Rapid Fire Feb. 28, 2013: Light Air Support Reawarded to Sierra Nevada / Embraer

• The US Air Force awarded again its $427M contract (with a $950M maximum) for light air support (LAS) aircraft for the Afghan forces to the team which had already won last year, before the Company Now Known as Beechcraft contested the acquisition and the Air Force cancelled the award..

• After having run a series of articles heavily criticizing big-ticket US weapon systems, Bloomberg puts procurement in perspective: it’s personnel costs driven by healthcare that have really jacked up spending at the Pentagon through the past decade. In comparison, jeremiads about acquisition, while justified, are decades old. Defense departments across industrialized countries are facing at a smaller scale the same tightening demographic and fiscal constraints faced by these nations as a whole.

• The Washington Post boils down guidance [PDF] from the Office of Personnel Management for federal employees about to face furloughs. Yes, you should come to work tomorrow.