A US service member was killed in an improvised explosive device blast on Tuesday while on patrol in eastern Afghanistan, the Pentagon announced. There were no other casualties in the blast in the Nangarhar province, Defense Department spokesman Peter Cook said during a Tuesday briefing. The service member was conducting operations with Afghan forces as part of an overall counterterrorism mission against ISIS, according to an Operation Resolute Support statement. The name and specific service has not been released.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
