* The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report stating that about 83,000 DOD employees and contractors who held or were eligible for security clearances (out of a total of about 5.1 million) had unpaid federal tax debt totaling more than $730M as of June 30, 2012. Though not technically illegal, that is an obvious vulnerability.
* The US Marines want samples from contractors bidding for its Diver Reconnaissance Vehicle (DRV) program, and while their initial intent was not to pay for these bid samples, they seem inclined to revisit their position, meaning they’d buy and keep the samples. Here’s the industry day slide deck [PPTX].
* Strategy+Business explains how to tell whether an industry is about to be hit by “dematurity”, which aside from being an ugly neologism afflicts disruption by a thousand cuts to unsuspecting firms.
* According to security firm Cyber Engineering Services Inc. (CyberESI), hackers presumably from China hacked into the networks of several Israeli defense firms in 2011-12. Krebs on Security. Update: IAI refuted this report.
Russia
* The US is accusing Russia [NYT] of having violated an arms control agreement by testing a ground-launched cruise missile.
* With new sanctions looming [RealClearPolitics], Russian president Vladimir Putin held a meeting to urge the defense ministry to develop local alternatives to any imported armament.
India
* In line with its pro-business posture, India’s new government announced [Deccan Herald] it will sell 10% shares in Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL – currently 100% state-owned) and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) and 5% in Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL).
Africa
* Cameroon’s Security Forces rescued [Premium Times] the wife of the country’s deputy prime minister who had been abducted by Boko Haram 2 days ago, in an attack [Deutche Welle] where at least 10 people were killed.
Afghanistan
* The US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) released a report [PDF] finding that the Pentagon’s Operational Verification of Reliable Logistics Oversight Database (OVERLORD) is far from deserving its bombastic acronym, with a high number of duplicate or incomplete data points. Two years ago the DoD’s inspector general had similarly found [PDF] that tracking of night vision devices was lacking. Note that many headlines in the media are suggesting alarmist conclusions that are completely unsupported by the report. SIGAR has found few actual missing weapons in physical inventory checks, what they are denouncing is a lack of proper book keeping.
* Today’s video, from Lockheed Martin, provides a recap of the K-Max rotorcraft UAV deployment in Afghanistan. A real accomplishment, but with its relatively small payload it’s unclear how this could be used outside of theaters where you want to avoid road mines but have air supremacy.
