Leon Panetta - US Defense Secretary

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington.

Looming across-the-board budget cuts will present the US military with the most significant readiness crisis in more than a decade unless quick action is taken to avoid the spending reductions, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned during testimony Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee.    If the billions of dollars in cuts are allowed to stand, Panetta said, he would have to throw the country's national defense strategy ''out the window,'' and the United States would no longer be a first-rate power.

EB