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.”
A combined Navy and Air Force program is seeking to build a smaller version of a ubiquitous air-to-air missile that could give advanced aircraft, such as the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, greater magazine depth in a high-end fight.