An Air Force C-130 cargo plane flying a firefighting mission in South Dakota crashed late Sunday night, as military and civilian authorities continue to battle the wildfires burning their way across the western United States. 

Senate Republicans are floating the idea to get lawmakers on the same page, regarding automatic defense cuts.

The conflict features issues Republicans tend to be fond of — cutting spending, the military and NASCAR — against one another. 

The Pentagon does not see Turkey's recent military buildup along its border with Syria as a precursor to war between the neighboring countries, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Friday. 

Military leaders in Tehran have begun to outfit Iranian warships patrolling the Straits of Hormuz with short-range missiles, a sign that tensions along the highly-contested waterway could be coming to a head once again. 

A group of defense analysts told the House Armed Services Committee on Friday that the plan to reduce the size of the Afghanistan National Security Forces (ANSF) to 230,000 was misguided, urging the Obama administration and NATO to change course.

The analysts, Max Boot of the Council on Foreign Relations, Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institution and former Army Vice Chief of Staff retired Gen. Jack Keane, all said that the added cost of maintaining the ANSF force at 350,000 beyond 2014 was worth the expense to keep things from deteriorating once NATO troops are mostly gone.

“I mean, this makes no sense,” Keane said of the reduction, planned to occur by 2016. “How can we expect the ANSF to protect the people with one-third less force only a year after we almost zero-out the U.S.-NATO force of 100,000?

“Why, after all these years of investing, would we gut that force and put the entire security mission at risk?” he said.

House Republicans tell Senate Leader Harry Reid to put forward own plan or stop obstructing vote on GOP legislation

The Defense Department is pressing forward with plans to station a number of V-22 Ospreys at various U.S. bases in the Pacific, despite concerns by Tokyo over recent accidents involving the aircraft. 

A record 74 percent of people in Pakistan consider the United States more of an enemy than a partner.