Rapid Fire 2011-10-06: NATO’s Funding, Missile Defense | Defense Cooperation

by Editorial Staff | Oct 6, 2011 | Alliances, Australia & S. Pacific, Britain/U.K., Budgets, Daily Rapid Fire, France, IT - Cyber-Security, Middle East - Other, Radars, Surface Ships - Combat, Training & Exercises

* Similarly to his predecessor Robert Gates, US SecDef Leon Panetta told NATO members that they would have to step up defense spending otherwise the alliance would “hollow out” [DOD transcript]. Meanwhile British defense secretary Liam Fox lambasted as...

Rapid Fire 2011-10-04: Valiant Jetty on Watch List | JSF Lands on LHD

by Editorial Staff | Oct 4, 2011 | Britain/U.K., Budgets, China, Daily Rapid Fire, Fighters & Attack, Issues - Political, IT - Software & Integration, Policy - Doctrine, Russia, Support & Maintenance, UAVs

* The UK Ministry of Defence’s Major Projects Review Board (MPRB) got to work back in June and the first results are in: The Valiant Jetty project is officially considered to be underperforming and has been put on the “Projects of Concern” list. *...

Rapid Fire 2011-10-03: Materiel Readiness | Commercial Item Handbook

by Editorial Staff | Oct 3, 2011 | Britain/U.K., Budgets, Daily Rapid Fire, Legal, Logistics, Logistics Innovations, Oshkosh, People, Small Business

* NATO’s Undersea Research Centre (NURC) in Italy is testing small autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) equipped with sonars to detect mines in shallow waters, among other applications. * The British Royal Navy plans to make up to 3,250 people redundant in the...

Rapid Fire 2011-09-30: HMMWV MECV RDTE RFP | French 2012 Budget

by Editorial Staff | Sep 30, 2011 | BAE, China, Daily Rapid Fire, Fighters & Attack, France, IT - Cyber-Security, Lobbying, Oshkosh, People, Scandals & Investigations, Tanks & Mechanized, Textron

* The US Army released the complete draft RFP for the HMMWV Modernized Expanded Capacity Vehicle (HMMWV MECV) Research Development Test and Evaluation (RDTE) phase. This recap program intends to modernize M1151 and M1152 Humvees. The Industry Daily for source...

Rapid Fire 2011-09-29 | Brit Budgets; DCGS-A; Non-DAWIA Acquisition Personnel

by Editorial Staff | Sep 29, 2011 | Britain/U.K., Budgets, Coastal & Littoral, Daily Rapid Fire, IT - Networks & Bandwidth, IT - Software & Integration, People, Policy - Procurement, Politics

* The United Kingdom National Defence Association (UKNDA) think tank argues in a new report [PDF] that the country’s defense spending should be a higher priority and consume 3% of GDP, a significant increase from current levels. The threat that registers most...