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.”
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III rebuffed criticism that the F-35 program has proved too costly and unreliable to serve as the viable backbone of America’s and allies' future fighter fleet on April 30. “I would not categorize the F-35 as a paperweight,” Austin said in response to questioning…