* The Defense Acquisition University (DAU) put together a convenient chart [PPT] that compares major contract types – FPAF, CPIF, T&M et. al. – to show what risks they intend to mitigate, when they should be used, their main elements, what they commit the contractor to and where’s the incentive.
* The DAU’s 2012 industry day will take place on May 1st in Fort Belvoir, VA. On the agenda: affordable programs, efficiency, and DoD’s industrial base policy.
* Milnews.ca has a good round-up on Canada’s 2012 budget cuts.
* The Economist forecasts that Chinese military spending could overtake America’s by 2035. This among other assumptions relies on rather bullish expectations of sustained GDP growth in China that are not shared by all observers.
* The Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI) says [PDF] that “Africa represents a fertile ground for a diminished ‘Al-Qa’ida-core’ to re-group, re-energise and re-launch its mission of global jihad.”
* John W. Parker at the Center for Strategic Research from the Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS) is weighting [PDF] whether a re-“elected” Vladimir Putin will continue Medvedev’s relatively cooperative approach to dealing with Iran:
“Moscow’s decision to toughen its approach to Iran on the nuclear issue is likely to remain the basis of Russian policy in the period ahead, so long as the U.S.-Russia ‘reset’ does not totally collapse, especially if Iran does not move toward greater cooperation with the IAEA. Russia’s looming domestic and external challenges will strengthen the inclination to continue some variant of reset, even if through Putin’s clenched teeth.”
* Japan and Britain are going to work together on military equipment according to Reuters.
* Another MQ-9 drone crashed in the Seychelles. It is the second crash in 4 months.
* A study paid for by the US Navy’s Office of Naval Research led researchers at the University of Texas, Dallas and at Virginia Tech to develop an underwater robot shaped after the jellyfish that feeds on gas found in water. This could be used for ongoing surveillance, maybe as a complement to wave-propelled USVs. The video below shows the initial version of the Robojelly that ran on electricity provided from the outside.