* The US House Budget Committee approved a bill to roll back sequestration through reconciliation and instead offers cuts focused on welfare programs. Getting the Heritage Foundation’s seal of approval was a foregone conclusion, but what is missing is a roadmap for such proposals to get any traction in the Senate, let alone get a signature from President Obama. The window of opportunity will be narrow in the lame duck session at the end of the year, and perilously close to the edge of the fiscal cliff.
* RAND published its latest research on portfolio management for Army programs at the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) stage of the acquisition lifecycle. They have been working to develop a methodology to determine optimal remaining R&D budgets as well as identify which projects to terminate in case of budget cuts.
* The law, and turf wars, stand in the way of clear, updated cyberdefense rules being finalized in the US.
* US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta received his Chinese counterpart General Liang, with whom he would like to cooperate on cybersecurity. This will no doubt be achieved right after DoD/DHS cooperation has been figured out.
* Bids for the Light Air Support recompete are due by June 4.
* Vladimir Putin issued several decrees just hours after being sworn a third time as Russia’s president. Some of them covered weapons modernization and set their sight on the Arctic.
* In his final report as State Comptroller, Micha Lindenstrauss has put a harsh light on several ministries, including the ministry of defense for export law violations: Haaretz | Jerusalem Post | UPI.
