Far more than in any other conflict in United States history, the Pentagon is relying on private security companies to perform crucial jobs once entrusted to the military.

National security issues would also be raised because the Pentagon relies on airlines to make passenger planes available in national emergencies.

The report comes at a time when the Pentagon is relying more and more on the reserves to offset its main force losses stemming from budget cuts.

The Pentagon is relying heavily on savings from base closings, a streamlined weapons-purchasing system and bigger budgets to pay for the weapons of the future.

The fight over the 110,000 combat guardsmen comes as the Pentagon is relying on reservists to ease the strains on active-duty forces.

The Pentagon cannot rely on Congress to approve extra money in a timely manner, these officials argue, so the military must borrow from other accounts to cover the gap.

So for the past year and a half, the Pentagon has relied largely on private contractors to provide training.

The Pentagon also is already relying heavily on the regular reserve component.

But the large contractors, on which the Pentagon relies most heavily, have never faced anything but temporary suspensions of their right to compete for contracts.

Because only one new intercept test using parts of the actual system is scheduled before initial deployment this year, the Pentagon is relying heavily on simulations like these.