Rapid Fire Nov. 13, 2012: Post-Affair Leadership Shuffling
- Following the US presidential election and David Petraeus’ resignation last week because of an affair with his biographer, contenders for nomination in a new cabinet include Senator John Kerry (for Defense or State), UN Ambassador Susan Rice (State), and John O. Brennan to head the CIA. But the plot thickens, as emails sent by General John Allen are part of the FBI investigation that brought the affair to light. Somewhere in Hollywood someone must be working on a script right now. Washington Post | The Hill | Washington Times.
- Marillyn Hewson will head Lockheed Martin starting on January 1st. She has worked there for almost 3 decades and headed the Systems Integration then the Electronic Systems divisions. Christopher Kubasik was supposed to take over but was asked to resign because he, too, had an extramarital affair.
- “Fiscal cliff” is the new “sequestration”: the noise coming from political fights over how to deal with the fast-coming combination of expiring tax cuts and the sequester is going to drown everything else until the underlying issues are somehow resolved – or at least postponed. Politico describes some potential scenarios.
- Soon after firing his defense minister, Russian President Vladimir Putin also replaced the chief of the Armed Forces General Staff and let go the chief designer of the Glosnass GNSS.
- Lockheed Martin’s Chief Information Security Officer Chandra McMahon told reporters that the quantity and sophistication of network attacks were both rising. They see their suppliers being deliberately targeted.
- Japan released an overview [PDF] of its FY13 defense programs and budget. That includes the 1st of a new class of 5,000 ton multi-purpose destroyers, the 9th Soryu-class submarine, 2 P-1 patrol aicraft, modernization of its F-15s alongside the acquisition of initial F-35As, and a number of helicopters of various types.
- Canada and the Philippines have set up a Memorandum of Understanding that “will enable the Philippines to acquire Canadian defence- and security-related equipment, systems and services on a direct, sole-source basis through the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC)”. Prime Minister of Canada.
- Germany is ramping up sales of Fuchs armored personnel vehicles to Algeria, according to Der Spiegel.
- Spain wants to start catching up on 5 priority programs that have been hit by delayed payments in past years: A400M transport aircraft, S-80 submarines, Pizarro infantry vehicles, and NH-90 and Tigre helicopters. InfoDefensa [in Spanish].
