Rear Adm. Jeffrey Tussler, commander of the U.S. Navy‘s Undersea Warfighting Development Center in Connecticut, has been assigned director of future plans at the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations.

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus and CNO Adm. John Richardson announced the flag officer assignment in a Defense Department release published Friday.

Tussler previously served as deputy director of analysis and requirements at OPNAV, where he managed a $200 million budget and supervised seven project managers for the service branch’s advanced maritime technology development efforts.

He also previously led strategic planning and crisis management initiatives at the Joint Staff as deputy director of operations and assistant deputy director of regional operations there.

Before that, he served as undersea warfare commander for the U.S. Sixth Fleet as well as deputy director of the submarine/nuclear power distribution division at the Navy Personnel Command and commanding officer on the USS Maryland battleship.

Maj. Gen. Stephen Clark, a former officer stationed at U.S. Special Operations Command, has been assigned to the strategic plans director position in support of the U.S. Air Force‘s deputy chief of staff for strategic plans and requirements.

Clark will transition to the new position from his prior role as Socom’s director of force structure requirements, resources and strategic assessments, the Defense Department said Friday.

Clark has served as executive officer to both the Air Force Special Operations Command vice commander and commander, chief of SOF contingency plans and programs, senior USSOCOM liaison officer to the National Counterterrorism Center and deputy commanding general for the Joint Special Operations Command in his 28 years of active-duty service.

He is a command pilot with more than 3,300 hours of flight with 13 different aircraft and has flown in combat missions in Somalia, Bosnia, Haiti, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has said the commitment of all service members is key to achieve the Force of the Future initiatives to modernize the U.S. military, DoD News reported Friday.

Terri Moon Cronk writes Carter said at the Naval Station Great Lakes in Illinois that he welcomes insights from service members to help develop Force of the Future ideas.

Carter also discussed Force of the Future initiatives that address technology investments, force recruitment, personal development, parental leave policies and the participation of women in combat and other military specialties, the report said.

“It doesn’t mean that everybody meets standards, and everybody gets selected, but the principle of the all-volunteer force is we get to pick and choose,” Carter said.

The Defense Technical Information Center has released a new report that describes how changes to the conflict and warfare landscape would alter the operational approaches the future Joint Force must adopt.

The Joint Operating Environment 2035, released July 14, says challenges will define the future security environment such as contested norms, where adversaries challenge the rules that define the international order; and persistent disorder, where adversaries take advantage of a nation’s inability to function as a legitimate government.

DTIC’s report also predicts that six contexts of conflict will spell the future of warfare in 2035 such as violent ideological competition intended to overthrow established governments, a threatened U.S. territory and sovereignty, the antagonistic geopolitical balancing to challenge the U.S. over the long term, disrupted global commons, contested cyberspace and reordered regions.

JOE 2035 contains three sections that each describe events that DTIC says would change the security environment, explain how these changes affect the character of future war and explore how the Joint Force’s missions evolve over time.

Army Gen. John Nicholson Jr., commander of the U.S. Forces Afghanistan, has highlighted significant reductions in Islamic State group-held territories in Afghanistan since U.S. troops  there received counterterrorism authority in January, DoD News reported Thursday.

Terri Moon Cronk writes Nicholson told Pentagon reporters the militant organization’s regional affiliate in Afghanistan has decreased from 10 districts in southern Nangarhar to as few as three after President Barack Obama authorized the U.S. force’s operations in the country.

The Resolute Support mission commander added that Operation Shafaq, part of the Afghans’ security strategy against terrorism, has achieved success, according to the report.

“Overall, our mission in Afghanistan is on a positive trajectory,” Nicholson said.

The U.S. Forces Afghanistan also uses the counterterrorism authority to strike ISIL-Khorasan in southern Nangahar, Cronk reports.

“We are also partnered with some of the Afghan special forces as we conduct these operations,” Nicholson told reporters.