• Defense Secretary Panetta removes the F-35B STOVL (Short Take-Off, Vertical Landing) from its 2-year probation, just 1 year in. Rolls Royce is very happy. James Hasik adds some thoughts about the timing.

• Panetta also stated the US will keep 11 aircraft carriers.

• The US Army responds to complaints that their policy of refusing to arm MEDEVAC helicopters, in a war against illegal combatants, has led to delayed response and extra casualties.
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• Latest on JSF: Reuters and Bloomberg report that Leon Panetta is about to announce that the F-35-B is off probation; Canadian industrial participation; 1st night flight; 3rd F-35B delivered; F-35C tail hook redesign.

• Israel’s IDF now believes that unrest in Syria has allowed Hezbollah to seize SA-8/ 9K33 vehicle-mounted surface-air missiles. They’re worried that Syria’s large chemical arsenal could also be vulnerable.

• K-Street Washington lobbyists see promise in the 2012 retirees, but how’s this for a blunt assessment? “Republicans are bonds. Dems are the options you play with the last 20 percent of your money…”

• The US Coast Guard is getting more and more interested in underwater inspection & surveillance. Their Research & Development Center is currently evaluating an advanced Underwater Imaging System (UIS) from CodaOctopus.
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• President Obama’s campaign donors at Lightsquared still have a big problem with GPS interference, according to the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Executive Committee, and the American FAA. The company didn’t mince words in its reaction: “the process used [...] was rigged by manufacturers of GPS receivers and government end users to produce bogus results”. Yeah, those evil FAA types, who want to be able to use GPS for civil aviation.

• France successfully launches [in French] its 4 Elisa project SIGINT/ESM micro-satellites, as a Soyuz rocket lifts of from French Guiana to place them in their 700 km orbit.

• Israel signs defense cooperation accords with Bulgaria. They’ve had military relations for some time, and Israel is an important defense supplier, but their record isn’t perfect.

• French naval personnel recently got an up-close evaluation of the MV-22 Osprey, aboard USS Bataan [LHD 5]. Even if they don’t buy it, it’s a step toward possible joint operations involving French ships.

• EADS’ executive succession is predictably political; CEO Gallois is asking for patience. Meanwhile, they’re still looking to the USA for possible defense growth.

• Russia gets another A-50U AWACS aircraft. It’s based on the same IL-76 airframe as India’s new A-50EI AWACS, but uses Russian radars and systems instead of Israeli technology. It will go well with their planned modernization of 60 MiG-31 Foxhound interceptor and C2 planes to MiG-31BM status.

• The Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff released the Joint Operational Access Concept (JOAC) [PDF] to describe how to gain operational access against modern Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) means.

• US Congressman Maurice Hinchey [D-NY-22] who sits on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense will retire at the end of this Congress.

• Lockheed Martin is shedding 90 electronics systems jobs in Maryland while CSC will lay off 114 people in Ohio.

• Adm. John C. Harvey, Jr. Commander, Fleet Forces Command in the US Navy wants his officers to know their ships and how they evolve: recommended video from last week’s SNA National Symposium.

• Construction of a solar farm has started at the Naval Air Weapons Station (NAWS) on the huge China Lake site in California.

• Lack of sleep makes you hungry. Something that serving military members had long suspected, now has scientific backing.

• Researchers at the San Antonio Military Medical Center think they have an E-75 vaccine targeting HER2/neu, that can reduce recurrence of breast & prostrate cancers. Big breakthrough? “Let’s test a vaccine for early-stage cancer on non-terminal patients!”

• In line with pre-announcements made by his administration in past months, President Obama said yesterday he was directing the Pentagon to lower ground troop levels in favor of increasing special forces, cybersecurity and UAVs, alongside a shift in resources from Europe into Asia (video at the bottom of this entry). Even the New York Times notes that calls for a leaner, more technical military that stays away from messy, protracted land wars is not new, but reality may object. DoD released Defense Strategic Guidance [PDF] and had a follow-up roundtable with Carter and Flournoy. The backdrop is clearly the coming presidential election.

