* A recent Finmeccanica DRS release about a $691 million sub-contract for submarine parts was wrong; the figure is apparently $400 million. More details to come later.
* India’s defense minister, meanwhile, talks about 9 more C-130Js – but the DSCA request was for only 6.
* Well, this is an interesting point of view: “It is perhaps time for the Indian majors like Tata, L&T and Mahindra Defence and indeed the Indian Government/DPSUs to invest in American and European defence companies.” After all, the hostile takeover of Arcelor by Mittal in 2006 was rocky but eventually went through to form the largest steel maker in the world. Who would have thought that possible when the roots of the European Union are found in a steel and coal common market and the French state owned Usinor-Sacilor as late as 1995? That said India is currently stalling on allowing foreign direct investment in retail so globalization is not quite complete just yet.
* TASC and its 15 partners wins a $133 million NASA contract [PDF] for software verification and validation. Projects since 2005 have included instrument flight software, launch vehicles, navigation systems and ground system legacy integration.
* US Navy SEAL “Naval Special Warfare Group Four” is being recognized for its… business process improvement.
* Researchers at the Center for Corrosion Science & Engineering (CCSE) within the Naval Research Laboratory have developed a cheaper way to inspect the exterior coating of ships by using digital cameras and custom-made software. They expect to shorten the workload by a factor of 6 vs. the existing visual inspection process.
* Members of the US House and Senate have been working in conference on the Defense Authorization bill all week and hope to have it ready to send to the President next week. Among the points under discussion: whether to transfer the MC-12 program, and the ongoing VA vs. FL CVN homeporting contention. Another budget issue: sticking to what the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) budget is supposed to be about.
* Should the US develop a counter-UAV doctrine? Maybe other countries already have one…
* “All your drone r belong to us”: Bad day for Lockheed Martin’s Skunkworks. Iran shows pictures of an intact RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone, which it says it hacked into and forced to land in western Iran. The Iranian regime’s lie detector scores are measured using the Richter Scale, but the drone is curiously intact. Partly because the US couldn’t bring itself to strike & destroy it. Video after the jump:
