Rapid Fire 2010-09-24: CF-5 Refurbishing

* It’s one thing to read it, another to hear and see it. On C-SPAN, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Undersecretary Ashton Carter discuss motivations and plans for their new military acquisition and procurement guidelines. * US GAO looks at Iraq’s budgetary surpluses, and asks questions about American aid. * No S-300s for Iran: Russian President Medvedev signs decree prohibiting the sale of the long-range, high-altitude S-300 air defense systems to Iran; Iran vows to make its own system. * Canadian Fighters: Tactical Air Defense Services in Carson City, NV acquires right to purchase and refurbish 6 Canadian CF-5 fighter jets, 45 GE J85-15 jet engines, and spare parts for less than $6 million; the CF-5 is the Canadian version of Northrop Grumman F-5 fighter. * USAF Research Laboratory and Xilinx, Inc. prepare to launch a the Virtex-5 QV Field-Programmable Gate Array computer chip, which aims to reduce costs, improve satellite circuitry, and survive space’s thermal vacuum and radiation. * US Army deploys 4 specialized new UH-72A helicopters to the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site at Kwajalein Atoll, Pacific Ocean. Good thing it isn’t the Dick Cheney site – the helicopters are painted orange like a hunting vest, […]