* The Pentagon is considering going through a round of consolidation and reorganization among its combatant commands (COCOMs).
* The White House will again exempt military personnel accounts from sequestration in FY14 (i.e. the fiscal year starting in less than 3 weeks).
* Northrop Grumman announced that its Common Infrared Countermeasure (CIRCM) completed its Preliminary Design Review (PDR) last month.
* The Indian government released some data about its defense imports by country and weapon system, up to March 2013. It is quite a diversified mix in recent months, beyond the usual Russian sourcing with significant buys from Israel, France and the US.
* India’s government-funded IDSA think tank published an article calling for restrained tactical responses in dealing with Pakistan, following a deadly border ambush last week. They’re waving aside attribution dilemmas:
“[Th]e identity of the people executing the August 6 attack remains unclear at this juncture. These could be: regular soldiers of the Pakistani Army; a combined border action team (BAT) comprising of a mix of terrorists and regular soldiers; and, a group comprising only the terrorists. However, an ambush by approximately 20 heavily armed men in Army uniform, 400 metres inside Indian territory could not have possibly taken place without the knowledge of the Pakistan Army, deployed in close vicinity. Therefore, even if the attack was executed by the terrorists without participation by the Pakistani troops, the complicity of the Army and ISI is a foregone conclusion.”
* Meanwhile Pakistan states that “serious efforts need to be made in maintaining a positive atmosphere and avoid negative propaganda.” Which sounds right out of the tone-deaf playbook of their Chinese sponsors. India wants Pakistan’s government to accept responsibility for the August 6 attack, not just express regret.
* From the CSIS think tank: Yemen and U.S. Security [PDF].
* According to the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), about 150 colleges already offer some form of UAV-related education in the US.
* Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman get ready for this week’s AUVSI trade show by means of video below. They’ve got LOTS of programs:
