Lolita C. Baldor Posts

The United States' campaign to encourage China to be more open about its military growth and intentions got a symbolic boost Monday, but efforts to get the Asian giant to be more transparent about other defense operations, including cybersecurity, have so far lagged behind. U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel got a rare tour of China's first aircraft carrier, becoming the first foreign visitor to go aboard the ship, according to Chinese leaders.

The number of U.S. soldiers forced out of the Army because of crimes or misconduct has soared in the past several years as the military emerges from a decade of war that put a greater focus on battle competence than on character. The number of enlisted soldiers forced out for drugs, alcohol, crimes and other misconduct shot up from about 5,600 in 2007, as the Iraq war peaked, to more than 11,000 last year.

Students at the U.S. military academies often believe they have to put up with sexist and offensive behavior, a Pentagon report finds, reflecting a culture of disrespect that permeates the schools and their sports teams and fuels reports of sexual harassment and assaults.

Anna Schnatzmeyer until recently was denied the role she is currently training for: a combat level position in the US Navy.

The Defense Department is planning to extend comprehensive benefits to same-sex spouses in the military, though this may interfere with plans for same-sex couples that were already in the pipeline. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel claims the latter aren't needed if the former are in place.

An Army sergeant has been charged with secretly photographing and videotaping at least a dozen women at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, including in a bathroom.

The Army said Wednesday that Sgt. 1st Class Michael McClendon is facing charges of dereliction of duty, mistreatment, entering a women's bathroom without notice, and taking and possessing inappropriate photos and videos of women who were nake

"I am concerned that despite pruning many major procurement programs over the past four years, the military's modernization strategy still depends on systems that are vastly more expensive and technologically risky than what was promised or budgeted for," Hagel said Wednesday in remarks at the National Defense University at Fort McNair.

The Pentagon is already grappling with a $487 billion, 10-year reduction in projected spending as part of the budget law that Obama and congressional Republicans agreed to in August 2011. In addition to that, the military is now facing $41 billion in across-the-board cuts for this fiscal year that went into effect on March 1.

A German official said Friday that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has told NATO allies that the U.S. will leave between 8,000 and 12,000 troops in Afghanistan after 2014, when combat ends.

The groundbreaking move recommended by the Joint Chiefs of Staff overturns a 1994 rule banning women from being assigned to smaller ground combat units.

A U.S. official says retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who commanded the U.S.-led international coalition that drove Saddam Hussein's forces out of Kuwait in 1991, has died. A much-decorated combat soldier in Vietnam, Schwarzkopf was known popularly as "Stormin' Norman" for a notoriously explosive temper.

U.S. officials say President Barack Obama phoned the Army secretary late Tuesday night to expressing concerns over arrests and the discovery of problems with background checks at an Army day care center.

The five pages of allegations involved Sinclair's conduct with five women who were not his wife. A 27-year Army veteran who served five combat tours, Sinclair is charged with eight crimes, including one count of forcible sodomy; two counts of wrongful sexual conduct; six counts of inappropriate sexual relationships, and eight counts of violating regulations. The charges involve activities when he was in Afghanistan, Iraq, Germany, and at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and they include violating what's known as General Order No. 1 — possessing alcohol in a war zone.

If nominated — an announcement could come this week — and confirmed by the Senate, Hagel would succeed Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Panetta has made it clear he intends to leave early next year, but has not publicly discussed the timing of his departure. He took the Pentagon job in July 2011.