Thursday, April 5, 2012

Military And Intelligence News Briefs -- April 5, 2012


JSF - SAR Discloses Another Three-Year Slip -- Aviation Week

I spent some time this weekend on the latest Selected Acquisition Report (SAR) for the Joint Strike Fighter. It was an old-school job with a highlighter, yellow Post-Its, pencil and ultrafine rollerball. It hurt my head, but I am in good company: the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments’ budget expert, Todd Harrison, calls it “incredibly dense and frustrating to read.”

Lockheed Martin and its consultants are upset by the $1.5 trillion dollar figure for the program’s life-cycle cost. That's ironic, because the first person to talk about JSF being a trillion-dollar program was Micky Blackwell, in 1996, and he was president of a major company aeronautics sector located not a million miles from Fort Worth.

Other details in the document are more interesting.

Read more ....

MILITARY AND INTELLIGENCE NEWS BRIEFS

Dutch Auditor Raises Concerns About F-35 As Well As The Country’s F-16s -- Ottawa Citizen

£10bn refuel planes don’t work for RAF -- The SUN

Russia to Control NATO Ulyanovsk Transit Base - Lavrov -- RIA Novosti

Su-35 Fighters Made 500 Test Flights
-- Defence Talk

Air weapons: Russian Mystery Missile -- Strategy Page

NKorea launch an intel opportunity for US, allies -- AP

North Korean defector acted only after being rebuffed by South intelligence.

Hacker claims breach of Chinese defense contractor -- Reuters

Israel asks US for $700 million in military aid -- YNet News

Iron Dome Passes The Combat Test -- Strategy Page

Israel, U.S. Finalize Plans for Massive Missile Defense Exercise -- Global Security Newswire

Iran 'advises' Arab neighbours against missile shield -- Space War

India army chief Gen Singh says troop report 'stupid' -- BBC

Nuke sub heads Indian weapons buying spree
-- RT News

U.S. report: Iran nuclear program hit obstacles in 2011 -- Haaretz

The Armoured Vehicles Market Worth $10.97bn in 2012 -- PR Newswire

American intelligence agencies spooked by Britain's open courts -- The Telegraph

Looking at a recent article on US/China rivalry -- Information Dissemination

Enterprise Carrier Strike Group Arrives in U.S. 5th Fleet -- Navy.mil

White House Not Considering Slashing Deployed Arsenal to 300 Nukes: Expert
-- Global Security Newswire

B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber Completes First Ever Polar Test Mission -- Defence Talk

New US Navy stealth destroyer under construction in Maine -- Herald Net

Delta 4 rocket successfully lofts U.S. surveillance satellite -- Spaceflight Now

NIE Still Leads Way for U.S. Army Technology Acquisition Process -- Defense News

Conventional Vs SOF Helos? -- Defense Tech

Huntington Risks Losing $194 Million for Navy Carrier’s Overrun -- Bloomberg Businessweek

U.S. Military Combats Climate Change
-- National Geographic

Marine sues to block discipline over Obama Facebook critique -- Reuters

CIA Committed ‘War Crimes,’ Bush Official Says -- Danger Room

Former arms dealer faces possible life sentence -- AP

No comments: