• US GAO looks at “hybrid warfare,” and its implications for Pentagon planning.

• Across the Pond: French, British defense firms divvy up US biometrics and intelligence services firm L-1 Identity Solutions for a combined $1.6 billion.

• US Army sends PEO Soldier engineers into field – to use the gear they’re supplying the Army. Bravo.

• Bristol Alloys charged with falsifying documents re: heat-treated metals used in Virginia Class nuclear fast attack submarines. The company is cooperating. On another front, the Navy still doesn’t know why large swatches of sound-absorbing tiles are peeling off of Virginia Class boats.

• Sikorsky’s X2 demonstrator hits 250 knots true airspeed in level flight, offering V-22 class speed in a compound helicopter.

• Known and Unknown: Former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld discusses his career and tenure at the Pentagon in his memoir titled Known and Unknown due out in January.

• Eurocopter begins flight testing its new Tiger HAD scout and attack helicopter.

• Nice Paint Job: North Korean military manual allegedly smuggled out of the country indicates military uses radar-absorbing paint to disguise jet fighters, warships, and tanks. Nothing like that fairy dust…

• US Navy moves up orders for double-hulled oil tankers to keep Northrop Grumman from closing its Avondale shipyard and available to complete work on 2 LPD-17 class San Antonio-class amphibious assault ships – LPD-23 and LPD-25.

• X-ray Vision: American Science and Engineering gets $10 million order to provide service and maintenance for its Z Backscatter Van (ZBV) military trailers that detect explosives in vehicles and cargo.

• EADS Astrium will market SpaceX’s Falcon 1e rockets as a lower-cost launch option for European customer to put small payloads into Low Earth Orbit. Agreement runs through to 2015.

• The German Air Force is grounding all 55 of its Eurofighters, made by EADS, out of concern for the functioning of the pilot ejector seats.

• Is the UAE about to ditch France’s Rafale as a Mirage 2000v9 replacement, and buy Super Hornets? Or are they just exercising some savvy negotiating?

• Chemring Group, a UK maker of countermeasures and IED detection and disposal systems, is bullish on its FY 2011 outlook after it reported surging revenue and order-book growth, which it attributed to diversification outside Europe; the firm also reported a fire at its Kilgore Flares plant in Tennessee.

• More US bases should be shut down to save money, says Gen. Brady, US Air Force commander in Europe.

• Open tender for Russia’s amphibious ships? Russia appears to be continuing talks with France in the background.

• NATO backs US on need for alliance-wide cybersecurity shield, US Deputy Defense Secretary Lynn says after visit to Brussels.

• First British FSTA A330 aerial tanker flight at Getafe, Spain.

• F-15 AESA radar replacement moves forward: 1st AN/APG-63v3 AESA radar installed and tested on USAF F-15C; 1st AN/APG-82v1 AESA radar delivered to Boeing for the USAF’s F-15E RMP program.

• Kyrgyzstan might double or triple the rent Russia pays for military facilities on Kyrgyz territory.

• Innovation Slump: Aerospace and defense industry innovation is down, as the number of reported patents dropped to 179 last year from 478 the year prior, according to a Hitachi Consulting survey.

• Budget Blitzkrieg: Former German military officials blast the German defense minister’s proposal to eliminate mandatory conscription and reduce the Bundeswehr by a 3rd to cut EUR 8.2 billion from the defense budget.

• Frost and Sullivan: The European market for networked unmanned ground vehicles is expected to experience steady growth, with annual revenues of $311 million by 2016.

• Continued back-and-forth between the government and Northrop Grumman over the RQ-4 Global Hawk UAV program’s conduct, effectiveness, and satisfaction.

• UK receives QinetiQ’s new PASCAT landing craft: a partial hovercraft catamaran.

• US Army wants more unified helicopter protection systems.

• Beating Up on the Bands: Washington Post columnist Walter Pincus proposes cutting back on the number of US military bands as part of the Pentagon’s effort to slash defense spending.

• General Dynamics snags $62 million contract to provide IT support to the US Army Intelligence and Security Command.

• IED aftermaths: DoD’s Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) awards a contract worth up to $33 million to Omnivox of Downers Grove, IL to develop medical technologies to treat blast injuries from IEDs.

