* NATO Secretary General Anders Rasmussen published his 2012 report, expressing his confidence in the Afghan security forces. However a chart shows the number of enemy-initiated attacks per month is still higher now than it was in 2009. A couple of Pac Man pie charts...
Through a glass, darkly(click to view full) As part of the current coalition government's defence reform efforts, the UK Ministry of Defence has begun issuing a bare-bones 10-year equipment plan of expected budgets, and graphics of planned expenditures by category. A...
* Alan Krueger, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers (to the White House), on the reason why US GDP contracted by 0.1% in Q4 2012: "Federal defense purchases declined at an annual rate of 22.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012, the largest quarterly...
* Non-profit Transparency International asserts [PDF] that a vast majority of countries exert little, if any, political oversight of defense policy or scrutiny of defense procurement. Only Australia and Germany are ranked as at "very low risk" of defense-related...
LMV in Afghanistan(click to view full) After some bad experiences with its up-armored Mercedes "Gelendevagen" in Afghanistan, Norway decided that they needed patrol vehicles with better protection. In 2006, therefore, they placed an order for 25 blast-resistant Iveco...
* BAE will cut 300 jobs across 5 US states, two thirds of which at their Electronic Systems site in Nashua, NH, where 50 people were already laid off last year. * US AFRICOM is pondering establishing a base to operate UAVs out of a northwest African country such as...
Arjun tank(click to view full) India's indigenous Arjun tank project began in 1974, and originally aimed to replace the Russian T-54 and T-72 tanks which made up the bulk of that country's armored firepower. As has often been the case in India, its DRDO government...
* House of Representatives Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan told NBC that he thinks the sequester is going to happen. Meet the Press | Reuters. * Senator Richard Durbin [D-IL] has been confirmed as the new chairman of the appropriations defense subcommittee. The...
Linces in Afghanistan(click to view full) In a strong-commodity, weak-dollar/Euro world, Russia has the finances it need to replenish its badly depleted military. What it doesn't have yet is the industrial and engineering capacity, which was lost during the state's...