The House Armed Services Committee approved an amendment to a defense policy bill that would allow the Defense Department to buy up to 18 Russian-built RD-180 engines for use on United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket, Space News reported Thursday.

Mike Gruss writes Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colorado) introduced the amendment to the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act hours before the committee voted 60-2 Thursday to advance the bill to the full House.

ULA, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, uses the RD-180 engine on its Atlas V rocket that works to launch U.S. satellites into space for military and intelligence missions.

According to Space News, the U.S. Air Force has been calling on Congress to permit ULA to import approximately 18 RD-180 engines in order to facilitate competition for launch contracts until ULA’s Vulcan rocket is certified and ready to send payloads into space by 2022.

Colin Clark also reported for Breaking Defense that Rep. Adam Smith (D-Washington), a ranking member of HASC, introduced an amendment to the NDAA that would authorize $100 million in funds to research and develop an upper stage, launch vehicle, strap-on motor and other launch system components.

Such an amendment seeks to ease a plan by HASC Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Alabama), chairman of the HASC strategic forces subcommittee, to limit R&D funds to rocket engines, Clark writes.

U.S. Army Gen. Vincent Brooks officially took the post of commander of U.S. Forces Korea, Combined Forces Command and United Nations Command in a ceremony held Saturday at Yongsan Garrison, South Korea.

The Defense Department said Brooks succeeded Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, who will serve as commander of the U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commanderat NATO.

Brooks was nominated to the post in March and previously served as U.S. Army Pacific’s commanding general.

“In the present day, the challenges continue to rise, but so does the strength of this alliance and the resolve of the United Nations,” said Brooks.

“We must look into the future with clear eyes, confronting the challenges to peace and prosperity, and doing so in a spirit that is becoming of those who served and sacrificed before us.”

DoD says the 36-year Army veteran has taken command of every level of the service branch, served on the joint staff and held the role of deputy director of operations at U.S. Central Command.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has said the U.S. will provide Kurdish peshmerga forces up to $415 million in funds and allow advisers to join Iraqi troops as part of its campaign against the Islamic State militant organization, DoD News reported Thursday.

Jim Garamone writes Carter said in his testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday the U.S. will support Iraqi forces’ land-based offensive operations in Mosul, Iraq, through the deployment of its artillery units and Apache helicopters.

He noted that the U.S. will field 250 more uniformed personnel in Syria and that coalition forces will continue to provide logistics, sustainment and firepower support to defeat the organization’s control in Mosul and Raqqa in Syria.

Carter also cited the role of local forces in the campaign against the Islamic State group.

“Enabling local forces — not substituting for them — is necessary to ensure a lasting defeat [of ISIL],” he added.

Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work has visited Sweden to discuss regional security and the development of technologies in efforts to address the activities of potential adversaries in the Baltic Sea, DoD News reported Wednesday.

Cheryl Pellerin writes that Work toured military facilities in Sweden including the Ronneby Air Base to talk about military-to-military cooperation, NATO partnership programs and security and defense priorities in the region.

He also updated the country’s leaders regarding the development of DoD’s Third Offset Strategy and toured the facilities of Swedish defense company Saab, the report said.

Work, alongside U.S. Ambassador to Sweden Azita Raji and Swedish State Secretary Jan Salestrand, also spoke at a news conference to answer questions from local reporters, including concerns regarding Russian activities in the Baltic Sea.

“[It’s] important that we maintain the Baltic sea as free and open to all the Nordic and Baltic countries in the region,” said Work.

He will conclude this multiday trip with a visit to Belgium, Pellerin reports.

The U.S. Marine Corps plans to deploy its version of the F-35 fighter jet in the late part of next year to the Western Pacific region, Navy Times reported Thursday.

Adm. Scott Swift, chief of Pacific Fleet, said the Navy will station the F-35B variant will be stationed onboard an amphibious ship with a support escort force, David Larter reports.

A surface action group will also act to protect the amphibious assault ship, according to the report.

F-35B achieved initial operational capability in July 2015 and is going through tests prior to the 2017 deployment, the report says.