Rapid Fire March 23, 2012: Robotic Refueling, Suspensions

• The US Navy’s MZ-3A military research airship is about to get another year’s lease on life, as an Army test bed. With LEMV coming along, that’s probably a good idea.

• The GAO says US Army payroll is a mess – not the kind where you get to eat.

• Dassault Aviation released its 2011 results [PDF]. Net sales were down 21% to 3.3B euros (about $4.4B) because of markedly lower Falcon business jet deliveries vs. a record 2010. Defense orders grew 17.5% to 931 million euros. The consolidated backlog is down 7% to 8.75 billion euros.