The Government Accountability Office has recommended the U.S. Army conduct regular assessments of mission risk and its combat force structures in order to avail mitigation strategies.

GAO said in a report published Wednesday the Army planned to reduce greater numbers of its enabler unit force than its combat force because senior leader counsel said shortfalls in its combat team are more difficult to address than risks in the service branch’s support team.

Auditors found the Army did not meet the Defense Department‘s missions for planning guidance and did not put into account the frequency and duration DoD’s policies would help enabler units to be deployed.

GAO conducted the study to determine the feasibility of plans to reduce the total number of active and reserve soldiers to 980,000 in 2018, the report said.

The Army determined it could reduce its brigade combat teams to 52 in 2017 — from a total of 73 in 2011 — but GAO’s report stated that the service branch plans to retain 56 BCTs along with 170 combat battalions to be kept.

The U.S. Air Force has issued a set of criteria for selecting up to two additional bases for a new MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle wing in an effort to diversify assignments for service personnel.

The Air Force said in a news release published Tuesday it determined the need for additional installations after it surveyed MQ-9 and MQ-1 Predator enterprise officers and airmen as part of the Air Combat Command’s Culture and Process Improvement Program.

The service branch’s criteria include capacity, environmental requirements, cost factors, runway length and other mission requirements.

The military branch plans to base an operations unit with mission control elements at the first potential MQ-9 Reaper location as well as host a full MQ-9 wing with both mission control and launch and recovery elements at the second potential installation.

The Air Force plans to announce candidate bases in the summer of 2016 and alternative installations by the winter of 2016 or 2017.

The Defense Department‘s strategic capabilities office aims to repurpose existing military technologies in support of the agency’s third-offset strategy against threats posed by U.S. adversaries, DoD News reported Tuesday.

“We selected the area of repurposing not based on fiscal requirements or because we were told go repurpose stuff, but we think it… is the right first disruptive move against opponents of the U.S.,” SCO Director Will Roper told a media roundtable.

Cheryl Pellerin writes Roper pointed to SCO’s efforts to build a miniature umanned aerial vehicle using three-dimensional printing technology, Pellerin reports.

The report said the Perdix micro-UAV is made of commercial components and designed to launch in balloons as well as to support military aircraft in high-threat environments.

Another SCO project focuses on using hypervelocity smart projectiles originally built for the U.S. military’s future electromagnetic railguns to develop a new defensive system.

The organization also seeks to build navigation technology with components that will be derived from smartphone cameras and commercial weapon systems such as small-diameter bombs.

The U.S. Air Force has identified four candidate bases that could house the first set of first Reserve-led F-35 fighter jets and a set of criteria to find potential bases for two Air National Guard squadrons that will receive F-35A variants.

The Air Force said Tuesday it will announce its choice in the fall between Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona; Homestead Air Reserve Base, Florida; Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Texas and Whiteman AFB, Missouri.

The first Reserve-led location and the Air National Guard squadrons will start to receive their F-35A aircraft in 2023 and 2022, respectively.

Criteria to select candidate bases for the squadrons includes mission requirements, space and facility features, environmental requirements and cost considerations.

Candidate bases will be chosen from Guard installations with runways of approximately 8,000 feet and operational A-10, F-16 or F-15.

Air Force leaders will identify installations in the summer and those locations will be subsequently visited by the Air Combat Command and Air National Guard to perform site surveys.