* Looking for a graphic that snaps Britain’s defense review decisions into focus? Canada’s National Post has it.
* Promoting Diversity: Pentagon wants to diversify supplier base for cybersecurity systems and products.
* Supply Bottleneck: Prices for rare-earth metals used in high-tech weapons have soared in response to Chinese export quotas.
* Sikorsky and partner firms are funding 2 prototypes of their “S-97 Raider” X2 compound helicopter, and intend to fly it in 2014. The Raider will be a scout/ light utility/ light attack machine, with V-22 class speed, but the safety and lower costs of a helicopter design.
* Rumbles begin that France and Britain may cooperate on next-generation SSBN nuclear missile submarines. Since the Astute Class has just launched, and the Barracuda Class is well along in development, there’s no point talking about their SSN fast attack counterparts.
* Thinking Adjustment: BAE Systems lowers its earnings per share projection in response to UK’s Strategic Defence and Security Review [PDF].
* Deutsche Bank lowers its 2010 earnings per share estimate for Boeing to $4.07 from $4.15 due to weak defense business performance.
* SBIRS-High GEO-2 satellite assembled.
* Terminating IEDs: Northrop Grumman’s Remotec gets $11.2 million contract to upgrade the USAF’s fleet of 173 Andros HD-1 unmanned ground vehicles to help with IED disposal.
* Fluid Situation: Ohio Aerospace Institute snags $9.3 million contract to provide computational analysis of aircraft fluid dynamics for the US Air Force Research Lab’s Air Vehicles Directorate.