What is a good telescope for a military member who travels.

I'm a military member stationed overseas in a heavily light polluted area and i'm looking to purchase a quality telescope that I can travel with.
I'm looking for a telescope with the following qualities:

* Capable of viewing some deep space objects but also somewhat decent planetary/lunar viewing.
* Durable enough to travel with. (most of my serious stargazing will most likely be far away from where I live).
* Quality optics. Good aperture.

I don't mind weight if it's necessary, I'm mainly concerned about size and length for carrying on an airline. I don't mind difficult/lengthy setup and I don't have a financial limit.

Also, I hope to take trips to a places that are known for their dark skies (like Australia) and I want to make sure I'm not wasting that opportunity by bringing a less than ideal telescope.

Any recommendations or tips?

Well, ..., IMHO a scope with a Maksutov (MAK) design makes an excellent travel scope. No collimation is ever required and you can get a 6" version which is light enough to carry in foam cloth case for overhead bin storage. With a correcting prism it would be an excellent daytime scope as well as a very decent night time scope and you'd be able to observe all of the Messier objects plus many of the bright NGC objects (including the ones in the southern hemisphere. The issue for the MAK is would be the mount. if you got a decent one you could always check the mount as baggage.

You can also build some very decent truss mounted dobsoninan scopes that will fit into a overhead compartment. See the links below.

BTW, I've given you several links to explore. Basically, I travel a lot so IMHO, you'd want something that will give you the maximum aperture, maximum number of features, and would fit into an over head bin or under the seat in front of you. I would never recommend checking any scope as baggage as you would most likely windup with a very nice boat anchor afterwards!