In a policy declaration that will reverberate through the Pentagon and defense industry, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee made clear today that when he has to pick whether to approve funding for a new program or for one that needs rebuilding he’ll pick the existing program. “I think there is a tension there and the reset will have to prevail,” Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said in response to my question about the choices he will have to make as authorizers look for sustainable cuts to the defense budget.

FCS, the Army’s prime modernization effort, appears set for a major restructure if rumors emanating from the Pentagon and Hill are correct. Half of the eight FCS vehicles would apparently be axed or moved way to the right. We’ve got reaction from the Hill on this and more.

Before November’s election, anyone wanting to know where the White House and Pentagon might be headed, read papers from the Heritage Foundation and talked to its experts. Well, those days are gone but the folks at Heritage now serve the important role of unfettered loyal opposition, and they have weighed in on one of the most crucial efforts we’ll see during the Obama administration — the Quadrennial Defense Review.

The big question on everybody’s lips: What is the new administration’s new strategy to bring about a different outcome to the long festering security sore that is Afghanistan? SecDef Gates fleshed out some of that strategy in front of the SASC this week. Obama’s choosing Amb. Richard Holbrooke as special envoy to the region also signals that Aghan president Karzai is likely on his way out.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates may have left the fate of the Future Combat System (FCS) hanging during his congressional testimony yesterday, but the acquisition system is grinding ahead and the program won a potentially significant decision last week.

On the eve of President Obama’s meeting at the Pentagon tomorrow with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, SecDef Gates revealed plans to speed the flow of new troops to Afghanistan, even as he tried to dial back expectations of a quick victory in the region Obama identified in campaign talking points last year as the “central front” in the “war on terror.”

In his testimony today before the Senate Armed Services Committee, SecDef Robert Gates hinted that the Air Force’s Next Generation bomber might become a casualty of the U.S. economic downturn and the resulting smaller defense budget.

In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee this morning, Defense Secretary Robert Gates made clear that the era of defense spending largesse is over. He said new budget realities will force DOD to re-examine costly weapons programs.

Our friends at Defense Tech have a very special online interview coming up tomorrow, Jan. 27. One of the most knowledgeable civilians in America on Pentagon budgets and defense spending, Winslow Wheeler, will be their guest at 1500 EST for an hour-long interview on the current DoD budget, spending priorities and Gates’ testimony on Capitol Hill earlier in the day.

CDI’s Winslow Wheeler says higher military spending is a poor way to stimulate the floundering U.S. economy as it would be too small and slow to take effect and argues instead that the DOD budget should be trimmed and money shifted to other parts of the economy such as infrastructure and education.

The vulnerabilities, components and processes used to make armor are rarely discussed with reporters, or the general public. Keeping those things secret saves soldiers lives. So when the Army’s testing community rolled out the service’s top armor scientists and allowed us glimpses of the facilities used to make armor as part of our FCS tour at Aberdeen Proving Ground they sent a very clear message of the importance they attach to this enormous program.

UPDATED: Sen. Levin announces presidential waiver for Lynn, restates support for nomination. Four good government groups want the Senate Armed Services Committee to reject Bill Lynn, the Obama administration’s nominee to be deputy defense secretary. “Mr. Lynn simply could not effectively serve” since his past work “clearly violates” President Obama’s executive order barring prospective senior government officials from having lobbied their agency within two years before they start government work.

The Army is in the midst of a major push to safeguard the Future Combat System and I just got back from a day-long tour at Aberdeen Proving Ground of FCS-related components and systems, including the delightful little SUG-V, built by I-Robot. Here’s a look at how the little bots are performing.

China released a new defense white paper this week that lays out its plans to accelerate military modernization focused on command and control networks and precision guided munitions. The paper says China aims to modernize its military by the middle of the 21st century.

The Lexington Institute’s Loren Thompson says defense spending will drop significantly under the Obama administration, weapons programs will be cut first and cut deepest and the U.S. defense industry faces a prolonged period of depressed demand similar to that of the 1990s.

We all know Obama’s defense people were bombarded with briefings about programs and policies but the efforts have, shall we say, lacked transparency for must of us. Today I got my hands on one of these briefings. It offers explanations about Navy opposition to the plane and details how and why the source believes senior OSD officials have opposed deploying the F-22.

UPDATED
President Obama meets today with his top military commanders to discuss accelerating the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and beefing up the U.S. comitment in Afghanistan.

President Elect Barack Obama dropped broad hints during his campaign about his defense priorities and President Obama reaffirmed most of them during his inaugural speech today. Short version: Torture Out, Allies In, Peace Cool Again.