* The Pentagon’s latest proposition for furloughs of its civilian employees is down to 11 days, spread between July 8 and the end of FY13 on Sept. 30. That’s half of their earliest estimate and the exact number of unpaid days might still get lower. Announcement | Background briefing.
* The US Department of Defense recently established policy 4140.67 [PDF] on counterfeit prevention. Briefly: don’t buy counterfeit components!
* The US Army Contracting Command in Warren, MI, has an RFI out to determine industry capability to develop systems that enable remote and semi-autonomous control of HMEE-1 excavators and RG31s. This would not be a proper MILSPEC RFI without an acronym, so here goes: this plugs into the Route Clearance and Interrogation System (RCIS). On background, an addendum [PDF] to an Unmanned Ground Systems roadmap published last year.
* French shipbuilders DCNS and Piriou are taking their partnership beyond the building of Gowind OPVs with the creation [PDF, in French] of Kership, a joint venture dedicated to ships for nonmilitary state actors (i.e. coast guards, customs, police…).
* Speaking of DCNS, Mer et Marine is less than convinced [in French] by a recent article from Defense News claiming (based on an anonymous source) that the French government wants to sell DCNS to Thales. It sounds more like a consolidation scenario among many than a sure thing, as the French government is struggling with a stalled economy and was recently lambasted by the Cour des Comptes (roughly a GAO/NAO) for weak management of its defense portfolio.
* French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian will meet [in French] his British and American peers to present the country’s latest whitepaper. The full document is not available in English, but the MINDEF at least translated an exec summary [PDF].
* How many American troops will stay in Afghanistan after 2014 should be announced soon. That decision will shape what other allies such as Germany will do.
* Is the British MoD’s future equipment plan realistic based on future budgets? Some members of Parliament have their doubts, in today’s video:
