Former Pentagon homeland defense chief Paul McHale is seeking support from an independent panel assessing the Quadrennial Defense Review to address his concerns about the potential downsizing of certain military forces designed to respond to weapons-of-mass-destruction attacks on U.S. soil.

The Pentagon is updating last year's strategic management plan to align it with Quadrennial Defense Review goals such as export control reform and plans to issue the revised document by July, according to Deputy Chief Management Officer Elizabeth McGrath.

The Defense Business Board is urging the Pentagon to develop a central repository named "Athena" to store all Pentagon-funded studies to prevent duplicate research efforts throughout the department.

A joint Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard operations concept originally envisioned for release in 2008 will be unveiled in the next few weeks, according to Navy and Marine officials.

The Pentagon's global defense posture review will advocate for complementary capabilities in the European theater, meaning the U.S. military might focus on capabilities like missile defense while encouraging allies to focus on different capabilities like peacekeeping, according to a senior defense official.

As U.S. and Afghan forces press ahead with organizing the country's new air force, planners have begun to explore options for what the final Afghan air fleet will look like, according to a senior Air Force adviser in the region.

Defense Department leaders this week began in earnest an effort to hammer out a plan to modernize the Air Force's bomber fleet, an effort that will be supported by three outside contractors, according to two Pentagon officials.

The Navy's office tasked with coordinating the sea service's portion of the Quadrennial Defense Review has shifted its focus to examining future scenarios, programs and policies for the chief of naval operations.

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL -- Following the release of the Army Capstone Concept last year, the Army is preparing a new operating concept and associated functional concepts to provide increased detail, according to service officials.

An Army official who played a role in writing the Quadrennial Defense Review says he believes the plan is short on specifics when it comes to reforming procurement policies.

The Pentagon's announced intentions in the recently released Quadrennial Defense Review to move forward with the plan to homeport a Virginia-based carrier in Florida prompted Virginia leaders to pepper Defense Department leadership with questions at a recent hearing and Sen. James Webb (D-VA) to issue a renewed promise to keep the plan from getting any funding.

Editor's note: This article was updated on Feb. 16 with a comment from a Navy spokeswoman who at press time (Feb. 12) was unable to confirm if the new force structure assessment had started, or when the effort is slated to conclude.

The Quadrennial Defense Review for the first time addresses climate change risks to the military, making commitments to back efforts "to assess, adapt to, and mitigate the impacts of climate change" and finds that changing weather patterns resulting in food and water scarcity will contribute to political instabilities and increased military conflict in certain parts of the world.

The Defense Department must grapple with major logistics problems that are hindering the Pentagon's acquisition system, according to the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review report.

The Pentagon, the Coast Guard and the Department of Homeland Security must address gaps in key capabilities needed to protect national security interests in the Arctic, according to the final 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review report.

A bipartisan panel that will perform an independent assessment of the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review will not operate under a law that requires public visibility into federal advisory committee deliberations.

Pentagon leaders are defending the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review, punching back at critics who assert the department's report downplays the requirements for deterring and defeating other countries in high-end war.

While Army Chief Of Staff Gen. George Casey did not share any details of the fiscal year 2011 budget or the largely completed Quadrennial Defense Review, he did tell an audience last week he was satisfied with both.

The long-delayed Naval Operations Concept, a document slated to describe how the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard will put the tri-service maritime strategy, released in 2007, into action will be released in February, following the unveiling of the fiscal year 2011 budget request and the Quadrennial Defense Review, the admiral overseeing the effort told Inside the Navy earlier this month.

The Marine Corps faces myriad challenges to reset its ground equipment assets including redeploying equipment from Iraq to Afghanistan, the growth of the Marine Corps to 202,000, the ongoing Quadrennial Defense Review and the uncertainty of future supplemental funding beyond 2011, according to an October service briefing obtained by Inside the Navy.