• Specifics on program impact will have to wait until the president submits his FY13 budget next month. On the DoD topline budget, Obama said: ”[S]ince 9/11, our defense budget grew at an extraordinary pace. Over the next 10 years, the growth in the defense budget will slow, but the fact of the matter is this: It will still grow [...] In fact, the defense budget will still be larger than it was toward the end of the Bush administration.” If sequestration is fully enacted, this may still turn out to be true, but probably only in nominal terms (of course future inflation rates, and actual budgets, remain a conjecture).
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• President Obama will attend today’s Pentagon briefing on strategic adjustments that will lead to a 10+% reduction in the number of ground troops (presumably from peak levels): NYT | Reuters | C-Span stream (to start live at 10:50am ET).

• The UK’s defence secretary Philip Hammond will meet his American counterpart Leon Panetta later today. Hammond’s take: “today the debt crisis should be considered the greatest strategic threat to the future security of our nations. The fact is, in this era of austerity… not even the United States can afford the astronomical resource commitment required to deal with every threat from every source.”

• Boeing confirmed it’s going to close its Wichita plant in Kansas by the end of 2013. Some of the 2,000+ jobs will be moved to sites in the states of California, Oklahoma and Washington; others will be cut. Congressman Mike Pompeo is fuming while Tom Cole and Rick Larsen are obviously more upbeat.

• Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) chief Marion Blakey: “At this point we see all of the oxygen in the room being absorbed by the presidential debates. We want to be part of that oxygen, if you will.” (WSJ)

• The British MoD is using balls of rubber strengthened with Kevlar to deliver fuel by helicopter or transport aircraft. Known as the Mk 5 Air Portable Fuel Containers and manufactured by GKN Aerospace, they weight 2 tonnes (4,400 pounds) when full. See a short video at the bottom of this entry. Now, wouldn’t this make sense slung under a K-Max?

• Vincent Manzo, a research analyst at the National Defense University asks [PDF]: where do space and cyberspace fit in questions of deterrence and escalation in cross-domain operations?

• DARPA scientists have found that using an antibiotic and a protein together is more effective to fight radiation than when used separately. Well, at least for mice, but the potential for human application seems promising.

• Gunther Krauter, the general secretary of Austria’s (left wing) Social Democrats (SPO), said the country should sell its Eurofighter jets. Though they belong to the same political party that’s currently leading the government, such as sale is not on the agenda of defence Minister Norbert Darabos, so he was not thrilled by Krauter’s unexpected suggestion: Austrian Independent | Austrian Times. Austria does plan to sell many of its tanks; another contentious issue is Darabos’ support for ending conscription (Germany did so last year, France too in the late 90’s/early 00’s). The right wing People’s Party (OVP), the junior member in an obviously uneasy coalition, had its spokesman call the SPO (in German) the Unsicherheitspartei (the “non-security party”). Surely there must be a 19-letter word for “ouch” in German.
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• US SecDef Leon Panetta will present the result of the Pentagon’s latest strategic review tomorrow. Nothing dramatic or really new appears in the pre-announcement coverage so far: Bloomberg | NYT | Reuters. Expect a confirmation of a relative, but not drastic shift from Europe to Asia, and some program delays.

• As chief of the National Guard Bureau and in execution of the 2012 NDAA, US Air Force General Craig R. McKinley is now a statutory member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

• New experimental anti-IED device: the remote-controlled leafblower-wheelbarrow hybrid, courtesy of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) at Fort Halstead, Kent, in England (a site that incidentally DSTL will leave in the years to come). Meanwhile Dr Andrew Baxter at DSTL in Porton Down received an award for his design work on light protected patrol vehicles (LPPV).

• Boeing is meeting today with its workers in the Wichita, KS plant the company is said to be considering closing.

• Elbit gets another Hermes 900 UAV order from an unnamed customer in the Americas. Chile is known as the 1st export customer for that platform.

• Learnings about how the Americans are fighting in Afghanistan, as seen by the Chinese.

