NSA Spying Pervasive Throughout Europe, Though Maybe Not So Secret to Government Leaders
NSA Euro Saga
- According to El Mundo [in Spanish], the NSA proceeded in Spain to the same sort of spying denounced by France and Germany last week.
- Meanwhile the Süddeutsche Zeitung claims [in German] that not only the French government knew of at least some of the NSA’s activities, but they even had a partnership in place with the Five Eyes countries through a program dubbed “Lustre”. In a
TV interview with TV5 [in French] on Sunday, Foreign Trade minister Nicole Brick refreshingly dropped the pretense that France is neither spying nor aware that its allies do so too.
TV interview with TV5Advertisement
The Future of the US Strategic Bomber Fleet
- Lockheed Martin will be Boeing’s main partner for a joint bid on the US Air Force’s future Long-Range Strike Bomber program. It’s unclear where competition will come from, as Northrop Grumman is not commenting at this time.
The Future of the US Carrier Fleet
- The US Chief of Naval Operations is acknowledging that carrier cuts need to be considered seriously, given the Navy’s future budgets. James Hasik was thinking about this 2 years ago, and produced a private study that advocated a careful mix of retirements and mothballing – rather like the options Britain has been looking at for its forthcoming CVFs.
UK UAVs
- A memo released by the UK’s House of Commons Defence Committee reveals that flight trials of BAE’s Taranis UAV took place sometime this year.
Helos for the Philippines
- The Philippine Air Force (PAF) is reportedly buying 8 AW109 Power attack helicopters from AgustaWestland, for PHP3.4 billion (about $79M). The country’s Navy will soon receive 5 AW 109s ordered earlier this year.
Energy Storage on a Chip?
- Researchers from Vanderbuilt University have managed to produce supercapacitators made out of porous silicon. This sounds like an electrochemical oxymoron, but their device was stabilized thanks to a thin layer of graphene on top. Press release | Paper.
Future Vertical Lift
- The US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) would like helicopters to be structurally more stable, and they’re hoping the use of carbon nanotubes in rotorblades might help. See the video below, which includes inhumane torture inflicted to a Chinook chained to the ground:
Categories: Asia - Other, Boeing, Britain/U.K., Contracts - Awards, Daily Rapid Fire, Europe - Other, Finmeccanica, Forces - Naval, France, Fuel & Power, Germany, Heavy Bombers, Helicopters & Rotary, Issues - International, IT - Cyber-Security, Lockheed Martin, Northrop-Grumman, Official Reports, Pre-RFP, Science - Basic Research, UAVs, USA
