* Aero India 2011 exhibition takes flight.
* The USA OKs its next-generation SSBN-X nuclear missile submarines for Milestone A studies, to accompany missile compartment contracts already underway.
* Even as reports gather that China has tested submarine-launched ballistic missiles of its own.
* How did Northrop Grumman do in the fourth quarter? Depends who you talk to: Reuters | Wall Street Journal.
* Pentagon backs mergers and acquisitions among smaller defense suppliers, but not for the heavy hitters.
* DoD is requesting $7 billion less in FY 2012 than was forecast last year, according to a Bloomberg report.
* US Army wants more “Punisher” XM25 semi-automatic high-explosive airburst weapons for Afghanistan.
* US SOCOM forces stretched to the limit in Afghanistan, commander warns.
* Defense electronics contracts totaled in excess of a billion dollars in January 2011, according to Strategy Analytics.
* Greenbelt, MD-based Gryphon Technologies is adding 60 jobs and office space in Bloomington, IN, to accommodate its $26.6 million logistics services contract with the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division.
* Harris snags $9 million order to supply Falcon II 400-watt AN/PRC-150-C radios for the US Army’s Joint Biological Point Detection System [PDF] designed to identify biological threats on the battlefield.