• The Israeli approach linking threats to military budgeting... and their “Talpiot” program that has started plucking top 18 year olds out of standard military service and putting them to work solving key problems in the government, military and industry.

• They’ll See the Big Board!: The Russian air force will join its U.S. and Canadian counterparts in the first-ever joint air defense exercises Aug 8-11. NORAD will manage the event, which will involve simulated hijacking of commercial flights by terrorists.

• Private Sector Salvation: Aerospace CEO says the company is looking to expand in the commercial space business as defense business slows down.

• Strategy Analytics: Fighter aircraft, UAVs expected to spur a 43% growth in the military airborne communications system market, which could reach $1 billion by 2020.

• CACI gets $22 million task order to support the US Strategic Command’s joint exercises and training under the $900 million USAMS II contract vehicle.

• Rin Tin Timid: Gina the German shepherd, a US military bomb-sniffing dog, suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder after a tour in Iraq, says USAF vet. Better-adjusted dogs are deploying to Afghanistan.

• Airbus A400M medium-heavy transport’s all-composite wing passes punishing stress tests.

• That’s So 20th Century: Using rhetoric out of a Soviet propaganda film, the North Korean official news agency warned that the nation’s military would “repel fire with fire” in response to the “puppet military’s warmongers’...naked military invasion of our Republic’s sacred territorial waters.” Apparently, they are not happy about the US-South Korean naval exercises.

• Incredible Shrinking Budgets: Facing tightening defense budgets at home, European defense firms are looking to expand into service and support work and overseas markets.

• Profits Take Off: Britain’s BAE Systems and France’s Thales both posted substantial profit increases in the first half of 2010 compared to the same period in 2009.

• But Not for Everyone: Raytheon reported a steep 57% decline in second-quarter profit to $208 million from $489 million in last year’s second quarter, due mainly to the cancellation of a GBP750 million contract with the UK Border Agency. Raytheon release.

• No We Didn’t: Rosoboronexport, the Russian state arms export agency, denies a report by the Russian business daily Vedomosti that it agreed to sell 2 S-300 PMU2 Favorit air defense battalions to Azerbaijan.

• Train Wreck: An independent panel [PDF] warns that a US national security “train wreck in coming” because of aging equipment, inadequate training of US military personnel, and a declining US naval fleet. It’s headed by former Clinton Defense Secretary Perry and former Bush National Security Advisor Hadley, and was set up to review the Quadrennial Defense Review process.

• C-17 wreck. Crash at Elmendorf in Alaska kills 4.

• US Army replacing good old TNT with BAE’s MX-101 formulation in artillery.

• Northrop Grumman lifts a pair of 195,000 pound diesel backup generators into the future USS Gerald R. Ford supercarrier, which is now 11% complete.

• Common Ground?: Center-left Progressive Policy Institute analyst Arkedis finds common ground with Republicans on the need to reform the US defense budget process.

• Diamond Anniversary: On the 60th anniversary of North Korea’s invasion of the South, the US and South Korea send North Korea a “gift” of tougher sanctions in response to March 26 sinking of ROKS Cheonan (PCC-772), a Pohang-class patrol combat corvette.

• T-Rays: Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are developing teraherz-based technology to detect IEDs and other explosives; DARPA is also harnessing terahertz frequencies to improve electronics.

• Too Pricey?: The IDF expresses concern about the costs of procuring the Iron Dome rocket/artillery defense system, which completed final testing this week.

• I-95 Gridlock: Virginia officials are asking the US federal government for $406 million to finance road construction to accommodate the 20,000 defense workers being relocated along the I-95 corridor as a result of BRAC implementation.

• ITAR, You TAR: US technology export restrictions under ITAR could cost the US its lead in UAV technology, warns Northrop Grumman CEO.

• Stanley in Arlington, VA secures 2 US Navy contracts totalling $11 milllion: one to provide software that will enable special op forces to send e-mails via radios and the other to provide engineering support to the Naval Sea Logistics Center in Mechanicsburg, PA.

• PricewaterhouseCoopers: Asia-Pacific aerospace and defense market is predicted to grow 70% over the next 20 years.

