Yahoo! News: U.S. Military

U.S. Military

• Joint Strike Fighter cost may top 100 million dollars: US (AFP)

  AFP - The Joint Strike Fighter next generation warplane for US and allied forces may end up costing more than 100 million dollars per plane, a Pentagon official told Congress Thursday.

  
  

• Kratos reports 4Q profit (AP)

  AP - Defense contractor Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Inc. reported a fourth-quarter profit Thursday.

• DoD to resume education grants to military spouses (AP)

  AP - Facing a phalanx of angry military spouses, the Defense Department said Thursday it will resume payments for college courses and job training for spouses who had already applied for grants when the popular program was abruptly halted last month.

• Cost of Lockheed's F-35 fighter soars (Reuters)

  Reuters - The average cost of Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the Pentagon's costliest purchase ever, will be over 50 percent higher than projected when the program began nine years ago, the Pentagon's top arms buyer told Congress.

• Lockheed cost overruns to spark review: Pentagon (Reuters)

  Reuters - Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 program, the Pentagon's biggest acquisition ever, is crashing through a cost-growth threshold that will spark a thorough review of the program, the Pentagon's chief weapons buyer told Congress on Thursday.

• US military to step up video-game training (AFP)

  AFP - The US military plans to step up the use of video-games, hoping to curb casualties on the battlefield by training troops through simulations, a commander said Wednesday.

  
  

• SAIC receives Navy contract worth up to $625M (AP)

  AP - Defense contractor Science Applications International Corp., or SAIC Inc., on Wednesday said it received a contract from the U.S. Navy to develop and enhance command and control software.

• Haitians wary of US military reduction (AFP)

  AFP - A US Navy hospital ship was recalled from Haiti Tuesday as the US military cut its emergency deployment to the quake-hit nation, where aid efforts are now turning to reconstruction.

  
  

• Two NATO soldiers killed in eastern Afghanistan (Reuters)

  Reuters - Two NATO soldiers were killed Tuesday when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a military base in Afghanistan, the alliance and local government sources said.

• Pentagon defends under-fire tanker bid (AFP)

  AFP - The US Defence Department on Tuesday defended its bidding practices as fair after Europe and some US lawmakers charged that contract rules threw a major military deal to Boeing.

  
  

• ITT names Dave Melcher senior vice president (AP)

  AP - Defense contractor ITT Corp. said Monday it has named Dave Melcher, president of its Defense & Information Solutions business, a senior vice president of the company.

• Top court to decide on anti-gay protests at military funerals (Reuters)

  Reuters - The Supreme Court said on Monday it would decide whether constitutional free-speech rights protected anti-gay protests by members of a Kansas church at funerals for U.S. military members killed in Iraq.

• Ruling on gay Air Force major creates dilemma (AP)

  AP - A pressing legal reality for the "don't ask, don't tell" standard for gays serving in the military is that the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has already struck down the way it's practiced in much of the Western United States.

  
  

• US-Colombia military accord challenged in Bogota court (AFP)

  AFP - Colombia's Constitutional Court has decided to review an agreement giving US forces access to seven Colombian military bases after a group of lawyers filed a complaint arguing it is unconstitutional, court officials said Saturday.

  
  

• US envoy urges Japan to stick to deadline for base row (AFP)

  AFP - A senior US envoy has warned that ties with Japan could be "affected in many fields" if Tokyo missed a May deadline for solving a dispute over an American military base, Japanese lawmakers said Saturday.

  
  

• Ill. judge won't toss torture suit naming Rumsfeld (AP)

  AP - A federal judge refused Friday to dismiss a civil lawsuit accusing former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of responsibility for the alleged torture by U.S. forces of two Americans who worked for an Iraqi contracting firm.

• Lockheed CEO pay drops 10 pct to $20.6M in 2009 (AP)

  AP - The pay of Lockheed Martin Corp. CEO Robert Stevens fell 10 percent in 2009 as the nation's biggest defense contractor felt the effects of shifting Pentagon spending priorities.

• McCain, Lieberman push military to handle terror cases (Reuters)

  Reuters - Two senior senators unveiled legislation on Thursday to require the military to hold, interrogate and prosecute certain terrorism suspects and also bar them from receiving legal rights afforded most criminals in the United States.

  
  

• No terrorism link to Pentagon shooting: police (Reuters)

  Reuters - A California man who was fatally shot after opening fire on security officers outside the Pentagon appears to have been acting alone, with no links to domestic or international terrorism, police said on Friday.

  
  

• Army chief sees 'anxiety' on lifting ban on gays (AP)

  AP - Army Chief of Staff Gen. George W. Casey said Thursday he sees anxiety in the armed services over how possible changes in the law that bans openly gay servicemen and women would be implemented.