* The Teal Group released an overview of the worldwide rotorcraft market at the opening of HeliTech 2013. The chart above looks at calculated shares for western manufacturers in the military market to 2022, based on concluded competitions. They see AgustaWestland making a significant marketshare gain while Boeing and Sikorsky yield some of their lead. For more information regarding the report, contact Teal.
* Deputy Secretary of Defense Ash Carter sent a memo [PDF] to all DoD employees to provide guidance in case of a government shutdown.
* The Stimson Institute advocates in a new report [PDF] a mix of management reforms, force structure changes and procurement reductions to meet Budget Control Act constraints without endangering national security. The think tank would cancel GCV and JTLV while slowing down F-35 purchases and freezing GMD.
* Transparency International UK has a report [PDF] out on the quality, such as it is, of legislative oversight of defense: “two-thirds of countries are at very high risk of corruption due to poor legislative controls over defence and security. Worse, 85% of countries lack effective legislative scrutiny of defence policy.”
* General Robert Kehler, the head of USSTRATCOM, is concerned about aging B61 nuclear bombs.
* The French government published [PDF in French] a few numbers about France’s ongoing Operation Serval in Mali, where 3,200 soldiers still serve, down from a peak of 4,500. 7 soldiers died and 20 were wounded in combat. They seized 220 tons ((440K pounds) of ammunition, a couple hundred light weapons, and 12 tons of ammonium nitrate. In terms of logistics: 17 million liters of jet fuel (4.5M gallons) and 3 million liters (792K gallons) of fuel used; 9,170 tons (18.3M pounds) of goods shipped by sea and 18,500 tons (37M pounds) by air.
* Saab will reduce its Electronic Defence Systems workforce of 1,200 in Gothenburg, Sweden by 150-175 employees.
* Pro-independence advocates in Taiwan fear that a cross-strait service trade agreement recently signed with the mainland is a non-military vehicle for control and eventual unification. It has yet to be ratified by the legislature, where it will face a tense political situation.
* China released a list of dual-use technologies barred from export to North Korea, which also explicitly bans the export of biological agents such as Ebola. Aren’t you relieved?
* Today’s video comes from the Hill US Air Force Base in Utah with live-fire exercises (the Weapons System Evaluation Program or WESP for short) seen from the cockpit of an F-16D aircraft:
