Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen are scheduled to go before the Senate Armed Services Committee on the morning of Feb. 17 to present the details of the Pentagon’s $553 billion budget request for Fiscal 2012. It’s the first budget hearing that any of the Congressional defense oversight panels have announced so far to receive testimony on the Obama Administration’s Fiscal 2012 budget proposal and corresponding five-year spending plan. The White House has said it will submit the budget to lawmakers during the week of Feb. 14 before the hearings begin.
Lockheed Martin projects more than a billion dollars of losses on a classified program, but company officials said April 23 they are confident it will turn profitable by 2028 and become a "franchise" system in the U.S. military.