US plans to trim missile programs

The United States would trim missile-defense spending, cancel multibillion-dollar weapons programs but buy more arms for fighting insurgents in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, under a 2010 budget plan.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates proposed on Monday an overhaul of the world's most powerful military arsenal, including canceling a $13 billion presidential helicopter program that President Barack Obama has described as an example of Pentagon procurement "gone amok".

Gates would end production of Lockheed Martin's F-22, the premier US fighter jet, at the 187 now delivered or in the pipeline. But Lockheed gets a boost with accelerated funding of its F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.