* The US Department of Defense released its latest Selected Acquisition Report (SAR – PDF). SARs track cost, schedule and performance changes for 83 Major Defense Acquisition Programs (MDAPs) amounting to a total of 1.6 trillion dollars in spending. 3 programs were flagged as being in critical breach of Nunn-McCurdy cost increase ceilings: AIM-9X Block I, C-130 AMP and JLENS. Several programs are showing costs decreases because of reductions in production rates.
* The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has its own report on the report. A table of the 10 most costly programs can be found at the bottom of this entry. For reference, historical SAR reports can be found here. DID will follow up with more details at the program level.
* The GAO also reviewed the Pentagon’s airborne electronic attack plans: “current and planned acquisitions will not fully address materiel-related capability gaps identified by DOD – including some that date back 10 years. Acquisition program shortfalls will exacerbate these gaps.”
* Mark Collins gathered several pointers on Canada’s federal budget. Details have yet to be released, but for now it looks like cuts are light this year but will increase later.
* The Australian Navy’s plan to spend $130M on the Skandi Bergen ship for the Border Protection and Customs Service is not consensual. Chief of Navy Vice Admiral Ray Griggs responds to detractors.
* The Times of India asks: has General V K Singh killed hope for reforms?
* The Congressional Research Service updated its report [PDF] on China’s naval modernization and what it means for the US Navy. It covers issues that have been widely discussed in past months, from the future size of the US fleet to the Air-Sea Battle concept.
* In past years Jacques Chirac then Nicolas Sarkozy made electoral promises for France to get a second aircraft carrier. France is about to go to the polls again and this time around most presidential candidates do not even mention [in French] this issue. The fiscal reality – whether contenders choose to acknowledge it or not – also makes it really unlikely to happen.
