GAO Points to Continued Software Liabilities in JSF Program
- The Government Accountability Office’s latest report on the F-35 notes that while aircraft manufacturing has improved last year, software delays and capability limitations continue to threaten the program’s overall schedule.
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DC/VA News
- US Senator McCain [R-AZ, SASC member] will not be holding Robert Work’s nomination as the Department of Defense’s deputy secretary, despite McCain’s displeasure with Work’s support for the LCS program.
- The US House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee is having hearings with the services this week, starting with the Navy this morning [
video], in parallel with hearings at the House Armed Services Committee (Army and MDA are on today’s menu). - A civilian was shot last night at Naval Station Norfolk, VA, after he killed a sailor on board USS MAHAN (DDG 72). Little else is known yet about the shooting.
videoWirtschaft Uber Alles
- German Chancellor Angela Merkel may want to have a tough stance against Russia, but she doesn’t have consensual support from political parties or business leaders who think sanctions will backfire on Germany’s economy.
- Kyiv Post: Are Ukraine and Russia at war or not?
“With respect to Russian-occupied Crimea, why are water and electrical supplies not being reduced […] from Ukraine’s mainland to Russian-held Crimea? […] If the answer to these questions is that Ukraine cannot economically afford to close its border with Russia, then how would the nation be able to defend itself against a Russian military invasion of the mainland if it cannot survive economically on its own?”
Not So Accountable
- NYT: Obama to call for end to NSA’s bulk data collection. Into the second year of President Obama’s second term, it’s apparently somehow his predecessor’s fault.
Japan’s Nuclear Stockpiles; China’s Tailord Coercion
- As expected Japan agreed to return plutonium and uranium to the US at the Nuclear Security Summit. This material was procured from the US decades ago for research purposes. Japan still has its own stockpiles, and can produce more plutonium at the Rokkasho reprocessing plant.
- State-owned Chinese media would be remiss if they weren’t to point out that South Korea is not putting back on its agenda the signing of an intelligence pact with Japan, which failed at the last minute two years ago.
- Just after commissioning lead Type 052D destroyer Kunming last week, China started sea trials with 2nd-in-class DDG 173 Changsha.
- The Center for a New American Security think tank discussed in the video below its latest report on competition and risk in Maritime Asia [PDF] which highlights China’s use of “tailored coercion”:
Categories: Budgets, China, Daily Rapid Fire, Fighters & Attack, Japan, Official Reports, South Korea, USA
