Rapid Fire: 2011-02-08 | Ground Robots in Afghanistan

* Defense industry is running out of patience with Congress over FY2011 defense appropriations. Since the last Congress failed to pass a budget, the “continuing resolution’s” expiry could create a crisis of mismatched funds. The hardest hit service would probably be the Navy. * Speaking of crises, some people believe that upheavals in Tunisia, Egypt, etc. may delay approvals and contracts for American arms sales to the region. Is that prudence, or digging a deeper hole? * Meanwhile, the British are very unhappy that American diplomats divulged classified information about Britain’s nuclear deterrent to the Russians, as part of New START negotiations. * That treaty isn’t going to stop Russia from developing its new SS-NX-30 Bulava SLBM and Yars-24 ICBM nuclear missiles. * To add to British unhappiness, their new nuclear fast attack boat HMS Astute is back in port yet again. This time, failures to its weapon support and onboard toilets & sewage were to blame. “A busted flush,” indeed. * Pentagon has failed to pay for transportation improvements to accommodate BRAC-mandated personnel transfers in the greater Washington, DC, area, according to a report by the National Research Council. * Kratos Defense & Security Solutions in San Diego, CA […]