About 257 acres of woodland and swamp in the Ocala National Forest burned after an F/A-18 Super Hornet dropped a 500-pound bomb that hit a mile from the target, the Navy said Wednesday. Officials at the Jacksonville Naval Air Station said the incident is under investigation.

More than 43,000 U.S. troops listed as medically unfit for combat in the weeks before their scheduled deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan were sent anyway, according to DoD records. The numbers of non-deployable Soldiers are based on health assessment forms filled out by medical personnel.

The Pentagon must focus on current war demands, even if it means straining the U.S. armed forces and devoting less time and money on future threats, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday in a speech to journalists at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

The military is reinforcing the sides of mine-resistant vehicles to shore up what could be weak points as troops see a spike in armor-piercing roadside bombings. Reviews show that bombings involving the deadly penetrating explosives have jumped by about 40 percent in the past three months.

For the most part, armed robots are a Western phenomenon, with massive defense budgets and multi-national contractors. While the U.S. remains the definitive leader in unmanned military vehicles, some of the most promising ones are being developed in other countries.