ISIL Fighters Take Control of Mosul

US Biz Dev

• The US Army’s Program Manager for Soldier Weapons issued a request for information [MS Word] on the Modular Handgun System (MHS) that they intend to develop for all the services. During an industry day [MS Word] a few a months ago they indicated that a request for proposal should follow by September 2014. The Army’s FY15 presidential budget request shows funding starting with 4,811 units for the first year, ramping up to more than 13,000 handguns per year by FY17. They intend to run an open caliber competition to replace M9s and M11s.

• The US Navy’s Office of Naval Research is organizing an industry day on June 24 in McLean, VA, to discuss data crunching and security needs.

• Last week DARPA exercised a $10M follow-up option on a contract with Sikorski for its X-Plane program, but now the agency also announced a similar modification to its initial contract with Aurora Flight Sciences.

Asia

• The Philippines is reactivating 3-5 more Italian-made S-211 trainer/attack aircraft, in order to prepare its chosen pilot cadre with enough flight time for direct transition when their South Korean FA-50 fighters begin to arrive in 2015.

• Meet India’s new National Security Advisor, who consistently put himself in the line of fire during an illustrious spy career. New PM Modi’s other cabinet appointments have some observers talking about Modi bringing a more Presidential approach to governance in India, as he tries to ensure that the country’s vast bureaucracy faithfully and competently implements his policies. That will be especially critical in the defense realm.

• China’s government-owned CCTV covers the 4 ships China is sending to this year’s RIMPAC.

Assessing US Power

• Today’s video, from the conservative Heritage Foundation, looks at the state of US naval power, a series of 3 panels that also covered ground forces and air warfare: