* India’s foreign direct investment cap is crippling the Indian defense industry, argues Sushant Singh of the Takshashila Institution.
* Israel Military Industries Ltd. (IMI) to merge with Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd?
* Fall of Tunisia’s government looks set to affect that proposed SH-60F helicopter sale covered in July 2010.
* Meanwhile, a more natural flood could wash away Brazil’s proposed fighter purchase.
* More US defense funds likely to go into repairing, upgrading older systems.
* US needs to shore up its air superiority vis-a-vis China, warns the American Enterprise Institute.
* Is an arms race in East Asia imminent?
* Are American P-3 Orion sea control aircraft hunting narco-smuggler submersibles in the Caribbean?
* The GAO is expected to rule in March on a protest over the US Army’s $88 million contract award to Boeing for development of 4 ISR aircraft based on the Hawker Beechcraft King Air 350, under the Enhanced Medium Altitude Reconnaissance and Surveillance System (EMARSS) program.
* AM General to lay off 300 workers at its Mishawaka, IN, plant that manufactures Humvees.
* Sikorsky Aircraft opens virtual reality center to identify production and maintenance gaps for the USMC’s forthcoming CH-53K heavy lift helicopters, before the initial builds take place.