Air Force Lt. Gen. Joseph Lengyel, vice chief of the National Guard Bureau, has been nominated by President Barack Obama to lead the bureau in Washington.

Obama also endorsed the 35-year Air Force veteran for promotion to the rank of general, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said in a Defense Department news release published Tuesday.

Lengyel previously served as chief of the office of military cooperation, senior defense official and defense attache for the U.S. Central Command in Cairo, Egypt.

He has logged at least 3,000 flight hours as a command pilot for the F-16 fighter jet as well as T-37 and T-38 planes.

He started his career in the service branch as an F-16 instructor pilot and weapons officer.

Lengyel is a former commander of the Air National Guard Readiness Center, 455th Expeditionary Operations Group and the 182nd Fighter Squadron.

He has been deployed to international assignments in South Korea, Germany and Afghanistan.

He is a recipient of the Defense Superior Service Medal, Air Force Meritorious Service Medal with oak leaf cluster and the Joint Service Achievement Medal, among other awards.

Stephen Welby, assistant defense secretary for research and engineering, told Defense News in an interview published Monday that the Defense Department should make its “OODA Loop” process faster in terms of adopting technological approaches.

He said to reporter Aaron Mehta he believes DoD’s Third Offset Strategy is about identifying what kinds of technology that the department should add to its portfolio, adopt from the private sector or test in field settings.

“It’s really about how do I find those things that are going to matter operationally and strategically in a competitive future environment?” Welby added.

He noted his office is interested in exploring advanced materials, autonomy, big data applications and biotechnology for military use.

The department’s R&E organization collaborates with universities and companies worldwide in an effort to integrate emerging technology into defense operations, according to Welby.

Click here to read Stephen Welby’s full interview on Defense News.

Jeh Johnson, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, has said e-passports are now required for all individuals entering the U.S. from the 38 countries included in the Visa Waiver Program.

Johnson said in a statement posted Friday the announcement follows the passage of the Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act late last year, which required travelers from Visa Waiver countries to have an e-passport or obtain a visa beginning April 1.

The DHS secretary added the e-passport features an electronic chip that contains the holder’s biographical information and is designed to protect passengers from privacy violation and identity theft.

Johnson went on to say the e-passport initiative serves as the latest move in a series of efforts to bolster travel security.

“In the last two years, we have also increased the data collected from travelers from Visa Waiver countries for vetting purposes and have required increased terrorism and criminal information sharing and increased cooperation on the screening of refugees and asylum seekers with countries in the Visa Waiver Program,” Johnson noted.

Will Roper, director of the Defense Department’s strategic capabilities office, has said SCO works to identify existing military systems that can be redeveloped to perform new functions through the use of three approaches, DoD News reported Monday.

Cheryl Pellerin writes Roper said at a media roundtable event that these approaches include repurposing, integration of systems into teams and the use of commercial technology platforms.

“Year-by-year we look at all the systems we have in the department and we are looking to make one of those three [approaches] work to our advantage,” Roper said.

“We’ve found that most of the systems we have can be changed… to do new things.”

He said the adoption of such approaches has led to the development of the Arsenal Plane Program and updates to the U.S. Navy’s Standard Missile-6.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, then-deputy defense chief, established SCO in August 2012 in an effort to develop novel concepts and maintain technological advantage through the use of existing military platforms, Roper noted.