* Trash into Gold: DARPA has a Phoenix Program to recycle satellites for parts.
* One of the ship blocks for Britain’s new Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier had a fire. It’s out, and doesn’t appear to have done any significant damage, or hurt anyone.
* The RAND Corporation reviewed US Navy major defense acquisition programs (MDAPs) and the unique challenges they face.
* An F-4 training jet crashed in Turkey, killing its 2 pilots.
* A federal grand jury in Texas has indicted 3 people in a $6.5M fraud investigation involving subcontracts to a fake company used to overcharge the USAF for engineering services.
* The US GAO reports its findings on the state of the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) and Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA), says: “Because of its own workforce struggles, DCAA has lagged in completing a number of [contractor business systems] audits and is currently focusing on other high priority areas. GAO found, however, that DCMA contracting officers maintained their determination of many contractor business systems as adequate despite the fact that the systems had not been audited in a number of years – in many cases well beyond the time frames outlined in DCAA guidance.”
* The US Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive published a report to Congress on foreign spies stealing US economic secrets in cyberspace [PDF].
* US Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member John McCain (R-AZ) and Appropriations Committee member Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) sent a letter asking the Secretary of Defense to describe what specific measures DoD would have to enact if the super committee doesn’t reach an agreement.
* The Jacksonville Daily News in North Carolina has a look at projected workloads at Fleet Readiness Center (FCR) East, with or without JSF work.
* Quick look in the video below at how MRAPs and M-ATVs are maintained in Bagram AF, Afghanistan: