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The Department of Defense will no longer prepare the military to fight two conventional wars at any given time, according to new guidelines laid out in the department's Quadrennial Defense Review released Monday. Instead, the Pentagon will redirect its focus toward countering new and unconventional threats.

"For some time the two-major theater of operations construct was out of date," Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters Monday. "The world is ... much more complex."

The decision signals a major shift. The two-war principle has been a stalwart factor in military policy since the closing years of the Cold War.

The DoD's record-setting $708 billion budget request for 2011, also released Monday, reflects the move away from conventional strategy. A number of programs deemed unrealistic or poorly performing are set to be axed, including those for joint strike fighter alternate engines and the production of C-17 aircrafts.

"Every defense dollar spent on a program excess to real world military needs is a dollar not available to take care of our people, reset the force, win the wars we are in and improve capabilities," Gates said. "That is a risk the president and I are not prepared to take."

Gates noted that he will urge President Barack Obama to veto any legislation that provides funding for the C-17, a move that will likely spur controversy since the program has strong supporters in Congress, including Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Kit Bond (R-Mo.) and James Inhofe (R-Ohio).

The requested budget will also allocate increased funds toward issues affecting military personnel, including: take-home pay, housing subsidies, health care and family support programs.