Iraq Requests Missiles, Aviation Support from US
- Iraq’s government would like to procure more Hellfire missiles [US DSCA] as well as helicopter sustainment services from the US.
- In the meantime ISIS is busy establishing Shari’a law, and a modicum of governmental services, in the northern city of Mosul. Institute for the Study of War.
- And the Pentagon is deeply offended by the notion that the US is not helping Iraq. No, really, we’re doing stuff!
Veteran Care
- US Marines and Navy veteran Montel Williams made another passionate speech about the lack of care provided by the US government to its veterans at an event [live video feed] held by Defense One today. The Veterans Affairs backlog and the government’s apathy to aggressively clear it deserve such anger.
Europe
- Airbus’ Q2 2014 sales grew by 7% to €14.6B ($19.5B) thanks to double digit growth in the commercial sector while Defence and Space lost 4% to €2.8B ($3.7B).
- Germany’s Left Party wants to ban [Deutche Welle] armament exports, but some of their local politicians welcome the associated jobs.
- The US and the UK renewed [The Guardian] their Mutual Defence Agreement under which nuclear technology transfers are regimented. For background context see this post from BASIC, a British-American think tank.
Asia/Pacific
- Australia’s Department of Defence released a paper [PDF] listing the key issues for consideration in next year’s White Paper. The justification for a new whitepaper just 2 years after the one released by the previous government seems a bit thin. What’s so special about spending 2% of GDP on defense (as opposed to any other arbitrary number) and isn’t that the budget driving the strategy?
- It’s not the first time China is sending a surveillance ship to listen in on the RIMPAC exercise, but it’s the first time they brazenly do so while being an official participant, as Andrew Erickson notes in National Interest. USPACOM Commander Admiral Locklear saw a glass half-full there, since it shows China doing what it objects to the US doing in international waters off Chinese shores.
- Today’s video features two Stratfor analysts discussing the current anti-corruption purge in China that is deeper, longer and broader than previous such efforts in past decades:
Categories: Airbus, Australia & S. Pacific, Britain/U.K., China, Corporate Financials, Daily Rapid Fire, Germany, Iraq, Issues - Political, Medical, USA
