Defense Authorization Bill Will Have NSA Among Noisy Passengers
NSA vs. NDAA
- Intelligence oversight is likely to be one of the points of contention as the Senate attempts to finalize its FY14 defense authorization bill.
Revenue Down, Profit Up, Cost Pinching
- Harris Corporation reported Q1 FY14 sales down 5.5% to $1.19B. Among their 3 divisions, Government Communications Systems lost the most ground. Still, they’re more profitable than a year ago thanks to some restructuring. Financial statements [PDF].
- The US Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will stop printing lithographic nautical charts, effective April 2014. They still offer print-on-demand, and have started a trial with PDF downloads.
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GAO Bid Protests
- Rafael Borras, the US Management Undersecretary of Homeland Security, is not concerned by the booming number of protests filed by bid losers with the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Borras finds protests a healthy safeguard against poorly-handled acquisitions.
- DID talked with a GAO lawyer who told us there are currently about 400 protests in the agency’s docket, and decisions that were scheduled this month may be delayed by as much as 16 days because of the recent shutdown.
Asian Export, Import Requests
- India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) unveiled Pragati, a tactical surface-to-surface closely derived from Prahaar [PDF] with a range of 60-170 km. Entirely developed in India, they hope to export it to “friendly countries.”
- Singapore intends to buy 88 high explosive (HE) Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) pods from Lockheed Martin for an estimated $96M. Singapore requested HIMARS launchers in 2007 and already operates GMLR systems. Speaking of which, Lockheed Martin recently announced successful test flights using the Alternative Warhead Program (AWP) developed by ATK.
- Turkey is quite clearly hedging its bets, and possibly driving a hard bargain in its multi-billion dollar acquisition of a missile defense system.
CAR Headed for (Sectarian) Meltdown?
- Clashes between militias and (ex) rebels in Central African Republic resulted in at least 35 deaths in recent days. Amnesty International relays fears that there may well be a religious motivation to some of the atrocities committed in the country. The UN Security Council decided to send 250 troops to the capital, which might be slightly less ineffective than their previous resolution announced earlier this month.
Semper Fit
- Former Marine Sniper Joe Chamblin saw his career destroyed after a video surfaced up showing him and 3 other snipers urinating on dead talibans. In this interview he tells it like he sees it.
- In today’s video Marines of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit train to evacuate a flipped, submerged helicopter at the base pool on Camp Hansen. (They really like their pool.) Nice rig you got there:
Categories: Africa - Other, Budgets, Daily Rapid Fire, India, Legal, Lockheed Martin, Singapore, Turkey, USA
