Somewhere, overthe rainbow...(click to view full) Nuclear reactors save a lot of diesel fuel on huge ships like aircraft carriers, but there's a catch. Mid-way through the ship's 50-year life, the nuclear reactor needs to be refueled. The resulting "Refueling and...
* The US GAO's most recent batch of defense reports is focused on acquisition, starting with their latest assessment of Selected Weapon Programs (the infamous SAR report itself has not been publicly released by the Pentagon yet), while a 2nd report finds some IT...
* US NAVAIR's Air Combat Electronics office (PMA209) recently held an industry day on the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE). Here is the slidedeck [PDF] explaining that FACE is a standard of standards set to re-architect the acquisition of aircraft...
On normal years the US Department of Defense goes through a complicated-enough process to establish and finalize its budget. But whereas FY 2012 offered a welcome return to normalcy after a very long continuing resolution, the budgeting cycle for fiscal year 2013...
* The US Defense Acquisition University will host a workshop on (Better Buying Poker) Better Buying Power in Fort Belvoir, VA, on April 9. On the agenda: should cost, data rights, performance-based logistics. * Australia's phased withdrawal from Afghanistan will...
* The UK-based Guardian quotes US Brigadier General Steve Shapiro, director of the Materiel Enterprise Integration and Retrograde Operations Center, as saying he's been "hearing about $6B in transportation costs" out of Afghanistan. Given such high exit costs, there's...
* Adam Liffa and Andrew Erickson try to shed some light on China's military budget in China Quarterly. They're saying the inflation-adjusted growth rate has been slowing down and converging with GDP growth, which itself has cooled down. This would amount to net growth...
S-2000 AEW&C(click to view full) In early October 2010, Saab Group announced an SEK 4.5 billion (about $671.5 million) contract to supply its Saab 2000 airborne early warning and control system (AEW&C), which includes "a Saab 2000 aircraft" (singular), to an...
* The Pentagon has decided to delay the issuance of furloughs for its civilian employees by a couple of weeks. * President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy made a surprisingly candid and lucid speech [PDF] at an event held by the European Defense Agency:...