The GOP-controlled House of Representatives on Friday passed a nearly $643 billion defense bill -- a measure at odds with prior military spending agreements and President Barack Obama's Pentagon plans.
The United States will provide an additional $70 million to support Israel's short-range missile defense system, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said Thursday.
A House Armed Services Committee member is taking the obscure concept of "sequestration" to the streets, kicking off a nationwide tour Monday to discuss the potential $1 trillion in automatic cuts looming over the defense budget.
Gay service members who want to marry often can't have the ceremony on military bases in the United States. It's not the Pentagon that has authority, but the states where the bases are located.
Virginia GOP Rep. Randy Forbes on Wednesday became the first member of Congress to call for U.S. Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan to step down due to a prostitution scandal involving eleven agents that has raised questions about security at the agency.
U.S. Defense Department officials debated how to dispose of more than 1,000 fragments that could have included human remains from the September 11 attack on the Pentagon before they ended up in a Delaware landfill, according to newly released internal documents.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives on Thursday passed the GOP leadership's 2013 budget plan -- a measure that has no chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate but creates a clear contrast between the two parties on a number of critical tax and spending issues ahead of the general election.
CNN's Stan Grant reports on concerns over China's growing military budget.
While officials have provided few details about the U.S. Army soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan men, women and children in a house-to-house shooting rampage in two villages, one psychiatrist speculated the incident may have stemmed from mental illness, but not necessarily post-traumatic stress disorder.
A U.S. soldier is accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians. A clinical psychologist discusses how this could happen.
The "terrible" weekend killings of civilians won't knock the United States and its NATO allies off the course they've charted in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Monday.
Sara Sidner reports from Kabul on the U.S. soldier who apparently went rogue, killing 16 Afghan citizens.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta testifies before a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the ongoing Syria crisis.
China plans to boost its official defence budget by 11.2 per cent this year as Beijing is balancing the modernisation of its armed forces against the need to keep military spending in line with economic development.
The Pentagon admits some 9/11 remains were cremated and improperly dumped in a landfill. CNN's Chris Lawrence reports.
A man in an Afghan police uniform opened fire on NATO troops in Afghanistan, killing one, NATO said, in what seems to be the latest of dozens of cases of Afghan security forces turning their weapons on international troops who are supposed to be their allies.
Some of the Senate's big guns opened fire Tuesday on the new defense budget request, calling it "unacceptable" and saying they were "seriously concerned."
For some time now, Republican hawks like Sen. John McCain and Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon have been saying that our military budget is inadequate for the threats we face. They like to gripe that President Barack Obama is orchestrating the decline of American power.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta discusses plans for a leaner, less expensive military.
Top Senate Republicans unveiled a proposal Thursday to replace looming across-the-board budget cuts, most notably to the Pentagon, with new restrictions on both the compensation to and size of the federal work force.
Some military experts Friday called Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's proposed budget cuts "much ado about nothing," but others expressed concern about the potential of a shrinking U.S. military in the strategic Mideast and Asia.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta outlined new measures Wednesday targeting sexual assaults against U.S military personnel, saying he has "no higher responsibility than to protect those who are protecting America."
The United States is warning Iran of certain "red lines" they should not cross. CNN's Jill Dougherty reports.
A diplomatic solution with Iran is still possible, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said Wednesday.
President Obama unveiled the Pentagon's new defense strategy last week, calling it a moment to "turn the page" on the past decade of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The new strategy places a greater emphasis on Asia and reduces ground forces in favor of air and sea forces. It accepts greater risks in some areas -- most notably in abandoning the policy that the United States must be able to fight two major, protracted ground wars at once. The Pentagon argues that a two-war construct does not do justice to the complexity of the current threat environment. It has to be able to adapt to a wide, complex array of global threats rather than prepare for an arbitrary number of simultaneous wars.
President Barack Obama unveiled Thursday a new military strategy. It calls for "pivoting" from the Middle East to the Far East, focusing partly on the military buildup of China.
CNN's Stan Grant has reaction from Beijing to the new U.S. military strategy toward China.
CNN's Erin Burnett talks to Joe Sestak and Spider Marks about President Obama's plans to reduce the size of the US military.
The defense budget is going down. Thursday, President Obama personally announced a new strategy to align with the new limits created by the Budget Control Act of last fall. The announcement was light on the budget details to emphasize "strategy." But strategy documents come and go -- it's in budgets that we'll see actual change.
CNN's Barbara Starr interviews the Joint Chiefs chairman who says he is worried about the transition in North Korea.
The United States has seen no unexpected moves by the North Korean military since the announcement of Kim Jong Il's death, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday.
