The Army is looking to industry for ideas on unmanned cargo helicopters, according to a request for information posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website on Nov. 22.

A successful first flight of the second X-47B unmanned aircraft test vehicle on Nov. 22 means the Navy and manufacturer Northrop Grumman will be able to increase the "pace and productivity" of the unmanned combat air system (UCAS) flight test program, Northrop said in a Nov. 28 statement.

Army officials are laying the groundwork for a new electronic-warfare capability designed to protect ground vehicles on the road against attacks, eying a beefed-up version of the jammers widely used to disable makeshift bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a service official.

Despite the House Armed Services Committee's concerns that the Navy is not doing enough to bring down maintenance costs for the service's fleet of 2,480 small boats, the Navy has told the congressional defense committees in a new report that "boat lifts" would actually raise maintenance costs and shouldn't be procured.

The Army's Training and Doctrine Command is building a new tactical wheeled vehicle strategy that outlines how many trucks will remain in the service in the wake of planned end-strength reductions, according to officials and sources.

The Navy may not know yet what specific cuts it will need to make as a result of the congressional supercommittee failing to reach an agreement and allowing automatic across-the-board cuts to the Pentagon to go into effect, but the services argues that it will necessarily result in reduced readiness.

The Marine Corps' plan to modernize its amphibious warfare ship fleet will cost $50 billion over three decades, the Congressional Budget Office estimates in a new report, a recapitalization plan that would leave the service five ships shy of what Marines say is required to execute its most-demanding future mission: launching two expeditionary brigades ashore from the sea.

The Pentagon should come up with its own plan for cutting back the defense budget or face across-the-board cuts to all of its accounts when "sequestration" kicks in in January 2013, said Todd Harrison, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is summoning top brass from around the world for a high-level meeting with Pentagon leaders to contemplate the consequences of huge spending cuts to the military budget over the next decade.

The two industry teams vying for a multiyear, multibillion-dollar contract to further develop and maintain the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system submitted their final proposals to the Missile Defense Agency this week.

The House Armed Services Committee is working on legislation to address automatic defense cuts that could stem from a debt-reduction panel's failure to cut at least $1.2 trillion from the nation's deficit.

A pair of new Lockheed Martin-built satellites could cost $438 million more than previously estimated and could be delivered a year late, the Defense Department states in a new report to Congress on the Space Based Infrared System-High program.

The Defense Department has added the Air Force's VC-25A Presidential Aircraft program as well as an unnamed National Security Agency effort to a list of priority military projects permitted to cut ahead of other military and commercial customers for industrial materials and parts.

The Pentagon will shrink the Marine Corps "well below" the service's desired level of 186,800 troops, but the service will remain capable of handling its missions, Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos said today.

The Joint Light Tactical Vehicle program office today issued an update to its draft request for proposals stating that the Army and Marines are now willing to pay $65 million to each potential contractor for the vehicle's engineering and manufacturing design phase, up from the previously planned $52 million.

The Air Force must set aside $12 billion in its new five-year investment plan for the KC-46A development program -- a down payment on a $51.7 billion program to acquire 179 aircraft -- and prime contractor Boeing has a 12-month window to achieve each of the major schedule milestones set forth in the new acquisition program baseline, according to a Pentagon report.

The Defense Department could have unintentionally shot itself in the foot by seeking internal efficiency savings before Congress enacted a debt-reduction law designed to cut hundreds of billions of dollars from Pentagon coffers, a defense official said today.

The Army may purchase the technical data package for the Family of Heavy Tactical Vehicles from prime contractor Oshkosh Corp., a move that would allow the service to invite other companies to bid on future production contracts.

President Obama's decision to station as many as 2,500 Marines in Australia is a "a very natural next step" for U.S. military policy, a top Pacific Command official said today.

A new cyberwarfare policy report submitted to Congress by the Defense Department this week "does a good job" describing DOD's offensive authorities in cyberspace but leaves "open questions" about its civil authorities in cyberspace and definitions of concepts like active defense, according to U.S. Strategic Command chief Gen. Robert Kehler.