• Iran’s claims on the Strait of Hormuz are the usual bombastic nonsense but it’s still useful to have some context. The CSIS think tank has a primer. it’s not just the US reaction that’s worth watching (so far, a shrug), but also China’s.

• The Pentagon is to modestly reduce the number of its top-ranked officers, after a decade of “star creep.”

• How do you squeeze a Merlin AW101 helicopter into a C17? The BBC explains with a timelapse video and helpful charts.

• Some British soldiers are complaining that their new Personal Clothing System (PCS) makes them look American, which is apparently not a flattering statement.

• Turkey has frozen political and military relations with France because of the French recognition of the Armenian genocide as such. Back in September Turkey suspended its defense ties with Israel, though last week coordination between their respective air forces was reestablished.

• How will the United States’ AirSea Battle work-in-progress doctrine affect Japan?

• Kit Up’s advice on Carl Gustaf tactical employment: learn to use it or someone is going to get hurt, and not just the intended target.

• The British National Audit Office’s 2011 Major Projects report says that short-term cuts spurred by its Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) has added GBP 500 million (about $785M) to its 15 largest defense projects. The UK MoD responds.

• Britain’s first-of-class fast-attack submarine, HMS Astute, fires UGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles for the first time. Unlike the US Navy, Britain’s Tomahawks are only based on attack submarines.

• Rumors of a British Harrier jump-jet fleet sale to the US Marines get stronger.

• The US House Armed Services Committee had a hearing yesterday on USMC acquisition and modernization (ACV, AAV, JLTV). Video at the bottom of this entry.

• The US Air Force updated its AFDD 1 doctrine document [PDF] with the addition of a whole new chapter on airpower. Some might find the USAF’s definition of airpower as “control and exploitation of air, space, and cyberspace” (emphasis ours) as familiar overreaching.

• After spending lobbying & design dollars, Smith & Wesson decided that its M&P4 won’t be competing in the US Army’s Individual Carbine competition.

• One of Pakistan’s JF-17 fighters crashed; the pilot was killed when his parachute failed to open.

• A report from the French Assemblée Nationale concludes [in French] that the Franco-German Brigade could be the nucleus for a EU military, but found that its financing could be perfected, not to speak of its cumbersome deployment procedures. German Jägerbataillon 291 is stationed in French city Illkirch-Graffenstaden since last year.
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• US NAVAIR performs the 1st steam catapult launch of its carrier-borne F-35C Lightning II fighter, from its land testing facility at NAS Patuxent River, MD. Short video at the bottom of this entry.

• Should the US DoD be restricted to buying only steel melted in the US?

• The Pentagon presented its tentative Air-Sea Battle doctrine which will be developed by the creatively-named Air-Sea Battle Office (ASBO). Andrew Krepinevich, president of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) likes it, though that’s hardly surprising. Two elephants in the room: China, and the US Army. More: DOD Buzz | Defense News | Washington Times | Information Dissemination.
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Atlantic CommTech Corp. in Virginia Beach, VA received a $12 million firm-fixed-price contract. They’ll provide interior intrusion detection systems for protective aircraft shelters, and redundant cable, for the 498th Nuclear Systems Wing. Atlantic CommTech will be performing 100% of the work throughout 6 NATO installations in Europe. This is not surprising. Back in February 2008, “The Blue Ribbon Review of Nuclear Weapons Policies and Procedures” raised concerns about security practices at nuclear-capable facilities in Europe, and recommended a number of steps to improve the situation. Meanwhile, European countries’ waning desire to even host such weapons has become a subject of high-level debate among NATO members.

The 498th Nuclear Systems Wing is part of USAF Materiel Command, and handles nuclear maintenance projects, programs, & systems integration, advocacy, and oversight. The wing’s groups and divisions include the 498th Missile Sustainment Division based at Tinker AFB, OK, the 498th Nuclear Systems Division at Kirtland AFB, NM; the 498th Munitions Maintenance Group at Whiteman AFB, MO, and the 798th Munitions Maintenance Group at Minot AFB, ND. The USAF Nuclear Weapons Center/PKE at Kirtland AFB, NM, manages the contract (FA9422-12-F-0001).