The Air Force admitted Thursday that it sent more sets of military personnel remains to a Virginia landfill than it originally acknowledged.
Sen. Joe Lieberman tells CNN's Erin Burnett that the country's fiscal problems are too serious to abandon.
The Senate on Thursday passed a giant defense bill that includes a new policy for detaining and trying suspected al Qaeda terrorists -- a policy that attracted controversy during the debate and may draw a presidential veto.
Amid congressional and legal pressure on the Pentagon to fight harder against sexual assault in the ranks, the Defense Department signaled Friday that changes are on the way.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta turned up the heat on Congress Monday, warning that looming automatic budget cuts would undermine national security and set off a financial chain reaction from the hallways of the Pentagon, to the battlefields of Afghanistan, to civilian assembly lines.
Calls for details about what budget cuts the Defense Department is considering are coming from both houses of Congress and both parties. And they are getting more urgent.
The Pentagon is portraying India as a major customer for U.S. military equipment, worth an estimated $6 billion in the past decade, even as U.S. companies are shut out of a multibillion dollar bid for fighter jets that India is starting this week.
South Korea's defense minister said Friday he expects more provocations from North Korea in 2012, during a session with his American counterpart.
The Pentagon's own watchdog is warning that defense contracts are potential problems, just as the national political debate swirls around the possibility of shrinking the military and its high-priced weapons.
What's the easiest way to scare the biggest, baddest fighting force on the planet? Budget cuts.
The Pentagon on Monday denied claims that the United States and Iraq have been unable to come to an agreement that would allow some U.S. troops to remain in Iraq after the end of 2011, telling reporters that talks are still going on.
Is the end of the year really the end for the U.S. military in Iraq? Chris Lawrence reports.
A brigade of U.S. troops originally scheduled to be among the very last to leave Iraq is being pulled out of the country months ahead of its planned departure, military officials said Saturday.
The Defense Department, considered by some a black hole of federal spending, is promising lawmakers it will open its books and show in detail how the billions are spent.
The man charged with protecting America from threats is worried about one threat coming from Capitol Hill.
The systems that control U.S. military drones have been infected with a computer virus, a U.S. defense official confirmed to CNN on Monday.
The "cockpits" of U.S. military drones are infected with a computer virus. Chris Lawrence reports.
In 2010 alone, there were roughly 1,100 attacks on U.S. fuel convoys. This has cost the men and women of our armed forces dearly.
David Hall thought that he'd been careful, working diligently in his job as an Air Force sergeant, and staying quiet about his outside life, including his sexual orientation.
The Pentagon announced the repeal of the long-controversial ban on homosexuals serving openly in the military will happen Tuesday.
Every few moments another plane seemed to be bearing down on the Pentagon on Friday, but they were only on their final approach to nearby Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has approved an order raising the force protection level at military bases in the United States through September 11, Pentagon spokesman George Little said Wednesday.
The Pentagon issued fresh warnings Wednesday that China's military expansion could stir up new tensions and provoke dangerous misunderstandings
Five years after a law to protect U.S. military personnel from salespeople selling life insurance, a new Pentagon report finds problems continue.
Kathryn Bigelow, who made the Oscar-winning movie "The Hurt Locker" on the Iraq war, is in the preliminary stages of making a movie about the killing of Osama bin Laden and has gotten access to top White House, Pentagon and CIA officials about the raid.
President Barack Obama and top Pentagon officials including Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen attended Tuesday's dignified transfer of the remains of 38 U.S. and Afghan personnel killed on board a helicopter shot down in Afghanistan over the weekend.
Barbara Starr reports on the military's "dignified transfer" of the troops killed in a helicopter attack in Afghanistan.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Adm. Michael Mullen sound off on possible budget cuts for the U.S. military.
Vowing that he "came into this job to fight," Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said he intends to make sure "some common sense prevails" as Congress works to find more ways to reduce the national debt.
The U.S. Army, already looking to shrink its force by 27,000 soldiers, is now also trying to cut more than 8,000 civilian jobs.
The Pentagon budget is about to get whacked.
The Senate Armed Services Committee could be forgiven had Tuesday's confirmation hearing for Gen. Martin Dempsey gone very quickly. Dempsey is President Obama's nominee to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, but he just went through a confirmation hearing four and a half months ago when he was nominated to be the Army chief of staff.
A 60-day countdown to the end of the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the U.S. military has begun, President Barack Obama announced Friday.
The Pentagon is set to certify that the U.S. military is prepared to accept openly gay and lesbian service members, and doing so will not harm military readiness, a U.S. official told CNN on Thursday.
