The document depicts the strategic framework of the future operational environment and its implications on the joint force, both structurally and operationally, Edgington said. The idea behind the new plan, he explained, is to help U.S. combatant commanders determine their resource requirements over the coming years.

“What we’re trying to do is set the context for what are possibly evolutions in the future,” he said, explaining that the document is “speculative,” not “predictive.”

The document doesn’t claim one thing will happen as opposed to other possible outcomes, the general said. Rather, it simply lays out a number of possible outcomes. From there, he said, it’s the job of the military’s top brass to determine which are most likely, and then to prepare for one or more of the outcomes.

The Joint Forces Command document uses data from outlets ranging from the Energy Department and the Congressional Budget Office to civilian publications such as “The Economist.” Though the report doesn’t necessarily contain anything brand new, Edgington said, it uses available data to support different speculations.

“We’re trying to lay out possibilities for the future, so we can encourage intellectual dialogue [and] strategic discussion as to what types of futures we should be prepared for … so we can determine the implications for the future force,” Edgington explained. “We aren’t pretending to try to predict that any of these things will happen.”

Using energy as an example, Edgington noted that energy resources and the effects of energy consumption pose possible threats to national security. But the report doesn’t necessarily link those outcomes to operations in, for example, Afghanistan or Iraq.

Though someone can make a case for connecting Afghanistan with energy-related challenges, Edgington said, specific connections are not the report’s aim. “That’s certainly not our intent to focus on a specific country and their relation to a certain challenge,” he said.

Neither, he added, does the Joint Forces Command document make any recommendations for required resources or action. Those decisions, the general said, are left to the leadership in the services. From there, the information might be transformed into specific missions or training requirements for rank-and-file troops, but the strategic picture Joint Forces Command is presenting is intended for higher-level officers, Edgington said.

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Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal said military operations in Helmand province have been promising, and that efforts to build the Afghan government in the province are the key to long-term success. McChrystal and Ambassador Mark Sedwill, the senior NATO civilian representative in Afghanistan, spoke to Pentagon reporters from Kabul.

The "clearing" portion of the battle against insurgents in Helmand continues, even as the "hold" and "build" portions of the counterinsurgency strategy are instituted. The general said the coalition will work in partnership with the Afghan government to deliver essential services to these areas.

"But this will be a long process, and there will be military challenges in the months ahead as the insurgents try to prove that we can't maintain enough security to do that," McChrystal added.

The coalition will bring more security to Kandahar next, the general said. The second-largest city in Afghanistan and the philosophical home of the Taliban is incredibly important to success in the country, he told reporters.

The Kandahar area is far more complex than Helmand, he said, and the coalition and Afghan government have begun shaping operations in and around the metropolis and the surrounding area in preparation for an offensive. More coalition and Afghan troops will be fed into the area as time goes on, he said.

Sedwill said military operations have regained the initiative, and operations now must move to more civilian-oriented ones to resolve political tensions and grievances that fuel the insurgency and to rebuild and reinforce institutions in which the Afghan people have lost confidence.

"We haven't made enough progress in the past eight years in rebuilding them," he said, "but we need to really strengthen them -- and strengthen them now -- to win over the people's allegiance ... to their own government."

Turning to other areas of Afghanistan, McChrystal said he had traveled to Mazar-e Sharif in Regional Command North. "Although security there is relatively better than it would be, for example, in the south," he said, "there are still effective and focused operations to partner to make that work."

He also said he'd visited a Norwegian provincial reconstruction team working to repair the Ring Road around the country. "There are going to be ongoing operations in the weeks and months ahead there to maintain or to make progress there," he said, "but also to increase security along the existing parts of the Ring Road, and then also the push for completion of that last section."

The general added that he observed a Turkish medical capabilities operation in Kabul, and he praised the way the Turks bonded with the people. He also traveled to Ghazni, where he said the scope of the task remaining shows itself.

"While the people are not negative to our forces or the Afghan national security forces, we also, to this point, have not been able to offer the kind of security that allows the people to make a full decision," McChrystal said. "One man spoke to us for a little while, and then said, 'I'm going to get a night letter [from the Taliban] tonight, because I'm talking to you.'"

Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan have delivered such intimidating "night letters" or leaflets to citizens they suspect of collaborating with coalition troops or Afghan security forces and government officials. Though the Taliban aren't plentiful in Ghazni, the general said, they have enough of a presence to cause problems.

