Rapid Fire April 5, 2012: Rationale, Structure, Obligations and Incentives by Contrat Type

* The Defense Acquisition University (DAU) put together a convenient chart [PPT] that compares major contract types – FPAF, CPIF, T&M et. al. – to show what risks they intend to mitigate, when they should be used, their main elements, what they commit the contractor to and where’s the incentive. * The DAU’s 2012 industry day will take place on May 1st in Fort Belvoir, VA. On the agenda: affordable programs, efficiency, and DoD’s industrial base policy. * Milnews.ca has a good round-up on Canada’s 2012 budget cuts. * The Economist forecasts that Chinese military spending could overtake America’s by 2035. This among other assumptions relies on rather bullish expectations of sustained GDP growth in China that are not shared by all observers. * The Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI) says [PDF] that “Africa represents a fertile ground for a diminished ‘Al-Qa’ida-core’ to re-group, re-energise and re-launch its mission of global jihad.” * John W. Parker at the Center for Strategic Research from the Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS) is weighting [PDF] whether a re-“elected” Vladimir Putin will continue Medvedev’s relatively cooperative approach to dealing with Iran: “Moscow’s decision to toughen its approach to […]