Future Air Force Projects: Hypersonic but Sparse
* The famed Mach 3+ SR-71 Blackbird spy plane has a successor on the drawing board at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works. Initial concepts for the “SR-72” involve an unmanned Mach 5+ craft with both strike and reconnaissance capabilities by 2030, with the same ability to outrun enemy missiles that its predecessor enjoyed. After 3 decades of speculation about an “Aurora” project with similar characteristics, reality may finally be ready to catch up.
* In an unprecedented feat of self-restraint at the US Air Force, the Long-Range Strike Bomber won’t have a kitchenette.
NATO Meets Industry
* NATO will host an industry day in Instanbul, Turkey on Nov. 14.
NSA Listens to Everyone
* Given the extent of their reach, it might be faster to list whose communications the NSA is not eavesdropping. Quoting an unnamed DoD staffer: let me stress how shocking these NSA revelations are.
China vs. America, As Seen from the Neighborhood
* China’s state media has been bragging about the ability of their nuclear submarines to threaten the US west coast.
* Is naval blockade the logical counterpart to AirSea Battle for China-driven military scenarios? Sean Mirski offers an abridged argument along those lines in The National Interest. The full treatment can be found in the February 2013 Journal of Strategic Studies.
* Newsweek Korea: South Korea caught between the US and China.
* Korean Journal of Defense Analysis [PDF]: The Obama Administration’s Strategic Pivot to Asia: From a Diplomatic to a Strategic Constrainment of an Emergent China?
* Ottawa Citizen: An uneasy peace between China and Taiwan.
Access Denied, Part II
* The Government Accountability Office (GAO) denied Harris’ protest of the US Navy’s award of its NGEN intranet project to HP and its partners.
Ich Liebe Mein Volkspanzer
* Germany’s Bunderwehr dug out of their archives a funny documentary from 1972 on Leopard tanks. Clearly better than a Volkswagen, no matter how you look at it. Video below: