Rapid Fire Oct. 16, 2012: Asian Military Spending

* The Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) published a study [PDF] of defense spending in Asia since 2000. Spending growth has accelerated over the second part of the period, led by China and Japan, with China doubling its share to 40% of regional spending as of 2011. Since the size of their troops has remained about flat (as opposed to shrinking), this extra spending does not translate yet into the transition towards high-tech professional forces seen in Western countries, Japan excepted. Related: our motion chart of expenditure trends by continent. * The Diplomat offers some thoughts on what the USA’s return to the Subic Bay in the Philippines means, twenty years after closing [PDF] a huge naval base there. * Australia’s Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) is going to pilot the use of managing contractors to try to mirror the success they say this model has seen in infrastructure projects. * In the UK 3,500 officers and MoD officials have moved to a job in the defense industry over the past 16 years, according to The Guardian. * Capt. Scott Porter takes the helm of the Advanced Tactical Aircraft Protection Systems Program Office (PMA-272) within US NAVAIR’s Program Executive […]