Overall, McChrystal and Sedwill said, they are pleased with the progress that has been achieved in Afghanistan so far, but there is tough work to come. Kandahar will remain a focus, they said, but so will other areas in the eastern and southern regional commands.

Training the Afghan security forces is key to beginning a coalition withdrawal from Afghanistan, McChrystal said, acknowledging that the coalition has yet to provide enough trainers. Calls have gone through NATO and international channels to obtain more, he said.

Overall, the civilian efforts and the Afghans themselves ultimately will ensure progress in Afghanistan, Sedwill said.

"Remember the complexity of this campaign," the ambassador said. "We've tended to focus ... on the military elements of it, but the military elements of it are not going to deliver success here unless we get the political elements right," he said.

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The United States made a concerted effort to introduce combined units from the U.S. and Afghan militaries, the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development and Afghan government officials to the area as part of its "clear, hold, build, and transfer" policy, Richard C. Holbrooke told CNN's "GPS" host Fareed Zakaria.

"We are in a better position today than we were 12 months ago today, and that's the bottom line for me," Holbrooke said about the situation in Afghanistan.

He commended Afghan President Hamid Karzai's efforts to engage with local Afghans in Marja, pointing out that Karzai was the first Afghan head of state ever to visit the region.

"He spoke in the local language. ... He had a local shura, a council. He listened to the people. They yelled at him. They told him they didn't like corruption," Holbrooke told Zakaria.

Based on his numerous meetings with village elders across the country, Holbrooke said, corruption, the need for services, and girls' education are foremost on Afghans' minds. The Taliban's refusal to allow girls to go to school is particularly abhorrent to many Afghans, he noted.

Holbrooke also discussed the state of al-Qaida today and the U.S.-Pakistan relationship. An increase in missile strikes has led to about a dozen - more than half - of al-Qaida's top leadership being killed, he said, reducing the terrorist organization's ability to operate as it used to.

"It looks like they are less an organization that plans operations now than an organization that summons people to aspirational jihad," Holbrooke said. And al-Qaida's recent attacks on Muslims have weakened its ability to inspire people, he added, noting that a backlash has formed against the organization in the Arab and Muslim world.

Turning to the U.S.-Pakistan relationship, Holbrooke said a stronger sense of cooperation and collaboration has grown between the two countries.

"There has been a significant improvement across the board in the relationship between our government and the government of Pakistan," he told Zakaria.

Pakistan has increased its efforts in tackling both the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban factions, Holbrooke said. Although he acknowledged that the Pakistani military hasn't yet engaged in North Waziristan, he said that he was impressed with its dedication so far.

Holbrooke said Pakistan moved more than 100,000 troops from its border with India in the east to the western front, where al-Qaida and the Taliban are located. It also has several divisions in the Swat region and in South Waziristan.

The envoy said this improvement is due in large part to personal ties formed between the two countries' leaders. He cited the high-profile visits of several top administration officials, including Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and National Security Advisor James L. Jones Jr., among others. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Navy Adm. Mike Mullen has developed a close working relationship with Pakistani Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.

"We feel, clearly, that we're working more closely together with them, and I think that's a very big step forward," Holbrooke said. "No government on Earth has received more high-level attention."

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"We're morphing from a symptom-based approach in theater to an incident-based approach," a senior official said March 15 during a "DoDLive" bloggers roundtable.

"The tenet behind this is we strongly believe that early detection and early treatment decrease the complaints of post-traumatic brain injury after sustaining an injury," said Kathy Helmick, interim senior executive director for traumatic brain injury and director of TBI clinical standards of care at the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury.

The new protocol will go into effect soon and will make head injury evaluations mandatory for servicemembers who have been involved in incidents such as being close to explosions or blasts. In the past, Ms. Helmick explained, servicemembers simply decided for themselves whether to report symptoms. Moving forward, the medical staff will check everyone involved in such incidents.

To get the incident-based protocols going, officials are using an "educate, train, track and treat" sequence, Ms. Helmick said. This involves:

• Ensuring awareness at all levels in recognizing symptoms of brain injuries;
• Training health care providers in evidence-based treatments;
• Treating incidents early; and
• Tracking progress to yield metrics that would show where improvements are needed.

"We are fast-tracking our research portfolios so that we can translate the findings from research being done into clinical practice and improve care on the battlefield as soon as possible," Ms. Helmick said.

Researchers are looking at blast dynamics related to the direction of explosions and relationships between the magnitude of explosions in enclosed and open locations, Ms. Helmick explained. This could help in determining ways to decrease the incidents of brain injury along with examining the nature of attacks, she said.

