Rear Adm. Brian Antonio, program executive officer for the U.S. Navy’s littoral combat ships, has been assigned to the role of PEO for aircraft carriers.

The appointment by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson was announced Thursday.

Antonio has held his current role since September 2013.

His tour as an engineering duty officer comprised field, fleet command and headquarters assignments after he passed the qualification as a ship superintendent for USS Nassau and USS Saipan overhauls at Norfolk Naval Shipyard.

He was a PMS 378 program manager for future aircraft carriers between 2007 and 2011 and received his qualification for surface warfare onboard USS Peterson.

Antonio served as a fleet maintenance officer on the staff of the U.S. Pacific Fleet while he held the role as executive assistant and naval aide to the assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition.

Rear Adms. Michael Manazir and DeWolfe Miller will take up new roles within the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations.

Miller will serve as director of the air warfare division and succeed Manazir, who has been appointed as deputy chief of naval operations for warfare systems at the office of the CNO, the Defense Department said Thursday.

Manazir, the current director of the air warfare division at the office of the CNO, handles the development, programming and budgeting of the warfighting requirements, resources and manpower of the U.S. naval aviation branch.

He has commanded a number of fighting squadrons including the Tomcatters of Fighter Squadron 31, USS Sacramento, USS Nimitz and Carrier Strike Group 8.

The newly appointed deputy CNO for warfare systems has also received various personal and campaign awards such as the Legion of Merit, Defense Meritorious Service Medal and the Strike/Flight Air Medal.

Miller, who currently works as the deputy director at the office of the CNO for warfare systems, has also served in several command and operational tours.

Rear Adm. John Neagley, formerly deputy commander of fleet readiness for Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, has succeeded Rear Adm. Brian Antonio as program executive officer for the U.S. Navy‘s Littoral Combat Ship Program.

Neagley will oversee the service branch’s efforts to sustain the LCS fleet’s surface warfare, mine countermeasures and anti-submarine warfare mission systems, the Navy said Wednesday.

The 34-year military veteran was selected for the LCS PEO role in March and formally assumed the post during a change-of-office ceremony held Tuesday at the Washington Navy Yard.

He previously worked served as LCS program manager and as executive assistant to Naval Sea Systems Command.

He has also led the deployment of explosive ordnance disposal and counter-improvised explosive device systems to Iraq and Afghanistan as the Navy’s EOD/CREW program manager.

His sea assignments include deployment on USS Whipple, USS Coral Sea, USS John Paul Jones, USS Antietam and USS Fitzgerald where he supported various missions such as Operations Desert Fox, Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has urged the Defense Department to harness innovation approaches of the technology sector in order to keep pace with a changing security environment, DoD News reported Thursday.

Jim Garamone writes Carter told members of the President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee during a meeting held Wednesday in Santa Clarita, that DoD aims to invest as much as $72 billion on research and development programs in fiscal year 2017.

“I’ve been pushing the Pentagon to think outside our five-sided box, and invest aggressively in innovation — from innovative people, to innovative technologies, to innovative practices,” he added.

The report said DoD works with companies, universities and laboratories to develop advanced materials, three-dimensional printing technology, digital manufacturing methods and integrated photonic systems.

Carter also told the NSTAC forum he created Defense Innovation Board to help him and future DoD secretaries identify new ways for the department to collaborate with the technology sector.

A new Congressional Budget Office report says the enactment of the House Armed Services Committee’s defense policy bill for fiscal year 2017 would reduce the Defense Department’s direct spending by approximately $206 million over the next 10 years.

CBO said in a report published Wednesday that the allocation of $603.3 billion in total funds for DoD’s military functions and other activities of the Energy Department under the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 would result in $587 billion in total outlays over a five-year period beginning in 2017.

The agency estimates that some provisions of the proposed bill would increase the net costs of DoD programs by approximately $24 billion over a four-year period starting in 2018.

CBO cited the Pentagon’s procurement initiatives, force structure, and benefits and compensation as some of the programs that would be affected by such provisions.

The proposed bill contains private-sector or intergovernmental mandates and that aggregate costs of compliance with such mandates would not go beyond the annual threshold established in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act, according to CBO.

The agency added that the passage of the bill would not result in on-budget deficit growth “in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2027.”