* A Farewell to Arms?: Deloitte’s mid-year review of the global aerospace and defense industry shows declining revenues and profits; however, the following defense areas are expected to generate future revenues: mission capability software integration, battle space simulation, directed energy, precision engagement, threat identification, and energy and infrastructure security.
* Greener Grass?: On a brighter note, the head of DoD’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency expects US foreign arms sales to total $50 billion in FY 2011, up from $37.8 billion in FY 2010.
* A Dash of Realism: UK Defence Secretary Fox cautions industry to be more realistic about costs, timing, and performance estimates for weapons systems.
* Final Exam: Israel’s Defense Ministry plans to deploy the 1st batteries of the Iron Dome rocket/artillery defense system in November after the system passed its final tests this week.
* Full-scale development begins on a Eurofighter AESA radar. A factor in Tranche 3B discussions?
* European A400M gets a name… “Grizzly,” after a North American bear. Common suggestions had included the more European “Atlas,” not to mention slyer suggestions like “Airavata.”
* Hawker Beechcraft rolls out the first T-6C trainer for Morocco.
* First Australian F/A-18F TOFT simulator reaches Initial Training Capability.
* A team led by Kitware secures a $13.9 million DARPA contract under the PerSEAS program [PDF] to develop algorithms that can sort through wide area motion imagery to detect moving objects of interest to US troops.