WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Wednesday restored the Air Force's authority to select the winner of a $35 billion contract for aerial refueling tankers between Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp. ...more

September 16, 2009

Unless the White House comes to its senses, pilots at MacDill Air Force Base and other bases will have to continue flying Cold War-era refueling tankers for five years. ...more

March 17, 2009

The protracted wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are forcing the Obama administration to rethink what for more than two decades has been a central premise of U.S. strategy: that the nation need only prepare to fight two major wars at a time. ...more

March 16, 2009

A U.S. fighter pilot lost nearly 20 years ago in the Persian Gulf War will remain classified as missing, but Navy Secretary Donald Winter expressed strong reservations about the pilot's status and cited "compelling" evidence that he is dead. ...more

March 10, 2009

The Obama administration is reversing an 18-year ban on news coverage of the return of war dead, allowing photographs of flag-covered caskets when families of the fallen troops agree, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday. ...more

February 27, 2009

Former Air Force Officer A.J. D'Amario questions the foreign policy goals for President Barack Obama. ...more

February 18, 2009

Joan Atkins of Palm Harbor says President Barack Obama runs the risk of being an ineffective commander-in-chief because of his early national defense and security moves. ...more

February 7, 2009

The Pentagon has decided that it will not award the Purple Heart, the hallowed medal given to those wounded or killed by enemy action, to war veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder because it is not a physical wound. ...more

January 8, 2009

President-elect Barack Obama's administration needs to monitor war spending much more closely than the current White House has, according to a new study that criticized President Bush's approach to funding the Iraq and Afghanistan wars - a bill that is projected to approach nearly $1 trillion next year. ...more

December 26, 2008

President-elect Barack Obama will keep Defense Secretary Robert Gates in that job for at least a year, according to an official familiar the two men's discussions. ...more

November 25, 2008