* USNAVAIR is going to organize a series of technical meetings [FBO] with companies interested in candidate replacements for the F/A-18E/F and EA-18G by 2030. This comes ahead of an Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) scheduled next year.
* According to DPA (via RIA Novosti) India is considering buying 126 Eurofighters from Germany. The two countries, along with Japan and Brazil, have been arguing in favor of reforming the UN’s Security Council for a decade. It’s also always good to have fallback options, but the high complexity and risk of India’s proposed MMRCA program structure mean that it will take far, far more than just a high-level visit to turn Eurofighter into a realistic option. As Der Spiegel notes [in German], this at least gives the Indian press something to speculate about.
Fool-proofing, and Foul-playing
* Staff from Perdue University make very good cyber-security points in a blog post meta-commenting the latest celebrity picture leaks. It’s so tempting for security professionals to fall into the trap of blaming the victim, so here’s a helpful cross-disciplinary term that your production colleagues know: Poka-Yoke.
* A former DoD civilian employee pleaded guilty [DoD IG, PDF] to having defrauded the government for more than $2.2M in bogus healthcare claims while he was stationed in Germany. Kudos to the investigators, but it is alarming that the Foreign Service and Veteran Affairs reimbursement systems could be abused for 5 years with fraud reaching such high amounts before raising alarm bells.
Middle East
* The Obama administration is considering expanding [ISIL] its air strikes in Iraq to target logistics hubs used by ISIL.
* Defense News reports that Turkey’s President Erdogan said talks with China are continuing on coproduction and tech transfers in a stalled, controversial missile defense contract. France seems a serious contender with Eurosam’s Aster 30, ahead of the Lockheed Martin-Raytheon bid.
* US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel met Erdogan yesterday [WaPo] to discuss how Turkey might help fighting ISIL. Though they said they’re willing to help, what transpired of the Turk response sounds woolly [Hurriyet] even by diplospeak standards.
* Eurasia Review offers its analysis with a pun so bad it wouldn’t look out of place here on DID: Saudi Arabia and Islamic State – Between Iraq and a Hard Place. It concludes that
“In many ways, the Wahhabi state has its own policies to blame for the recent wave of disastrous developments in the region.”
Europe
* Christina Balis, whose guest articles on Polish modernization plans ran here recently, has published a collaboration with RUSI that looks at the future European defense base as a whole [PDF]. They’re right that crisis support guarantees are key to industry rationalization. But can any country afford to stake its future on them? Currently: no. Is that fixable?
* CCTV America, of all sources, has an interesting video on the families of Russian soldiers questioning where their relatives were sent to fight, and sometimes die, despite the Kremlin’s clampdown on independent media.
* Today’s video, from:NATO to:no-one in particular cc:Vlad, covers the recent Steadfast Javelin II exercise which took place in Germany, Poland, and the Baltic states, with a focus on interoperability:
