Two Pentagon veterans join Pentagon Solutions with Francis Rose to discuss a range of challenges facing the Defense Department.

At the top of the list is the budget pressure stemming from the automatic across-the-board cuts set to go into effect in March (after being delayed by Congress at the start of the year).

And that's not the only challenge. Defense leaders are also waiting to see if the short-term continuing resolution, which funds government operations through March 27, will actually continue after that.

About the guests

Rudy deLeon is senior vice president of national security and international policy at the Center for American Progress and the former deputy secretary of defense and undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness

Dov Zakheim is the former undersecretary of defense (comptroller), a member of the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan and the author of "A Vulcan's Tale: How the Bush Administration Mismanaged the Reconstruction of Afghanistan."