A senior Air Force official told InsideDefense.com today that the service is on or ahead of schedule on several processes required under the follow-on Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia while awaiting an important decision on the Defense Department's future ballistic missile force structure.

The Marine Corps has slashed $160.9 million of procurement funding in its fiscal year 2014 budget request for the Light Armored Vehicle due to a one-year delay in the start of production of the anti-tank modernization program and the survivability upgrade program, according to a service spokesman.

FORT WORTH, TX -- The equipment maintenance skills of soldiers in the field have atrophied due to an increased reliance on contractor maintenance support, according to several Army leaders.

The Defense Department remains far short of its goal of assigning senior leaders to oversee developmental testing for all big-ticket weapons and information-technology programs, according to a new report to Congress.

The Navy and Marine Corps are facing readiness gaps for the rest of this fiscal year and into the next, causing a backlog of maintenance work and training that will spill over into next year even though the fiscal year 2014 budget request attempts to fully fund the readiness accounts.

The Air Force will deliver to the United Kingdom in the next six months the first of three modified KC-135 tanker aircraft equipped with high-tech surveillance equipment, a move that will further contribute to the ability of the two countries to conduct signals intelligence missions.

U.S. and Indian officials might one day discuss India's potential participation in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, but for now that is not an active dialogue, Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Andrew Shapiro said today.

Air Force officials have green-lighted transitioning a squadron of F-15Cs to a primary training site as part of their fiscal year 2014 budget request in an effort to help close a service-wide shortfall in fighter pilot production.

As the Marine Corps places greater emphasis on the Pacific region under the Obama administration's new national security strategy, maintaining a cargo unmanned aerial system capability will be vital to the service in a ship-to-shore or sea-based forces role, Maj. Gen. Charles Gurganus, I Marine Expeditionary Force Forward commanding general, said today.

House Armed Services tactical air and land forces subcommittee Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH) is blasting the Obama administration for what he calls a failure to articulate a "consistent" missile defense strategy.

The Navy has slashed by 60 percent the research and development funding in its fiscal year 2014 budget request for the Virginia Module Payload program -- a project launched last year to allow future nuclear attack submarines to carry more cruise missiles and, possibly, an undersea conventional prompt strike weapon.

While the Defense Department is moving to conduct congressionally required environmental site surveys for ground-based interceptor bases on the U.S. East Coast, a final assessment about whether such installations will be needed in the first place has yet to be made, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey told lawmakers.

The Defense Department's new budget request would start an array of multimillion-dollar development programs tailored to the needs of the nation's most elite troops, including investments in precision weapons, electronic warfare and future vertical-lift capabilities.

The Marine Corps plans to declare the F-35B ready for initial operations as soon as July 2015, the service's top general told lawmakers today -- a new target date that roughly tracks with delays in the Joint Strike Fighter program following the addition of two years to the aircraft's development schedule last year.

NATIONAL HARBOR, MD -- The Navy and Boeing as early as this summer will conduct flight tests of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet in order to demonstrate several upgrades including a conformal fuel tank, enclosed weapons pod and other modifications.

The Army plans to dramatically scale back its planned procurement of the LUH-72A Lakota helicopter, according to the service's fiscal year 2014 budget request, but Lakota maker EADS plans to push to reverse the plan, according to the company's CEO.

The Air Force's block-buy acquisition strategy for two major space programs has yielded enough savings to protect those programs from near-term sequester cuts, according to the service's acting under secretary.

Upgraded early warning radars at Beale Air Force Base, CA, Fylingdales Royal Air Force Station in the United Kingdom and Thule Air Station in Greenland are now operating with the same software configuration, paving the way for the Missile Defense Agency to transfer them to the Air Force, according to MDA officials and documents.

Naval Air Systems Command is seeking potential sources to provide an airborne Full-Motion Video (FMV) Airborne Data Link System for the MH-60S aircraft, with installations slated to begin in fiscal year 2014.

The Air Force says the classified program to build a new Long-Range Strike Bomber -- estimated to cost at least $55 billion -- remains "on track" despite the Pentagon seeking nearly a third less than expected for the top-priority project in fiscal year 2014.