* The US Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued a short report [PDF] on the effects of sequestration, though they note that their estimates are not binding, as it’s the Administration’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that has authority to determine how cuts would be made. Their interpretation:
“The reductions in the caps for defense programs would be proportionately larger than the reductions in the caps for nondefense programs. The defense cap would shrink by $55 billion each year (which translates to a cut of 9.8% for 2014 and smaller percentages for subsequent years).
With the way they reckon automatic enforcement procedures would play out, they see the defense budget bottoming out at $501B in FY2014. The report lacks details though, as it does not spell out whether the Administration’s decision to exclude personnel expenses from the sequester is taken into account.
* Apparently at the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), trees grow up to the sky. The union, in its benefit negotiations with Boeing, has presented – seemingly with a straight face – expectations of 6.5%/year benefit growth in a ZIRP economy, and possibly forever – or at least as long as Boeing is profitable. Someone at SPEEA needs to take a crash course on inflation and interest rates, in the meantime this gets the award for Embarrassing Chart of the Day. Starting negotiations from a transparently preposterous position is rarely a winning tactic.
* Lockheed Martin is in the process of cutting 550 jobs at its Marietta plant in Georgia where C-130Js are manufactured.
* Germany and Russia are reportedly not giving up on India’s MMRCA competition. In big aircraft bidding, it’s not over till it’s over. Dassault has continued to fight after the bell in Switzerland so they cannot blame their competitors for showing equal perseverance.
* Jon Thompson has been appointed as Permanent Secretary of the UK Ministry of Defence to replace Ursula Brennan who left in June. Thompson has a public accounting finance background and has worked on MoD budgets since 2009.
* Rear Adm. Jake Korn, Assistant Commandant for Acquisition at the US Coast Guard, is singing the praises of his organization.
* The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is working on augmented reality as a way to enhance education, with applications to Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC) training with head mounted displays.
* US NAVAIR explains some of the machinery used to repair aircraft engines at Fleet Readiness Center Southeast (FRCSE) in Florida. NAVAIR also started using a device called the Common Video Borescope Set (CVBS) to conduct “gentle colonoscopies” on aircraft, to use their poetic analogy. Safe-for-work video below:
