* Reuters Special Report: How Libya is a showcase in the new arms race. Dassault’s Rafale fighters definitely grabbed attention with their reconnaissance and ground attack punch – still needs a targeting pod, though. Competing Eurofighters are touting EGBU-16 GPS/laser-guided bomb tests and showcasing their Paveway precision attack punch in Libya, complete with targeting pods, while Tornados fire the new MBDA Brimstone anti-armor missiles. Meanwhile, the US State Department has reportedly restricted some proposed regional arms sales from American firms.
* Qatar supplies French-made Milan anti-tank missile systems to Libyan rebels. Can they use them effectively?
* SpaceX prepping Falcon 9 Heavy rocket, aims to surpass EELV performance and break the $1,000 per pound barrier for payload delivery to Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
* Northrop Grumman, US Navy successfully test laser weapon by setting target boat on fire.
* After posting a healthy 8.6% annual growth rate from 2006 to 2010, Portugal’s defense budget is headed for a .45% annual decline through 2015, according to iCD Research. Of course, if Portugal’s lenders keep raising their rates… any Wall St. types want a used F-16 for their garage? Maybe a U212A submarine to cruise Cape Cod?
* US Army Rapid Fielding Initiative’s Project Workhorse hopes to field a load-carrying, soldier-following robot to Afghanistan by October 2011. Nothing like testing the idea on terrain fit for the Mars Rover.
* IAI is offering a tethered ETOP UFO-style UAV in Latin America, to provide 10+ km radius surveillance from tactical ground vehicles.
* SAIC gets $41 million SeaPort-e task order to develop a lifecycle research program to combat equipment and infrastructure corrosion, which the DoD estimates [PDF] costs $22.5 billion per year to address.
* Pall gets $14 million order to supply engine filters for 59 US Army CH-47 Chinook helicopters.
* Setpoint Systems snags an $11.9 million contract from ATK Small Caliber Systems to provide 4 additional .50-caliber ammunition case manufacturing systems at the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in Independence, MO.
* ROE Farce. Taliban detainees who had been videotaped placing bombs in the culverts of roads near Kandahar, with chemical traces found on their hands, are released after 96 hours rather than prosecuted, in a drearily familiar routine. All the technology in the world won’t make up for terrible policy, and its corresponding effects on both morale and local cooperation.