• Corruption in Afghanistan: it isn’t just a problem for the government’s forces…

• Frost & Sullivan: DoD is expected to offset a dip in C4ISR research and development spending with an increase in C4ISR supplies, services, and deployed technologies.

• Going Public: Carlyle Group looks to raise $300 million by selling shares in defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton through an IPO.

• Insourcing provisions in the 2011 defense authorization bills sparks concern by government contractors’ trade group.

• USAF developing MEDEVAC (aeroMEDical EVACuation) procedures for its new short-field C-27Js, which are set to become a key link in that chain.

• Donaldson wins order for no-moving-parts, no maintenance air filtration in new EQ-36 counterfire radars.

• Hurt Locker: RELYANT gets a $49 million US Army contract to provide unexploded ordnance removal and mine clearance in southern and western Afghanistan.

• Here Comes the Sun: Ascent Solar Technologies wins DARPA contract to develop portable photovoltaics for battlefield power systems.

• Night Vision: The UK Ministry of Defence is placing a $53 million order with ITT to buy head-mounted night vision systems (a variant of the Generation III AN/PVS-14 monocular goggle).

• NATO’s Review Magazine features: “Maritime Security: Sink or Swim.”

• Russia’s moves its newest S-400 Triumf/ SA-21 Growler air and missile defense SAM into serial production.

• British worries that US SecDef Gates’ comments on the future force (see also video in right sidebar) may imperil both nations’ plans to replace their Trident nuclear missile SSBN submarines. He does describe some real problems, however.

• Nice shot: British sharp shooter kills 2 Taliban machine gunners from 1.5 miles away using a British-built L115A3 long range rifle.

• Afghan First: Effort to award US military construction contracts to Afghan firms is slowing down construction, say US officials. On the other hand, too many contracts to foreign firms creates local resentment.

• Would a Rafale fighter jet sale to the UAE require a buyback of, or buyer for, its 62 advanced Mirage 2000v9 fighters?

• First South Korean Batch 2 F-15K flies with F100-PW-229 engines.

• US, European countries launch anti-al-Qaeda military exercise with countries in the Sahara desert region.

• When pigs fly? Hungry pigs in Dresden, Germany, almost went flying when they dug up a World War II vintage panzerfaust anti-tank weapon.

• Sectra gets SEK 23 million order to supply high-speed crypto to Swedish Defense Material Administration.

• Turkish navy commanders aboard the F-493 TCG Gelibolu, a G-class frigade that is an updated version of the Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided-missile frigate, capture 13 pirates in the Indian Ocean.

• Reports indicate a Taliban buildup in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They don’t publicize their procurement activities, of course.

• Germany’s democratically-accountable government does, though. Marder tracked Infantry Fighting Vehicles and PzH-2000 tracked mobile howitzers are on the way to Afghanistan, in response to increased attacks.

• Gen. McChrystal, meanwhile, says the US military is using too many contractors in Afghanistan.

• Sikorsky (H-92) and Lockheed (AW101) to partner on the next Presidential helicopter? Seems so – submitting the H-92.

• US Navy highlights its green energy research, incl. microbial fuel cells.

• Nuclear aircraft carrier USS Enterprise [CVN 65] formally redelivered to US Navy, following an extended and over-budget repair cycle.

• Korean lawmakers urge military response if North found responsible for sinking of ROKS Cheonan (PCC-772), the Pohang-class patrol combat corvette. To say that their options are limited is a deep understatement.

• UK Army bomb disposal unit clears IEDs from road to Shahzad in the dangerous South West Helmand area of Afghanistan.

• Canada changes its military recruitment strategy as mission in Afghanistan comes to an end.

• L-3’s STRATIS division snags a 5-year, $152 million contract to provide IT and cyber operations support for the USAF Central Command.

CREW Duke V2 System

SRCTec in Syracuse, NY received a $94.4 million firm-fixed-price contract for the procurement of 3,239 urgently required Duke V2 systems.

The SRCTec CREW Duke system is a vehicle-mounted electronic jammer designed to prevent the remote detonation of land mines.

The CREW Duke V2 is the US Army version of the CREW 2.0 system, comparable to the Joint CREW (JCREW) 2...