Rapid Fire 01-11-11: More Data on Libya | F-35 Costs, Tests | State of Railguns

• The Guardian in the UK has gathered and crunched more numbers on operations in Libya (see also past linkage to Libyan ops debriefing).

• The Pentagon is about to brief Lockheed Martin on how much F-35s should cost. Memos have also been flying back and forth between DoD and the Air Force on whether training should proceed before more test hours could be completed. Meanwhile the Canadian Defence & Foreign Affairs Institute would like to hear “more forthright and more detailed rationales” to support the F-35 choice.

• FY13 Pentagon budget to reflect a shift to Asia/Pacific? November/December is when the DOD and the OMB jointly work on the next fiscal year’s budget, aiming for the President’s budget February deadline. In the meantime, it would be nice for Congress to actually pass a budget for the current fiscal year since we’re already 1 month into it.