Congress should not take any legislative action in response to the Pentagon's fiscal year 2013 budget request until lawmakers receive a risk assessment from the Defense Department, Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) said today.

The Defense Department is seeking congressional permission to shift $571.4 million in fiscal year 2012 spending to fund a raft of programs deemed "urgent warfighter" needs, including two Army programs to defeat Taliban tactics in Afghanistan and more than a dozen projects to enhance airborne surveillance and intelligence capabilities.

The United States and Russia are engaged in discussions to help pave the way for future nuclear arms reductions negotiations, a senior State Department official said today.

The Pentagon inspector general's newly launched assessment of a fatal F-22A Raptor crash investigation, an appraisal dubbed "fairly routine" by the Air Force's chief, is the first such in-depth review since a 1994 disaster that killed 24 Army paratroopers and injured scores more.

The Pentagon plans to downgrade the Sea-Based X-band Radar's operational status beginning in the third quarter of fiscal year 2013, officials announced yesterday.

The Navy will not move forward with plans to move a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to Naval Station Mayport in Florida for at least five years, though it will send a three-ship amphibious readiness group to Mayport in 2015 instead.

The Navy will be "taking risk" by planning toward a fleet of just 30 amphibious ships, one of many areas where the service will have to tighten its belt in the coming years, Rear Adm. Joseph Mulloy, the Navy's deputy assistant secretary of the budget, said today.

The Pentagon today rolled out a defense budget request for fiscal year 2013 that includes $185 billion for the Army, announcing program terminations expected to be worth $4.7 billion over the next five years.

The Defense Department's modernization programs, which account for roughly a fifth of the Pentagon's annual budget, absorbed more than half of the $45.3 billion in cuts imposed on the military's fiscal year 2013 spending request, according to budget documents and senior officials.

The Air Force's fiscal year 2013 budget request recommends moving the procurement of 98 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft out of the current five-year defense plan, buying half as many MQ-9 Reapers as in FY-12, cutting two acquisition programs designed to build partnership capacity and continuing early research on a next-generation bomber to the tune of $6.3 billion over the next five years, two senior service budget officials said this morning.

The Pentagon's fiscal year 2013 request for the baseline budget and war spending seeks $178.8 billion for the development and purchase of new weapons and technology, including $109.1 billion for procurement and $69.7 billion for research and development.

A Defense Department decision to overlook the superior design of candidate Joint Light Tactical Vehicles in favor of technically acceptable bids with the lowest price played a key role in prompting the Ford Motor Co., an industrial giant interested in bringing its engineering and global logistics capabilities back to the military, to walk away from the competition, according to officials familiar with the company's thinking.

Efforts by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey to seek congressional cooperation on the administration's export-control reform initiative on national security grounds have been soundly criticized by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and Ranking Member Howard Berman (D-CA), according to sources.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said today he remains confident in a report that is drawing scrutiny from the Defense Department inspector general for blaming a fatal F-22A Raptor crash on the pilot despite a malfunction in the aircraft's oxygen-supply system.

The Pentagon has launched a 10-year effort to modernize the B-2 bomber's suite of defensive capabilities to ensure survivability in "evolving anti-access environments" -- a Defense Department euphemism for potential adversaries such as China and Iran -- with a $2 billion program to resolve what the Air Force says is the No. 1 obsolescence issue with the stealth bomber fleet.

The Defense Department's developing AirSea Battle concept should provide operational and materiel benefits for the Air Force and Navy across several platforms, such as between the stealthy B-2 and submarine fleets the two services maintain, the Air Force's senior military official said today.

NEW YORK -- The Defense Department hopes to ratchet up foreign sales of U.S. weapons, a senior Pentagon official said today, seeking new deals that could advance numerous policy aims including higher procurement rates that would aid the U.S. military as it braces for a prolonged period of fiscal belt-tightening.

The Navy unmanned aviation community is anticipating a loaded year of important milestones for unmanned aircraft throughout the service, Rear Adm. William Shannon, program executive officer for unmanned aviation and strike weapons, said today.

The Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization is inviting industry to participate in a series of “challenges” in hopes of finding new ways to overcome the persistent threat of improvised explosive devices.

The Army took the first step last week toward starting a missile competition that could mean new business for manufacturers in a portfolio known for a series of high-profile cutbacks due to runaway program costs.