* Taiwan prepares to order a $6.45 billion weapons package, sparks predictable diplomatic huffing.
* The Pentagon plans to replace the official in charge of the F-35 JSF program and withhold $614 million in performance fees from Lockheed Martin for failing to meet key goals. At the same time Pratt & Whitney delivered the 1st F135 production engine for the F-35 aircraft.
* Sikorsky is investing $1 billion to develop an unmanned Black Hawk helicopter, which it hopes to have ready by 2015.
* USS George H.W. Bush [CVN 77] redelivered; its strike group will soon have the first female CSG commander in US Navy history.
* Shares of major US defense companies gained in trading following the unveiling of the Obama administration’s FY 2011 defense budget that would increase defense spending by 3.4%.
* The US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) had another setback in its effort to build a ballistic missile defense, when its Sea-Based X-band radar failed to track a target missile during a test at the Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific. MDA is also looking for a supplier for its target missiles.
* Prime contractor CSC gets $261 million in orders to provide IT and logistics services under the US Army’s Logistics Modernization Program.
* USAF orders more of Lockheed’s Sniper ATP surveillance & targeting pods.
* Rolls Royce scores a $146 million order to provide another year of C-130J fleet engine support.
* Singapore unveils its new G550 AWACS aircraft.
* Raytheon/Boeing’s JAGM missile contender finishes captive test flights.
* Raytheon BBN announces a successful ad-hoc networking experiment under DARPA’s WNaN effort.