Research also is under way to explore psychological health and TBI, Ms. Helmick said.

"We are trying to really help bring the disciplines together so that we can provide more clarity to the timing of treatment for specific psychological health conditions and how that marries up with traumatic brain injury," she said.

If a patient is being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder, she noted, traumatic brain injury clinicians need to be in sync so that therapy can be maximized.

The department also is working with National Football League representatives to share information on TBI research. Ms. Helmick noted that officials at both the NFL and the Defense Department have stepped up efforts to learn more about brain injuries and implement measures for prevention and treatment.

"So the groups are working on creating a change in attitude so that servicemembers, like athletes, don't discount symptoms but get early treatment, which will lead to early recovery," Ms. Helmick said.

Part of the Defense Department's effort focuses on educating commanders and supervisors.

"We've really stressed with the line command that this is not about taking someone away from mission," Ms. Helmick said. "This is about keeping them in the safe zone while they are vulnerable for a second injury, making sure they get checked out and then getting them back to doing what they love."

She added that one of the strongest initiatives in treating TBI is educating servicemembers about the importance of sharing their symptoms, knowing what to expect for a natural recovery and developing strategies to deal with the symptoms. This, she said, has been shown repeatedly to help in decreasing symptom reporting and enhancing recovery.

"Our real message to send out to everyone is, 'Protect your greatest weapon, your brain,'" Ms. Helmick said. "The cornerstone is early detection and early treatment, and that these are recoverable injuries."

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In accordance with an agreement brokered between Baghdad and Washington, the drawdown to 50,000 U.S. troops before September will happen as the American mission shifts from its current role as a partner of Iraqi security forces to primarily one of training and advising.

But on the heels of what has been touted as a "historic" parliamentary election in Iraq this week -- months before the drawdown milestone -- U.S. forces in some instances have begun to change missions, said Maj. Gen. Terry A. Wolff, commander of U.S. Division Central.

"We're pretty close to what that will look like already," Wolff, whose area of operations includes Baghdad and the western Iraqi province of Anbar, told Pentagon reporters in a news conference.

What allows U.S. forces to pivot from accompanying Iraqi units in joint operations and providing aerial and intelligence support upon request to a role that centers on training, advising and assisting is the evolution of Iraq's indigenous forces, the general said.

Since his previous rotation in Iraq in 2006 and 2007, Wolff said, Iraqi security forces have passed tests of their quality "with flying colors." He cited security during the March 7 election in which attacks reportedly killed some 38 people across the country but failed to close any polling sites or dissuade any of the estimated 12 million Iraqis -- about 62 percent of the electorate -- who cast ballots.

"I worked helping to train the [Iraqi security forces] on my last rotation," Wolff recalled. "It was an army of about 110,000. Well, it's grown to about double that. It was a police of barely 150,000; it's nearly triple that. And so the Iraqi security forces demonstrated on Sunday that they're up to the task."

"I'm pretty confident that they can continue to secure the government of Iraq and the Iraqi people," he continued. "There's no doubt in my mind that they can do that exceptionally well. And as the next government settles in, they're more than up to the task, and they demonstrated that."

Asked about the Iraqi army's progress since reports in 2006 of disloyalty, unreliability and a lack of professionalism in the ranks, one defense official said the Iraqi forces have "matured beyond our wildest expectations" - echoing the resilience Wolff described today.

"I kind of liken them sometimes to a boxer," he said. "They're very robust, they take a jab, once in while they take a body blow, but they rarely get knocked down any more."

Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said the United States already has shifted from performing counterinsurgency operations to taking on the task of training, advising, enabling and partnering with Iraqi forces.

"I believe that's really what we're doing today. We are not doing any independent operations any more," he said at the Army and Navy Club here last month. "We are doing counter terrorism operations, but we're really not even doing those independently. All our highest-end counterterrorism operations are done in complete coordination with Iraqi security forces, and with Iraqi security forces."

Asked today if a reduced combat role of American troops was tantamount to a reduction in overall productivity in Iraq, Wolff sought to dispel such impressions.

"There are aggressive operations every day and every evening to deal with terrorists and extremists that try to have an impact on the Iraqi people," he said. "So it's not as if we're all sitting on our operating bases and doing nothing."

"There's this belief at times that no one's doing anything; that 96,000 Soldiers are just kind of waiting for something to happen," he continued. "We are not in the observe-and-write-about-it mode. We are effectively out there doing things every single day."

