* BAE will cut 300 jobs across 5 US states, two thirds of which at their Electronic Systems site in Nashua, NH, where 50 people were already laid off last year.
* US AFRICOM is pondering establishing a base to operate UAVs out of a northwest African country such as Niger or Burkina Faso, according to the NYT.
* DARPA is interested in cheap, disposable electronic microsystems that could be used to create large networks of sensors that would biodegrade after they have accomplished their purpose. A Proposers’ Day will take place on Feb. 14 in Arlington, VA. They call it Vanishing, Programmable Resources (VAPR) and must be commended for acknowledging they are literally working on vaporware.
* The US Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) is researching whether they could host their payloads on commercial spacecraft and will host an Industry Day for that purpose on Feb. 19-21 in El Segundo, CA.
* The Yomiuri Shimbun reports that Japan has stepped up its monitoring of the disputed Senkaku islands in the East China Sea.
* The Brazilian defense market: big, growing, tantalizing, seemingly open but competitive and hard to get into [FT – reg. required].
* The Argentinian defense market… none of the above. Argentina’s defense minister Arturo Puricelli does not rule out sabotage to explain how the ARA Trinidad destroyer sank in port [in Spanish]. Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence. Alas, President Cristina Kirchner’s doll was touring Asia at the time so she couldn’t help.
