The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered some civil operators of the Boeing 737NGs to inspect them for cracks in the main wing-fuselage structural element. Boeing found cracks in one aircraft which, although it had logged 35,000 cycles, was well below the 90,000 the element is designed for. Cracks were subsequently confirmed in some others but evidently are not an issue for the U.S. military’s P-8 Poseidon multimission maritime variant.

The U.S. Army has met its recruitment target of 68,000 active duty soldiers in the current fiscal year, more than 34 percent of the pool destined for combat arms. The total compares with 70,000 in 2018 when the service aimed for 76,500. Many occupations at the beginning of the fourth quarter were short of personnel.

The U.S. Office of Technology Assessment, created in 1972 with a mandate to help federal politicians make informed decisions about complex issues, was shut down in 1995 by the Republican-controlled Congress. Elizabeth Warren, widely touted as a potential Democratic Party challenger in next year’s presidential election, wants to resurrect it. She says Congress now relies heavily on lobbyists whom she says “use their resources and expertise to overpower the needs and wishes of ordinary people.”

The Department of Defense has finally inaugurated its Defense Security Cooperation University in the hope of improving how it supports allies and other partners against threats. The project was proposed two years ago.