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Budgets | Contracts - Awards | Daily Rapid Fire | DARPA | Europe - Other | France | IT - Networks & Bandwidth | IT - Software & Integration | Japan | Leadership & People | R&D - Contracted | Think Tanks | USA

Rapid Fire Jan. 7, 2013: Picking a Secretary, Or a Fight?

UH-60L Blackhawk helicopte
  • Former US Senator Chuck Hagel is widely reported as President Obama’s pick to replace Leon Panetta as Secretary of Defense, to be officially confirmed later today. He will face certain opposition from some Republican senators. WaPo | Omaha World Herald.
  • DARPA is soliciting research proposals for developing a communications link capable of transmitting data at a rate of 100 Gb/s within a single radio frequency channel. They have $18.3M set aside for the 1st phase. A Proposer’s Day will take place on Wednesday Jan. 9.

  • On the same day the US Army will hold an Industry Day [MS Word] at Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG), MD, to present the upcoming requirements to support the Network Integration Evaluation (NIE) 14.1 to be held in October-November 2013.
  • Turkey started talks with RMK Marine for the construction of 6 corvettes.
  • Japan’s new government is going to increase slightly the country’s defense budget, putting it back to 2009 levels. The Mainichi | Japan Times.
  • The latest Air Land Sea Bulletin [PDF] looks at biometric capabilities such as the handheld interagency identity detection equipment (HIIDE) system and how they could be used by AFRICOM.
  • From the Center for Strategic & International Studies: European Defense Trends 2012 [PDF]. Recommended for its data and charts on budget trends by country.
  • Lionel Bieder, CEO of a cleaning company contracting with the French Ministry of Defense, claims [in French] that the botched implementation of enterprise software led to a big backlog of unpaid bills that forced hundreds of small businesses into liquidation.