Senior Navy officials are responding to critics of the service's planned Ford-class of aircraft carriers, claiming substantial technological leaps, manpower reducing efficiencies, and long-term strategic need outweigh cost overruns and delays.

The U.S. Air Force has sharply increased refueling missions for French attack aircraft in recent weeks as French and West African ground troops press to solidify gains against Al Qaida-backed Islamist rebels in Mali.

The Air Force plans to investigate an allegation that fighter pilot Lt. Col. James Wilkerson, whose sexual assault conviction was overturned by a lieutenant general in part because the general believed Wilkerson was an upstanding husband and officer, had an affair with a woman who gave birth to his baby.