* China’s first aircraft carrier was delivered to the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN)… or was it really? After Vice President’s Xi Jinping temporary disappearance for two weeks earlier this month for reasons that remain unclear, there’s a disturbing level of opacity and fuzziness in the current news flow out of China.
* Boeing is pitching its C-17s to South Africa while China has made a concerted push at this year’s Africa Aerospace and Defence (AAD) in Tshwane (formerly Pretoria).
* Sukhoi is in talks with Uganda to sell them another 6 Su-30 fighters, following an initial order for 6 Su-30MK2s last year. Colonel Felix Kulayigye, spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, was reportedly denying the option as just rumors on some website. But then Uganda first denied the initial $740M contract, which the government asked parliament to rubber stamp after the fact. DID was the object of similar preposterous denial by Ghanaian officials 3 years ago. Apparently Uganda’s government did not get the memo that “move along, nothing to see here” has lost efficacy in the Internet age.
* NATO’s Defense College published a paper [PDF] on the alliance’s past and future enlargement, with a focus on Georgia:
“Russia’s protest will come by default, and cannot be the yardstick for NATO’s decision-making on new members. The real underlying problem is that the territorial disputes between Russia and Georgia over the two renegade regions could lead to another war in the region.”
* Last weekend’s meeting between Chancellor Merkel and President Hollande had the BAE/EADS merger on their agenda, but was inconclusive. Hollande gave [in French] a list of concerns centered on employment and industrial policy without elaborating.