Top commanders believe the financial meltdown will have a serious impact on future Pentagon spending.

Even before the crisis on Wall Street, little appetite for growth in military spending was anticipated, at a time when the Pentagon’s annual base budget has reached $500 billion.

A disputed decision about refueling tankers for the Air Force will wait until the next administration.

In “Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing,” the author writes about the government’s intelligence gathering.

The three-way division of the largest Pentagon contract in Iraq ends the monopoly held by KBR, which has been accused of mismanagement and exploiting its political ties to Vice President Dick Cheney.

The prospect of an electronic Trojan horse, lurking in the circuitry of a computer and allowing attackers clandestine access or control, was raised again recently by the F.B.I. and the Pentagon.