The U.S. Army has tested its new air defense system that will work to protect soldiers from aircraft, cruise missiles, unmanned aircraft systems and artillery weapons once it becomes fully developed.

The Army said Monday the Integrated Fire Protection Capability Increment 2-Intercept — a joint project of the service branch’s Cruise Missile Defense Systems Project Office and Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center — was tested at the White Sands Missile Range.

“If you go back and take a look at what has happened in terms of the threat over the last couple years, you’ll find that UAS systems and cruise missiles have really become a problem,” said Col. Terrence Howard, cruise missile defense systems program manager.

“We’re firing the entire kill chain and seeing what the end product looks like as we shoot at unmanned aerial systems and cruise missiles,” he added.

Tamera Adams, chief engineer for cruise missile defense systems projects, said the Army seeks to integrate IFPC Inc 2-I with the Army Integrated Air and Missile Defense system, Sentinel radar system and AIM-9X missile.

IFPC Inc 2-I, which is currently in full-featured prototype form, will work to fire multiple missile types in almost any direction through a Multi-Mission Launcher that is mounted on a medium tactical truck and designed to hold 15 missile tubes on a turret system, the Army noted.

The system has so far launched a Hellfire Longbow and a pair of AIM-9X Sidewinders against targets that simulate UAS or cruise missile threats, the service branch added.

The Army said it is scheduled to test IFPC Inc 2-I further to gauge its compatibility with other missiles and systems.

David Johnson, formerly an FBI special agent in charge of the San Francisco Division, has been appointed as associate executive assistant director of the bureau’s criminal, cyber, response and services branch.

The FBI said Wednesday Johnson will be responsible for cyber policy and strategy development functions at the branch and will serve as the bureau’s operational lead for the Five Eyes Law Enforcement Group.

Johnson will also support the FBI’s cyber and criminal investigations, international operations, critical incident response and victim assistance areas.

In 1991, he joined the FBI’s San Jose Resident Agency, San Francisco Division, with a focus on crime, drug trafficking and activities that involved high-technology firms.

The 25-year FBI veteran led the agency’s San Francisco Division, the Criminal Investigative Division and the Salt Lake City Division, where he was the special agent-in-charge between July 2011 and February 2013.

He also formed the Child Abduction Rapid Deployment teams tasked to assist FBI field offices and state and local law enforcement after a child abduction incident.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has said he has concerns on the House Armed Services Committee’s defense authorization bill for fiscal year 2017 that would move $18 billion from the overseas contingency operations budget to the Defense Department’s base funding, DoD News reported Wednesday.

“It’s gambling with warfighting money at a time of war — proposing to cut off our troops’ funding in places like Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria in the middle of the year,” Carter said in a testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee’s defense subpanel.

“It would spend money on things that are not DoD’s highest unfunded priorities across the joint force,” he added.

Jim Garamone writes Carter told the Senate committee about the Pentagon’s efforts to counter the Islamic State militant organization.

These include plans to deploy 250 additional military personnel in Syria and 215 additional advisers in Iraq as well as field AH-64 Apache helicopters in support of the Iraqi forces’ offensive campaign in Mosul.

Carter also noted the need to invest in technology platforms that will work to help the U.S. counter the challenges posed by violent extremism, Russia, Iran, China and North Korea across land, air, sea, cyber, space and electronic warfare domains, Garamone reports.

The Defense Department has given the Verdure Award to Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command Office of Small Business Programs in recognition of its efforts in promoting small businesses through SPAWAR acquisitions in fiscal year 2015.

The U.S. Navy said Tuesday the Verdure Award is part of DoD’s Vanguard Awards Program which aims to acknowledge individuals and team members that contribute to small business opportunities in defense contracts.

The service branch said SPAWAR OSBP team members are each assigned a point of contact for each program office within the command.

Faye Esaias, SPAWAR director of small business programs, said the integration of OSBP members into acquisition teams helps foster active engagement in procurement processes and advocate small business opportunities.

To further support small business engagement in defense contracts, SPAWAR OSBP has established a procurement center representative office which collaborates with local industry organizations.

They have also developed a tool that will help the government track small business contributions in large contracts.