* US long-term economic security requires cuts in defense spending, argues Michael O’Hanlon of the liberal Brookings Institution.
* Saudi Arabia wants to produce 70% of military equipment locally using foreign technology transfer, plans to offer greater investment incentives. That particularly significant in light of their massive purchases in the pipeline – but building that much industry from nothing, within a procurement culture of baksheesh, is a very dubious prospect.
* In the battle against piracy, NATO admits that the Somali pirates are winning.
* PLA general warns US must end arms sales to Taiwan for improved military ties with China. What else did you expect him to say?
* Taiwan is investigating poor showing of its anti-aircraft missiles during tests, where 6/19 missed. Fully 3/6 failures in that test were of Raytheon’s AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air missiles, which are older and have never had fantastic hit ratios; the test also reportedly featured Raytheon’s Hawk, MBDA’s Magic and MICA anti-air missiles, and Taiwan’s own Sky Bow.
* South Korea may also have an issue brewing. Failures occurred between July 2008 – July 2010 with Raytheon’s naval SM-2 air defense missiles (3/9), and anti-ship missiles from MBDA (Sea Skua, 1/12) and Boeing (Harpoon, 1/2). The ROK Navy reportedly attributed the low accuracy to mishandling of the missiles by the operators and defective components.
* British troops get new 30-round Magpul EMAG magazines for their SA-80 rifles, with clear windows to see status and about half the weight of previous magazines. Average weight savings is about 1.4 kg per soldier for 12 magazines.
* Meanwhile, construction has begun on the massive stern section of the CVF Queen Elizabeth, which will become the UK’s only operational fixed-wing aircraft carrier in 2019-2020.
* Northrop Grumman says Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) satellites are ready for Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) tests after completion of on-orbit sensor calibration.
* Boeing names Robert Verbeck to take over as CFO of its Defense, Space and Security business, replacing Randy Simmons who is retiring.