The Pentagon has dropped charges against a Guantanamo detainee who was alleged to have been the so-called "20th hijacker" in the Sept. 11 attacks. Mohammed al-Qahtani was one of six men charged by the military in February for their alleged roles in the 2001 attacks.

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.

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 nondeployable soldiers are based on health assessment forms filled out by medical personnel.

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.