The U.S. Marine Corps and industry partners are working to build and deploy the Live Virtual Constructive-Training Environment, a software-intensive platform designed to connect legacy training systems to support the service branch’s training exercises.

“The LVC-TE program is a key component of TECOM’s modernization efforts for the Marine Corps and conforms to the tenets of the Commandant’s Planning Guidance and Force Design 2030,” Brig. Gen. Matthew Reid, deputy commanding general of Marine Corps Training and Education Command, said in a statement published Wednesday.

“LVC-TE will be the foundational program for the Marine Corps’ future simulation-supported training to improve our ability to fight and win our nation’s battles,” Reid added.

The program manager for training systems, also known as PM TRASYS, within Marine Corps Systems Command oversees LVC-TE as a program of record and uses the Software Acquisition Pathway for the platform.

PM TRASYS received authorization to transition LVC-TE to the execution milestone phase in April and is working to achieve Minimum Viable Capability Release in April 2023.

The new training environment will operate on commercial-off-the-shelf hardware and feature exercise design tools to support exercise and scenario planning.

The government of Czech Republic has authorized its defense ministry to facilitate the procurement of F-35 Lightning II fighter jets from the U.S. government to support the modernization of the country’s armed forces.

“I was authorised to form an inter-ministerial negotiating team and commence negotiations with the United States Government to procure 24 units of the F-35 Lightning II multirole fighters to equip two squadrons,” Jana Cernochova, defense minister of Czech Republic, said in a statement published Wednesday.

Cernochova said the government’s decision to acquire the Lockheed Martin-built fighter aircraft comes amid increasing costs of weapon systems and scarcity of materials and production capacity, resulting in longer lead times.

The government said sharing the same aircraft with the U.S. and other NATO allies will help strengthen cooperation, capability sharing and joint training and improve its defense posture.

Czech Republic also announced plans to buy CV90 combat vehicles from the government of Sweden after it decided to drop the tender for infantry fighting vehicles.

The Department of Defense has announced the establishment of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office within the office of the undersecretary for intelligence and security and appointment of Sean Kirkpatrick, most recently chief scientist at the Defense Intelligence Agency’s missile and space intelligence center, as director of AARO.

The AARO will synchronize efforts across DOD and with other federal agencies to detect and identify airborne, anomalous, unidentified space, transmedium and submerged objects in and near military bases, training areas, special use airspace and other areas of interest, DOD said Wednesday.

Kirkpatrick brings to the role over 20 years of experience in scientific and technical intelligence, acquisitions, research and development and space policy.

He previously served as deputy director of intelligence for U.S. Strategic Command, director of the National Security Strategy at the National Security Council and deputy director of intelligence and DNI Representative for U.S. Space Command.

Ronald Moultrie, undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security, will lead the AARO Executive Council to provide direction to the newly created office along six lines of effort: surveillance, collection and reporting; system capabilities and design; intelligence operations and analysis; mitigation and defeat; governance; and science and technology.

Moultrie established the AARO in accordance with a July 15 memo that Kathleen Hicks, deputy defense secretary and a 2022 Wash100 Award winner, issued to meet the provision of the fiscal year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act.

The State Department has approved the purchase request of Belgium for F-16 aircraft sustainment support and related equipment under a potential $127 million Foreign Military Sales transaction.

The proposed deal will cover for AN/ARC-210 radios; spare and repair parts; additional hardware and software; mission planning system sustainment; electronic warfare support; logistics; and other equipment and support services, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Tuesday.

It will also expand a previously implemented case worth $98.4 million for the same orders.

Through the purchase, Belgium seeks to ensure that its F-16 fleet is combat-ready and capable of addressing current and future threats and performing NATO’s Eastern flank rotations.

Lockheed Martin, the Bethesda, Maryland-based developer of the F-16 fighter jet, will serve as the principal contractor.

The U.S. Marine Corps has started to field an artificial intelligence-based system for service personnel to detect, identify and track drones that pose a threat to military bases.

USMC’s Installation-Counter small Unmanned Aircraft Systems equipment uses a radar and an optical sensor through the Long Range Sentry Tower and a radio frequency detector that works to help the operator visualize the flight path of drones, the service said Thursday.

Maj. Kyle Yakopovich, a fixed site project officer at USMC’s program executive office for land systems, said that I-CsUAS facilitates autonomous sensor data analysis with the system’s AI and machine learning tools.

The platform is built to defend against commercial off-the-shelf drones that belong to the Group 1 and Group 2 categories.

Yakopovich noted the system works with a non-kinetic technology that has been demonstrated in other ground-based air defense programs and will support counter-UAS efforts at installations within the continental U.S.