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Speaking on background at a two-day seminar on the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review hosted by the National Defense University, the official said the theory that U.S. forces should be sized based on the need to fight two major wars simultaneously no longer is appropriate.

“We’re looking for the broadest range of capabilities to deal with the broadest range of scenarios,” he stated. “It’s not as easy to talk about … as the two major theater war paradigm, but it’s important, and it’s essential to our preparation for future conflict.”

The 2010 QDR, released Feb. 1, is a comprehensive review of Defense Department strategy and priorities, closely tied to the defense budget. The report identified several key goals for the department in the next decade.

The QDR’s overarching themes are two-fold: re-balancing U.S. military capabilities and reforming defense processes and institutions. This, the report states, will enable the military to prevail in today’s wars, prevent and deter future conflict, prepare to defeat potential adversaries, and preserve and enhance the all-volunteer force.

Rather than focusing on preparing to fight two major wars at the same time to achieve these goals, the military instead must prepare to “succeed in a wide range of contingencies,” the official said.

While this decision signals a major change in a policy that has been the staple of U.S. force planning since the 1990s, the official emphasized that this new direction was, in fact, a continuation of the previous administration’s work in the 2006 QDR.

“I want to give credit to the previous QDR and its alternative force planning construct,” the official said. “We were able to build off of that [for this review].”

The new force-sizing paradigm for the short term accounts for ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as “foundational activities” to prevent and deter conflict from both transnational terrorist threats and potential state adversaries. In addition, the military will be outfitted with sufficient forces to support civilian authorities for emergency relief missions.

“The forces required to do operations in Haiti obviously present a challenge given the strains on the force, but we’ve already demonstrated since the QDR’s [release] that despite the ongoing operations, the Department of Defense is capable of bringing additional capabilities to bear to deal with emerging challenges,” he said.

In trying to determine an appropriate force-sizing model for the mid-to-long term, the review team considered various combinations of operations that the military could face at any one time, the official said. These included stabilization operations, defeating a state with anti-access capabilities, supporting civil authorities, and combinations of those possibilities, along with other possible contingencies.

The QDR group then looked to “mix and match” from those categories to determine likely scenarios with which the military might be confronted, and determined force structure based on requirements needed to meet those challenges.

One of the scenarios, defeating two regional aggressors along with heightened alert posture in or around the United States, probably is the “closest to our old planning program,” the official noted. However, “it’s only one of a number of options that were considered.”

Recognizing that this new construct didn’t convert simply into a numerical equation, the official nonetheless remained confident in its efficacy.

“It’s intended to be a realistic assessment of the type of demands our forces may face in the future,” he said.

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Gates flew all night and landed at the international airport here. He immediately began a series of meetings with Afghan and NATO leaders.

"I hope to use this time to get out to some of the forward bases to thank the troops and talk with them," Gates said during an interview aboard the aircraft. "It's always interesting. I get briefings in the Pentagon about how things are going, and then I go out and visit an Army post or Air Force base and discover that they are living in a parallel universe. It will be good to get ground truth on some of these issues from the troops themselves."

Gates said he is going to Afghanistan "to get an update on the campaign not only in Marja, but [also on the] the next steps as we look to the spring and summer."

Marines and Soldiers -accompanied by a significant number of Afghan security forces - are fighting the Taliban and its al-Qaida allies in Marja, a strategic area west of Kandahar. U.S. and Afghan forces announced months before the offensive into the area that they were coming. What's more, they pledged to clear the area of Taliban and then establish security so that development and governance could immediately follow.

The secretary said he also wants to examine efforts to counter the biggest killers of U.S. servicemembers and Afghans: car, roadside and suicide bombs. He particularly wants to see how U.S. forces can help allies combat these threats.

Gates said he wants to see for himself that troops in Afghanistan are getting what they need, when they need it. "I want to get a picture on the ground from the other end of the force flow," he said, "and in particular, whether the equipment for the surge troops is arriving in a timely way."

He said he also is interested in checking on the timeliness of medical evacuation out of the country and the flow of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities into Afghanistan.

The secretary said he wants to speak with Afghan President Hamid Karzai about his visit to Marja and the community meetings he held there. He also hopes to speak with the president about Karzai hosting a "loya jurga" - a grand council of tribal leaders -- in April.

Gates said he sees no disagreement among nations regarding reconciliation and reintegration of former Taliban members and that he expects to learn more about the process in his visit to the country.

