Rapid Fire Dec. 12, 2012: Australia’s Projects of Concern
- All contenders but Sikorsky announced their withdrawal of the US Air Force’s CRH competition yesterday. More coverage of this RFP implosion to follow.
- The Australian Department of Defence updated its Projects of Concern list. The Wedgetail AEW&C and JP 2070 lightweight torpedo projects have been taken off the list, while a propellant manufacturing facility in Mulwala, NSW, and the Light Weight Automatic Grenade Launcher (part of Land 40 Ph 2) have been added to it because of repeated schedule slippages.
- Some Republican congressmen such as Paul Gosar of Arizona are not reflexively against defense spending cuts, notes Politico.
“We are well aware that the world is not necessarily a safer place. It is not likely to impact more favourably on UK national interests, the interests of our close partners and so on. But that is a general statement. We cannot identify or quantify specific-sized threats and specific-sized responses to them with quite the sort of refined accuracy we could in the days of the Cold War, for example. There is an element of choice. There is a risk-investment balance.”
- Speaking of the British House of Common’s Defence Committee, they outlined their future inquiries for the remainder of the legislature. Committee statement | The Guardian.
- Like their foe India, Pakistan has seen a high number of aircraft crashes in the last couple of years. AP.
