* A recent survey of 340 defense acquisition executives showed there’s a widespread sense of pessimism about how government acquisitions are run.
Ukraine/Russia
* Over the weekend Russian forces overrun Ukraine’s military presence in Crimea: FT | Kyiv Post. The circumstances of the Ukrainian retreat from the peninsula remain somewhat muddled.
* Russia also built up a significant troop presence right next to Ukraine’s eastern border.
* Germany suspended its military contracts with Russia, which the latter found “not constructive.”
* Leon Aron from the conservative American Enterprise Institute: the dangerous future of Putin’s regime .
Another clash at the Turkey/Syria Border
* Turkey’s government, otherwise busy blocking access to Twitter, said they shot a Syrian jet violating their airspace [video].
Italian Vulcano
* Earlier this month Italy’s Navy test fired Vulcano ballistic extended range projectiles. This is part of a larger trend toward long-range shells from standard 127mm and 76mm naval guns. Much less expensive than the DDG-1000 approach.
Pondering the Future of Energy
* Mark Finley from BP discussed the company’s Energy Outlook 2035 [PDF] at a recent CSIS event. The company expects oil, coal and gas to converge to the same share of energy use by then, with oil use losing a lot to gas while coal declines slightly. Video below:
