Rapid Fire Feb. 8, 2013: BRAC to Make 2014 Comeback

Feb 08, 2013 09:45 UTC by Defense Industry Daily staff
  • US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said the FY14 President Budget will not be submitted until the end of next month. It will include a 1% military pay raise (i.e. most likely lower than inflation) but is not going to be fully based on the baseline established by the Budget Control Act. Passback guidance was provided by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to the Pentagon at the end of last month.
  • Another round of base realignment and closure (BRAC) will be on the table. That was also the case last year but the idea was soon found dead on arrival in Congress.
  • Canada is to go through an unusually large rejiggering of its military leadership, with new chiefs for the Navy and Army coming this year, among many other appointments and reassignments.

  • The UK will leave in Afghanistan about 40% of the equipment it had brought there, according to the Telegraph. That amounts to 4,500 20-ft containers out of a 11,000 total.

  • To support the US Air Force’s Space Modernization Initiative – to the extent Congress does not second-guess it – the Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) Development Planning Directorate will hold an Industry Day at the Los Angeles Air Force Base on March 12 dedicated to the Wide Field of View (WFOV) Hosted Payload (HP). That involves an Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) WFOV payload to be hosted on a commercial satellite. Incidentally the FY13 defense authorization bill includes a section asking the Pentagon to explain its OPIR plans to Congress.

  • Rafael has been pitching Iron Dome to India but Indian Air Force officials do not think that the Israeli interception system fits their needs.

  • The Russian Audit Chamber found almost $4B worth of waste and other financial misappropriations in the country’s 2012 defense spending (or about 7% of the budget), reports RIA Novosti.

  • Will Amazon compete with SAP-owned Ariba in the b2b commerce space, thanks to its wide supplier relationships, cloud software expertise, and growing warehousing infrastructure? Good question from Spend Matters.

    • Categories: Britain/U.K., Budgets, Canada, Daily Rapid Fire, GPS Infrastructure, India, Israel, IT - Software & Integration, Leadership & People, Logistics, Pre-RFP, Satellites & Sensors, USA

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