As congressional budget cutters sharpen their axes and size up the Pentagon, the Army released a report Thursday admitting major problems with the way it dreams up, orders and pays for major weapons systems.
New Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has the self-confidence and the long Washington experience to call 'em like he sees 'em.
For one day, at least, you can call off the cyberwar.
A federal appeals court Wednesday issued an order blocking the U.S. military from enforcing its "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays and lesbians serving in the military. U.S. officials have been moving ahead with dismantling the policy but had objected to having the courts force the government to officially repeal it at this time.
Pentagon officials report "don't ask, don't tell" training for all servicemen is on track to be complete by this summer.
For lawmakers on the hunt for budget savings, the Pentagon's $500 billion budget is a great place to start.
In his official farewell to outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates, U.S President Barack Obama honored the plainspoken Kansas native on Thursday with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor.
The U.S. military is requesting for operations in Afghanistan next year billions of dollars less than it has been authorized to spend there this year, a Pentagon spokesman said -- a drop that does not take into account the newly mandate troop drawdown in the embattled Asian nation.
CNN looks at how possible President Obama's troop withdrawal plan really is.
Top military commanders told members of Congress on Thursday that President Barack Obama's scheduled withdrawal of 33,000 "surge" troops from Afghanistan by next summer is more "aggressive" than the Pentagon initially proposed.
President Obama outlines U.S. troop withdrawals in Afghanistan during a televised speech.
President Obama lays out plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
President Barack Obama announced Wednesday night that all the 33,000 additional U.S. forces he ordered to Afghanistan in December 2009 will be home within 15 months.
Leon Panetta, the incoming defense secretary, visited the Pentagon Wednesday, a day after the Senate confirmed him by a rare 100-0 vote to replace Robert Gates.
The United States is watching closely to the see the ultimate fate of the most powerful man in Pakistan, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the Pakistani army's chief of staff.
From nearly the beginning of his tenure as secretary of defense, Robert Gates set his sights on ending a controversial practice in the U.S. Army known as "stop loss." Wednesday he announced he's done it.
Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the war in Afghanistan, has arrived in Washington for a one-two national security punch that is certain to leave ripples over the next several days.
Even by Washington's standards, Leon Panetta's resume portrays the ultimate insider -- a smooth navigator of Congress, the federal budget, the White House and the CIA. He's worked for both Republican and Democratic presidents. And the CIA's role in last month's raid and killing of Osama bin Laden gave his solid-gold credentials new luster.
CIA Director Leon Panetta, the president's pick to be the next secretary of defense, has been meeting with senior Department of Defense leaders to prepare for this week's confirmation hearing, the Pentagon said Monday.
President Barack Obama on Monday nominated Gen. Martin Dempsey, the relatively new Army chief of staff, to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
President Obama announces key changes in defense personnel, nominating a new Joint Chiefs Chairman.
President Barack Obama will nominate Gen. Martin Dempsey, the relatively new Army chief of staff, to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, several administration officials say.
President Barack Obama's decision to order a raid against Osama bin Laden in Pakistan was a courageous and gutsy call, said U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
CNN's Hala Gorani tells John King about bin Laden's video and its connection to the Arab uprisings.
The Navy confirmed Wednesday that it did an abrupt about-face on guidance allowing same-sex marriages on military bases after receiving a flood of criticism from Capitol Hill, as well as discussions with Defense Department lawyers.
For a man who considered himself "the ultimate insider" in Washington, Robert Gates made no secret of his desire to become an outsider.
The president will name CIA Director Leon Panetta as his nominee to succeed Robert Gates as defense secretary.
When President Obama unveiled his revamped national security team in the East Room, he quickly joked about how badly Defense Secretary Robert Gates has been itching to finally get serious about retirement.
President Barack Obama on Thursday shuffled familiar faces in his national security team to deal with the pending retirement of Defense Secretary Robert Gates, reflecting a desire for continuity and the changing nature of modern warfare.
A lesbian cadet who left the West Point Military Academy has been denied readmission, just as the U.S. military begins changes mandated by a repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
Lawrence Korb, a former assistant secretary of defense the Reagan administration, is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. Laura Conley is a research associate at the center.
CIA Director Leon Panetta is a smart choice to replace Defense Secretary Robert Gates because of his political skill and maturity, his many years of government experience, and his knack of generating trust with others, observers say.
In the final days of the 2011 budget debate, lawmakers gave the Pentagon a small boost, while they slashed funding for almost every other government agency.
U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, suspected of leaking classified information to the WikiLeaks website, is being moved to the Joint Regional Correctional Facility at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, defense officials said Tuesday.
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