Rapid Fire 2011-01-20: Saudis Want Tech Transfers

• US long-term economic security requires cuts in defense spending, argues Michael O’Hanlon of the liberal Brookings Institution.

• Saudi Arabia wants to produce 70% of military equipment locally using foreign technology transfer, plans to offer greater investment incentives. That particularly significant in light of their massive purchases in the pipeline – but building that much industry from nothing, within a procurement culture of baksheesh, is a very dubious prospect.

• In the battle against piracy, NATO admits that the Somali pirates are winning.