Rapid Fire May 9, 2012: Australia’s Shrinking Budget

* The US House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee quickly approved – behind closed doors – its markup for the FY13 funding bill. Today the Armed Services Committee is starting longer, more difficult discussions, but they will happen in the open [video]. More details in our ongoing coverage of the 2013 NDAA. * With the release of its 2013 budget, Australia confirmed its delaying of the acquisition of 12 F-35s and other programs as well as some cancellations and early C-130H aircraft retirements. Major capital investments are reduced by AUS $664M. More materiel acquisition details in this PDF. * According to The Telegraph the UK Ministry of Defence is about to announce that they will revert their decision to buy F-35Cs to choose instead F-35Bs STOVL, which would confirm earlier press reports. * Britain may be about to sell the Saudis 30 Hawk Advanced Jet Trainers, but it probably won’t be in time to save BAE’s Hawk factory in Brough, Yorkshire, UK. * The AEHF-2 high-bandwidth secure communications satellite was launched successfully from Cape Canaveral on May 4/12. Everything seems to be fine so far, unlike AEHF-1, which had quite the adventure getting to its orbit. * The Dutch have an RFP […]