The Pentagon's next Quadrennial Defense Review will be shaped largely by how Congress grapples with the federal debt and who wins the White House in 2012, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michèle Flournoy said today.

The Army is reevaluating plans to build a facility for the Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor aerostat system at Ft. Bliss, TX, after the fiscal year 2013 defense budget plan put the program on the back burner due to operational concerns and reverberations from a 2010 accident that destroyed one of the systems.

For its "new afloat forward staging base," the Defense Department will overhaul one of three Mobile Landing Platforms -- ships long a part of the Navy's modernization blueprint -- to meet a "longstanding" U.S. Central Command need, according to officials familiar with Navy plans.

The Air Force has not made a final decision on what to do with its C-27J and Global Hawk Block 30 aircraft, and after axing both programs from its procurement plan the service is almost certain to place them in storage, the chief of staff said today.

A bid protest in the Ground Combat Vehicle program will lead to a one-year delay as well as a $1.7 billion cut over five years, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno said today.

Acting Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall has signed a new acquisition decision memorandum laying out key guidance and cost targets for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle program.

The Pentagon wants to design a long-range conventional strike weapon that could be launched from submarines, claiming the necessary technology has developed enough to assuage concerns about prior concepts -- including the fear that such a missile might be mistaken for a nuclear weapon.

The Navy is retiring seven CG-47 Ticonderoga-class cruisers early and slipping the construction of numerous ships to later budget years, the Defense Department announced today.

The Defense Department's $525 billion fiscal year 2013 budget request cuts F-35 Joint Strike Fighter procurement quantities, reduces funding for the Army's Ground Combat Vehicle program because of a delay caused by a contract dispute, and curtails the Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Elevated Netted Sensor System due to concerns about its cost and operational mobility, states a DOD white paper released today.

The Army has released a request for proposals for the next phase of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, a key step for the program as it progresses to the next stage.

The Army will request $300 million in fiscal year 2013 to pay for depot work to recapitalize 10,000 up-armored humvees -- a move that effectively pivots the service away from plans for competitive recapitalization of the vehicle, InsideDefense.com has learned.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno said today that the Air Force's C-27J cargo aircraft program is likely to be killed, thwarting the Army's plan to use the aircraft to fill its direct support capability needs.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno today laid out the Army's top modernization priorities and sought to define the service's new role in light of the Pentagon's fresh focus on the Asia-Pacific region, announcing the creation of a trilateral partnership between his office and the ministers of defense from Japan and South Korea.

The Government Accountability Office is questioning the Navy's move to rely on the DDG-51 destroyer as its preferred surface combatant of the future, saying the service's pick of the ship over the DDG-1000 may not have "a sufficient analytical basis for a decision of this magnitude."

The Pentagon projects the Joint Strike Fighter program will avoid $1.1 billion in previously estimated production and sustainment costs as a result of investments made by the Navy and Air Force in technologies designed to improve the manufacturing of a handful of components, according to the Navy three-star admiral overseeing the F-35 program.

Defense Department acting acquisition chief Frank Kendall has proposed altering plans for the remaining work on the Medium Extended Air Defense System program to reduce cost, raising the specter of early termination, according to defense officials.

The Defense Department's inspector general has certified that a Navy assertion of audit readiness is valid and provides some guidance on how the service might improve its future auditing capabilities.

In a stunning reversal of fortune for the competitive humvee recapitalization effort, Pentagon officials plan to cancel the Medium Expanded Capacity Vehicle and shift the money saved to pay Navy and Air Force bills, Inside the Army has learned.

Senior Pentagon officials intend to meet this afternoon to discuss details on how to meet a key audit-readiness milestone Defense Secretary Leon Panetta recently accelerated, Defense Department Comptroller Robert Hale told lawmakers this morning.

A Republican House member wants the Obama administration to provide Congress with a risk assessment associated with the Pentagon's new Strategic Defense Guidance, laying out explicit areas of planning and investment due to be dialed back as the military reduces its earlier spending plans by nearly $500 billion over the next decade.