* The US Navy's latest 30-year shipbuilding plan [PDF] projects an average fleet size of 298 ships. An average of 8.9 new ships would be built each year for a total of 268 vessels. Spending is expected to peak to almost $20B/year in the early 20s and 30s because of...
* Finmeccanica declared [PDF] a EUR 2.3 billion loss for 2011 (slightly more than $3B) on EUR 17.3B of revenue (-7% vs. 2010) because of high nonrecurring charges. Sales declined 22% to EUR 17.4B. Total backlog dropped 5% to 46 billion euros but from the company's own...
* The Pentagon published the Contracting Officer's Representative Handbook (DoD COR HDBK - PDF) to provide guidance on contract surveillance, ethics, the acquisition process, as well as contract structure, administration, and monitoring. It intends to provide a...
* More people are starting to think that sequestration of the US federal and defense budget may indeed well happen. * The US Army launched an application store [access restricted] that currently hosts a dozen training applications for smartphones and tablets. *...
* The US Navy's MZ-3A military research airship is about to get another year's lease on life, as an Army test bed. With LEMV coming along, that's probably a good idea. * The GAO says US Army payroll is a mess - not the kind where you get to eat. * Dassault Aviation...
* The GAO published its latest report on the Pentagon's space acquisitions.They recognize some areas of progress but they also think there is still "an array of challenges" to confront. * The Pentagon is still working on spelling out its cyber doctrine. * SAIC...
Latest updates: Humana for the South, UnitedHealth for the West. TL: over $40 billion. In July 2009, the US Department of Defense's TRICARE Management Activity (TMA), which provides health care coverage to 9.4 million active duty military family members, military...
POPRAD/ GROM(click to view full) In March 2012, Peru announced the winner of its competition to upgrade its air defenses. The country's air defense needs are most sharply focused on the relatively narrow border with Chile, but the country does have borders with...
* In advance of a more thorough review, the GAO(Government Accountability Office) published a report listing the various ways the JSF program is late and over budget: "Cost overruns on the first four annual procurement contracts total more than $1 billion and aircraft...