* The US is considering extending joint operations with its allies to military space and cyberspace.
* The Economist is giddy about the convergence of new materials, online collaboration, 3D printing and more effective robots leading to another manufacturing revolution. To see to what extent these combined trends will play out in the defense sector, one project to watch is DARPA’s Vehicleforge set in motion last year by a $4M award to Vanderbilt University. They recently posted a presolicitation for Component, Context, and Manufacturing Model Library 2 (C2M2L-2) or “the second round of domain-specific models needed to enable the design, verification, and fabrication of the chassis and survivability subsystems.” One significant constraint is DARPA’s goal of remaining within an open source model, while there might be valuable inputs out there that may remain out of reach for legal reasons (ITAR for instance).
* David Van Buren left his position as chief of US Air Force acquisition to join L-3 as senior vice president of business strategy. Buren started his career as an Air Force officer in the seventies, then worked in the private sector for almost three decades, to return to the USAF in 2008.
* Has Australia changed its mind within two days of Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s announcement of a 2013 withdrawal from Afghanistan? In a joint statement by the ministers of defense and foreign affairs made yesterday: “All of us, however, must continue to be present in support of the ANSF and be combat ready to do so until transition is finally complete at the end of 2014.”
* India’s Foreign Secretary Shri Ranjan Mathai detailed his country’s weapons export controls while speaking at the Institue for Defence Studies & Analyses.
* Relations between Sudan and recently-created South Sudan are getting close to war over oil resourcs, though the situation seemed to be easing today.