However, the secretary said, he suspects the Taliban will not be amenable to participating in a reconciliation process just yet. The Taliban still believe they are winning, he explained, though commanders - including Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the NATO and U.S. commander in the country - believe the Taliban momentum has been blunted. And this is happening with only 6,000 of the 30,000 new American troops having arrived in Afghanistan to date. All will be in the country by the end of August, Gates said. "We ought not get too impatient," the secretary said.

Once the Taliban realize the new NATO strategy is working, Gates said, many will see reconciliation and reintegration as options.

Meanewhile, Gates has adopted a "wait-and-see" attitude about efforts in Afghanistan. "There are bits and pieces of good news," he said. "I think we should stick to the McChrystal position - that the situation remains serious, but has stopped deteriorating. There are positive developments going on, but I would say it is very early yet, and I think people need to understand there are some very hard days ahead.

"The early signs are encouraging," he continued, "but I worry that people may get too impatient and think things are better than they actually are."

Gates also is going to check on the status of the more than 1,000 all-terrain mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles that are now in Afghanistan. He wants to hear from the troops how these vehicles are doing and what other things they need. He also wants to check on progress in an initiative to building a warehouse of capabilities to counter improvised explosive devices at the battalion level, he added.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinijad will be visiting Afghanistan this week too. The secretary said Iran is playing a double game in Afghanistan. Iranian leaders want to maintain good relations with their neighbor to the east, but they do not want the United States to be successful in Afghanistan, he explained.

Building governmental capacity is a key to success in Afghanistan, Gates noted, and he said he wants to find ways to better coordinate the efforts of provincial reconstruction teams to enhance the capacity of Afghan governmental structures. He wants to look at "how to make the development projects more Afghan-centric, and how do we use [the teams] to build capacity at the sub-national and national level in Afghanistan," he said.

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Future Immersive Training Environment, or FITE, is a virtual reality-based training system to improve team decision-making skills through a series of realistic scenarios that challenges warfighters to read and react to situations and signals they may encounter in combat.

Jay Reist, FITE operational manager, said the system has four scenarios drafted from warfighter experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan and designed by professional writers and medical professionals.

"We want to focus on how young men, ages 18 to 24, think in complex environments,” he said. “Through this virtual experience, we can engage that and prepare them for deployments. We want their first firefight to be no worse than their last simulation."

Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, participated in the training here. They were strapped into their gear, with sensors added to their helmets, weapons and knees to track their movement in the training world.

FITE organizers also tracked medical feedback, such as heart rate and other factors, so that experts could monitor how immersed they were becoming in the experience and how stressful or excited they became during the exercise.

Marine Corps 1st Lt. Stephen Lind, platoon commander, assessed the efforts of his Marines throughout the training by conducting after-action reviews following each scenario to explain what they did well and pointing out areas that needed improvement.

"They're doing well. They're doing a great job adapting and learning their [roles]," said Lind, who recently returned from Afghanistan. "This training is a good, valuable tool. I had my doubts about it, thinking that it was just going to be a video game. But I've been really impressed by what it brings to the table."

Lind said he was impressed by the realism of the digital towns, people, terrain, buildings and behaviors, adding that they closely resembled what he remembers from his experiences.

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Craig Fazenbaker, who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said he thought some things missing from the scenarios, but that overall he thought they were a valuable training tool.

"There were a couple of things that I think they should add, [such as] more people in the towns, as well as the loudspeaker that called people to prayer. When that thing went off, no matter where you were, you heard it," he said, adding that grenades also would be a useful addition.

"Overall, my heart was pumping and the squad had really good communication with each other,” Fazenbaker said. “That last part we went through was really intense," he said, noting the realism of a direct engagement.

An additional testing of this first phase of testing is scheduled for later this month at Fort Benning, Ga. The next phase, scheduled for September at Camp Pendleton, Calif., will feature mixed reality programs in which trainees will interact in immersive environments and engage physical and mental obstacles, with more emphasis on live training instead of the virtual training experienced in the first phase.

(Army Sgt. Josh LeCappelain serves in the U.S. Joint Forces Command public affairs office.)

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Jeh C. Johnson, the Pentagon's general counsel; Army Gen. Carter F. Ham, commander of U.S. Army Europe; and Clifford Stanley, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, told members of the House Armed Services Committee they seek to get the widest range of viewpoints from both within and outside the Defense Department as they conduct the review concerning potential repeal of the law commonly known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates ordered the 10-month review in February to solicit views about a repeal, as well as the potential impact if Congress directs it. He issued guidelines and parameters for the review March 2, emphasizing the importance of ensuring that any change in the law is implemented in a way that minimizes disruptions in military operations.

