SpaceX Falcon(click to view full) On April 25/14, aerospace innovator SpaceX filed suit in US Federal District Court against the US government and the firm's ULA competitor. Their legal challenge centers around the USAF's multi-year sole-source, 36-core EELV contract...
German U206A(click to view full) At the end of March 2011 Jane's reported that the Thai government had agreed to buy 2 of Germany's retired Type 206A diesel electric submarines, for a bargain price of about $220 million. There was reportedly an agreement in principle,...
* India's new government introduced its 2014-15 budget with a focus on economic growth and public deficit reduction. Defense sees a 12% increase to Rs 2,29,000 crore (about $38.2B). The Indian press was surprised by finance (and defense) minister Arun Jaitley's taste...
RAF C-17(click to view full) In 2000 the UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) signed a 7-year 'lease-and-support' agreement with Boeing and the United States Air Force for the use of 4 Boeing C-17 Globemaster IIIs (3 + 1 "active reserve") for the period 2001 - 2007, with an...
* The UK's government released 2013 defense export numbers up 11% to £9.8B ($16.8B), thanks to helicopter sales to Norway and South Korea, ongoing Middle Eastern deals, and a still respectable billion pounds worth of orders from the US. The report shows the UK far...
* Bloomberg has seen the US Navy's latest 30-year shipbuilding plan, which finally acknowledges that it "requires funding at an unsustainable level" to deliver the number of new vessels in the plan. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has been saying so for years. *...
* Last week Japan's cabinet changed its constitutional interpretation of the country's right to collective self-defense. Ryo Sahashi, a visiting professor at Stanford University, argues that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe still has much convincing to do in order to change...
* Iraqi forces clashed with a militia following a local Shia cleric in Karbala, south of Baghdad. Prime Minister Maliki seems to be losing support even from his Shia backers. * Meanwhile fighting against ISIL continued in the north in several contested areas of...
* France's state-owned Nexter and Germany's privately-owned Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) have announced [PDF] their intent to form a joint holding company. If this alliance (the word merger is studiously avoided) is completed as expected next year, the French...