Rapid Fire 2011-07-02: France Signs Defense Deal with Indonesia

• Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s first message to DoD staff emphasizes the importance of discipline in the management of taxpayer resources. This will underpin the DoD’s commitment to preserving the ‘excellence and superiority’ of the military while looking for savings.

• Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says that one of Panetta’s biggest challenges will be fending off White House and congressional initiatives to reduce defense expenditure. Rumsfeld also echoed former Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ opinion that defense spending was not responsible for the budget deficit, before offering his own solutions to reducing expenditure.

• Russia’s Defense Minister, Anatoly Serdyukov, pours cold water over United Shipbuilding Corporation’s claims that the country has plans to build aircraft carriers over the next 10 years. According to Serdyukov, the Defense Ministry has requested a draft design of an aircraft carrier to consider its ‘conceptual and technical solutions’.