Rapid Fire Dec. 12, 2012: Australia’s Projects of Concern

  • All contenders but Sikorsky announced their withdrawal of the US Air Force’s CRH competition yesterday. More coverage of this RFP implosion to follow.
  • The Australian Department of Defence updated its Projects of Concern list. The Wedgetail AEW&C and JP 2070 lightweight torpedo projects have been taken off the list, while a propellant manufacturing facility in Mulwala, NSW, and the Light Weight Automatic Grenade Launcher (part of Land 40 Ph 2) have been added to it because of repeated schedule slippages.
  • Some Republican congressmen such as Paul Gosar of Arizona are not reflexively against defense spending cuts, notes Politico.

  • With sequestration looking more likely to kick in by the day, budget tension between the services is likely to flare within the PPBE process. Colonel Pat Tierney, who heads the US Army’s aviation directorate, wants to make sure Congress does not force him to hand over UAVs to the Air Force. NDIA.

  • General Sir Peter Wall, Chief of the General Staff at the UK MoD, during a recent hearing at the House of Commons on Future Army 2020, explaining why it is difficult to quantity proper troop and funding levels:

  • “We are well aware that the world is not necessarily a safer place. It is not likely to impact more favourably on UK national interests, the interests of our close partners and so on. But that is a general statement. We cannot identify or quantify specific-sized threats and specific-sized responses to them with quite the sort of refined accuracy we could in the days of the Cold War, for example. There is an element of choice. There is a risk-investment balance.”

    • Speaking of the British House of Common’s Defence Committee, they outlined their future inquiries for the remainder of the legislature. Committee statement | The Guardian.

    • Like their foe India, Pakistan has seen a high number of aircraft crashes in the last couple of years. AP.

    Categories: Asia - Other, Australia & S. Pacific, Britain/U.K., Budgets, Daily Rapid Fire, Issues - Political, Official Reports, USA

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