WASHINGTON, March 13 (Reuters) – A defense contractor better
known for building jet fighters and lethal missiles says it has
found a way to slash the amount of energy needed to remove salt
from seawater, potentially making it vastly cheaper to produce
clean water at a time when scarcity has become a global security
issue.

The process, officials and engineers at Lockheed Martin Corp
say, would enable filter manufacturers to produce thin
carbon membranes with regular holes about a nanometer in size
that are large enough to allow water to pass through but small
enough to block the molecules of salt in seawater. A nanometer
is a billionth of a meter.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senior defense officials said on Tuesday they were doing their best to offset the worst impacts of $46 billion in budget cuts that began this month, but they will have to slash personnel and weapons programs if reductions keep coming in future years.

Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told a conference of industry officials that the Pentagon was facing a “double absurdity” of having to implement across-the-board budget cuts generally seen as bad policy while being funded for last year’s spending levels and priorities.

WASHINGTON, March 12 (Reuters) – Senior defense officials
said on Tuesday they were doing their best to offset the worst
impacts of $46 billion in budget cuts that began this month, but
they will have to slash personnel and weapons programs if
reductions keep coming in future years.

Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told a conference of
industry officials that the Pentagon was facing a “double
absurdity” of having to implement across-the-board budget cuts
generally seen as bad policy while being funded for last year’s
spending levels and priorities.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has asked the Pentagon’s top lawyer to review a recent sexual assault case and assess whether commanding officers should have the power under military law to overturn a jury verdict, according to a letter released on Monday.

The review could have far-reaching consequences for the military judicial system, which grants the “convening authority” – the general responsible for a court martial proceeding – the ability to review a verdict from a jury trial and modify or dismiss it.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – It is the least expensive way to get food and fuel to U.S. troops in Afghanistan. But eight months after Pakistan reopened its ground supply routes for the NATO war effort, hardly any new cargo has taken that path into the landlocked country.

Instead, supplies have been moving almost entirely along far more expensive routes, one of several factors that have prompted senior Pentagon officials to warn that Afghan war costs are higher than projected at a time of increasingly tight budgets.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A week after his drubbing of the top contractors on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter raised eyebrows at the Pentagon, the U.S. program chief sought to maintain pressure on industry, while citing progress on software development and production costs.

U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Christopher Bogdan told a defense conference that he’d reached his quota for “juicy, controversial, headline-making quotes” for the month after lashing the plane’s manufacturer Lockheed Martin Corp . and enginemaker Pratt & Whitney during an air show in Australia.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Budget cuts that force the Pentagon to slash $46 billion in spending this year would do little to relieve long-term financial pressures facing the military, but it could lead the services to begin addressing the issue, analysts said on Friday.

Once the Pentagon puts civilian employees on unpaid leave, shortens flying hours, delays ship maintenance and takes other steps to address the cuts known as sequestration that go into effect late on Friday, it will still face rising costs in healthcare, pay and benefits, and weapons development, they said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Friday he believed U.S. policy of giving only “non-lethal support” to Syria’s opposition was the correct one.

Hagel’s comments, at his first news briefing since taking over the Pentagon on Wednesday, came a day after the United States said it would for the first time give non-lethal aid to Syrian rebels and more than double its aid to Syria’s civilian opposition.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Friday that budget uncertainty, including $46 billion in new defense cuts, jeopardizes the Pentagon’s ability to effectively fulfill all its missions.

Hagel, appearing at his first Pentagon news conference since he was sworn in on Wednesday, said the cuts mean the U.S. Navy would gradually stand down four air wings, the Air Force would immediately cut flying hours and the Army would reduce training.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A senior military budget officer said on Wednesday that converging financial pressures could leave the U.S. Army with just $2 billion to spend on operations, maintenance and training this year after it has funded the war in Afghanistan and other security needs.

That is a fraction of what the Army usually spends to train soldiers, maintain bases, refurbish equipment and carry out overseas operations during a seven-month period and has created a “dire” and “unprecedented” outlook, said Major General Karen Dyson, director of the Army Budget Office.