former commander of the U.S. Central Command, as senior defense adviser to Ukraine.

The Defense Department said Thursday Abizaid will give authoritative advice to Ukraine’s defense minister Stepan Poltorak and other senior Ukrainian officials.

Abizaid will seek to support Ukraine’s efforts to align its armed forces with Western principles and standards such as democratic civilian control of the military, a NATO-interoperable organizational structure and anti-corruption measures, DoD added.

His previous assignments include a tour with the United Nations as operations officer for Observer Group Lebanon, a tour in the Army’s office of the chief of the staff and European staff tours with the Southern European Task Force and U.S. Army Europe headquarters.

He also served as executive assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, director of strategic plans and policy on the Joint Staff and director of the Joint Staff.

He has been deployed to Italy, Iraq and Bosnia-Herzegovina and supported Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Abizaid’s appointment follows a bilateral meeting between Carter and Poltorak in the sidelines of the U.N. Peacekeeping Defense Ministerial in London where the defense leaders discussed continued U.S. and allied support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Carter and Poltorak also signed a bilateral partner concept document to establish a framework for efforts on Ukraine’s defense capacity, defense reforms, resource management processes and defense technology cooperation with the U.S., DoD said.

Kelly Morris, chief of research and development at the Defense Logistics Agency, has said DLA seeks technological ideas from the private sector to keep counterfeit electronics out of the military supply chain and implement additive manufacturing processes.

She highlighted various opportunities for companies to partner with DLA during an industry day held Wednesday at the agency’s McNamara Headquarters Complex in Virginia, DLA said Thursday.

DLA held the event to familiarize industry representatives with DLA’s ongoing efforts to increase warfighter support and address supply chain management challenges.

Morris added current R&D programs at DLA encompass distribution modernization, strategic materials, combat rations and supply chain security.

“We’re now looking for ways to procure parts via 3D models using our existing DLA processes and manufacturing.”

“We also want to move DLA from a PDF tech data package to a ‘smart’ data and engineering models.”

Morris believes that partnering with companies will help DLA to maximize the agency’s R&D budget of $38 million each year.

Some military and federal agency officials who took part in a panel discussion held Thursday in Washington believe that artificial intelligence technology can support missions in cyberspace and the intelligence community, DoD News reported Friday.

Amaani Lyle writes that Adm. Michael Rogers, head of the U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, proposed the integration of AI and human analytics to address global-scale challenges.

“If you can’t get to some level of AI or machine learning with the volume of activity that you’re trying to understand when you’re [defending] networks from activity of concern, if you can’t get to scale, you are always behind the power curve,” Rogers told the Intelligence and National Security Summit.

“It’s got to be some combination of the two.”

He said NSA aims establish a construct to encourage fusion of ideas between the government and industry.

Robert Cardillo, director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, agreed that AI could complement human-centered models to manage information, according to the publication.

“We’ve come to understand that the way we built systems in the past, the way we developed applications, the way we brought [information technology] to the analysts’ desktop, won’t work in the future,” Cardillo said at the forum.

The report said cyber and intelligence leaders formed small teams of information technology professionals to identify strategies to accelerate the IT development cycle.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has outlined the Defense Department‘s new commitments to aid U.N. peacekeeping operations, DoD News reported Thursday.

Cheryl Pellerin writes Carter said at the U.N. Peacekeeping Defense Ministerial in the U.K. that peacekeeping efforts are changing amid new global challenges and a wider reach of missions.

Carter announced DoD will support U.N.’s Enhanced Leader Development Program to train and prepare future senior mission leaders for peace operations and will also work with U.N. national investigative officers to help prevent sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers.

DoD will also offer support for peacekeeper deployments to crisis zones and address gaps in areas such as counter improvised explosive devices and medical evacuation, Pellerin reports.

Carter noted DoD will work with U.N. to drive energy, water and waste management efficiency in peacekeeping camps and sites.

The report said the secretary also called on U.N. to assess leaders and forces against performance, equipment and conduct standards and to replace underperforming personnel.

The U.S. Navy will commission its newest Independence-class littoral combat ship designed to support operations in near-shore and open-ocean environments.

The service branch said Thursday it will hold the USS Montgomery commissioning activity Sept. 10 in Mobile, Alabama.

“The commissioning of USS Montgomery is not only a celebration of the partnership we share with the people of a great southern capital, but also of our nation’s highly skilled shipbuilders who… will help us continue to grow the fleet to more than 300 ships by the end of this decade,” said Ray Mabus, secretary of the Navy.

USS Montgomery was named after Alabama’s capital that in turn was named after Richard Montgomery, who was a continental army officer.

LCS units perform mine warfare, anti-submarine warfare and surface warfare missions and can be classified under the Freedom and Independence variants.

Lockheed Martin leads work on the Freedom variant while Austal USA heads the team working on the Independence variant.