Toward that end, the working group will focus its work on assessing any impact a repeal would have on readiness, recruiting, retention, family readiness and unit cohesion, Johnson said.

The working group conducting the review is a cross-section of the military, General Ham told the House panel. Its members represent a wide variety of ages, ranks and military specialties, come from every service, including the Coast Guard, and serve in both the active and reserve components.

Navy Fleet Master Chief Petty Officer Scott Benning serves as the group's senior enlisted leader, with access to all group activities and a reporting chain that goes directly to Mr. Johnson and General Ham, the general noted.

Both have asked every member of the working group to set aside their own views so they can conduct an objective, comprehensive review, Mr. Johnson told the House panel, "because frankly, that is, in my experience, the best way in which members of the U.S. military go about their work, if we are all asked to set aside our personal opinions and do the best we can at an objective and thorough analysis."

As the group's members engage in their review, they are expected to use a survey to get the views from military members and their families. However, acknowledging the importance of personal interaction, General Ham said focus groups will be conducted as well, some targeting specific groups within the military.

And with the department's new emphasis on social media, the working group will take advantage of these tools to ensure the broadest range of individuals, both within and outside the Defense Department, get their voices heard, General Ham said.

Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said during a Pentagon briefing March 3 that the working group's study will help to better prepare the department to act if Congress repeals or changes the law.

"Right now, we're not in the position to be able to offer any advice to the Congress on a legislative remedy to 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' if they wanted to pursue one," he said. "We just don't know enough about the impact," he said.

Secretary Gates wanted to undertake the review, he added, "for our forces, for their families, for readiness, for recruiting, for retention, for all the potential consequences of a change in the law."

"We are ... preparing ourselves for that possibility," he said, "and educating ourselves so that, if the Congress does choose to pursue a legislative remedy, we are able to inform that process in a more helpful way."

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A department study of the program completed in October found the development phase of the revolutionary aircraft had slipped by 30 months. Gates has made changes that will reduce the slippage to 13 months, Carter said during a phone interview from Dallas today.

Carter was able to report to the partners that the Joint Strike Fighter program now has a realistic plan and "not a blindly optimistic one" or a "fatalistic one."

The undersecretary also said the study identified management measures to improve performance over the coming years. "I want to emphasize that this process of independent review and aggressive management to specific milestones will continue," he said.

Carter emphasized that the review turned up no fundamental technological or manufacturing problems with the JSF program and no failure to make military capabilities. He reiterated that the Joint Strike Fighter will be the backbone of collective air superiority for the next generation.

The report showed the JSF program was taking longer and costing more than either the government development office or the contractor had predicted, Carter said. "This schedule and cost trend was unacceptable for the taxpayers of the U.S. and for the other eight nations," he said. "The schedule slip was estimated at 30 months in the development program. The cost of the airplanes had grown since 2002 and that for a variety of reasons the JSF program would breach the Nunn-McCurdy threshold."

The Nunn-McCurdy law requires that Congress be notified of a cost growth of more than 15 percent in a program. It also calls for cancellation of programs for which total cost grew by more than 25 percent over the original estimate.

"We didn't wait for the Nunn-McCurdy paperwork to play out," the undersecretary said. "We began to review and restructure the JSF program as though it were already in Nunn-McCurdy breach and the results of that review and restructuring were subsequently described by Gates."

Gates announced the restructuring of the JSF program – the most expensive acquisition in U.S. military history – in early February. The objective is to restore the schedule in the development program.

"We assessed that this was feasible and was possible to reduce the slip in the development program from 30 months to 13 months and that we could realistically plan on that basis provided we took some immediate management steps," Carter said.

That means procuring one more carrier variant aircraft and additional regular aircraft to conduct flight testing "with the idea of hastening the completion of the program," he said.

The changes also call for development of aircraft software capability.

"All of these steps were directed in the restructuring and that's the first steps in the effort to buy back some of the slips in the development program," Carter said.

The defense secretary did not believe it was reasonable for the customers to bear all the costs of those actions, and decided DoD would withhold $614 million of the award fee from the contract, Carter said. "We will be adjusting contract structures in the future to align contractor performance to what we need," he said.

The restructuring allows for contractors to adopt a more realistic schedule and production ramp, and gives Lockheed Martin and subcontractors every opportunity "to accelerate production and make affordable aircraft, faster," he said.

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