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Daily Rapid Fire | Finmeccanica | India | Iraq | Legal | Middle East - Other | Policy - Doctrine | Robots | USA

Pentagon Committed to Helping Iraq, from Far, Far Away

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* Foreign Policy notes that the US won’t ship Iraq the weapons it needs to fight Al Qaeda. The Pentagon is content with expediting the delivery of Hellfire missiles and ScanEagle UAVs, and in the past year the White House has only partially revisited its narrative that Al Qaeda “is on the run.” * The […]

* Foreign Policy notes that the US won’t ship Iraq the weapons it needs to fight Al Qaeda. The Pentagon is content with expediting the delivery of Hellfire missiles and ScanEagle UAVs, and in the past year the White House has only partially revisited its narrative that Al Qaeda “is on the run.”

* The CSIS think tank aptly summarizes what’s going on in a country that many in the US were trying hard to forget: Iraq in Crisis.

* History worth knowing, as it is still echoing in the Iranian military’s legacy and mentality: the great Iranian purge.

India

* Defence Minister AK Antony met his Japanese counterpart Itsunori Onodera, but aside from the usual bromides on agreeing to further cooperation, there was no visible progress on the joint development of US-2 amphibious aircraft. Talks started last year on the program but interest seems to mostly originate from the Japanese side. More talks will probably follow.

* It seems unlikely that the Indian government will blacklist AgustaWestland in the wake of its termination of the VVIP contract, as they have too much at stake with parent company Finmeccanica.

SpaceX closer to being able compete for USAF business

* With the successful launch of a Thai communications satellite, SpaceX made the 3rd of 3 flights needed for certification under the EELV program.

Food for Thought

* The Lexington Institute is in the mood to defy the bureaucratic status quo: “What if the aerospace and defense industry were to come together and propose a commercially-based approach to the development and production of major defense items?”

* In the meantime DoD clashes with its suppliers over data rights. On background, see monopsony and buyer power [OECD, 2008 PDF].

* Also to be filed under radical challenges to entrenched organizations, the Boston Globe agrees with Foreign Affairs: it’s time to abolish the Air Force.

* The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists asks: are new technologies undermining the laws of war?

* Today’s video from IEEE Spectrum shows the agility of Parrot’s latest tiny robots:

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