Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Pentagon reporters Monday afternoon at the start of the defense budget briefing that “the resources we devote to defense should be at the level that adequately meets the challenges of the global strategic environment the United States faces today.” He also said that since 1993—the last time he served in government—the defense budget has “taken a smaller relative share of our national wealth, while the world has gotten more complicated and arguably more dangerous.”
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.