President Barack Obama has nominated retired Marine Corps Col. Robert Work to serve as the deputy secretary of defense. Work currently is the chief executive officer for the Washington, DC,-based Center for a New American Security, where he has worked since 2013. He previously served as undersecretary of the Navy from 2009 to 2013. He will replace Christine Fox who has been serving as acting deputy defense secretary since Ash Carter left in December 2013. (AFPS report)
The Air Force is planning to invest nearly $1.7 billion to continue modernizing the B-1B Lancer and B-2 Spirit bombers over the next five years, revising earlier plans to retire those aircraft before the B-21 Raider is fielded in bulk.