* President Obama announced the US will try to talk the Taliban – via an office the insurgents set in Qatar – into accepting “an Afghan constitution that renounces ties with al Qaeda, ends violence and is committed to the protection of women and minorities in the country.” Good luck with that. Afghan President Karzai poured water over the talks unless he’s in the loop and the US is out of it. Meanwhile the Afghan National Security Forces also formally assumed the lead for combat operations in their country. Reuters has a little more on what the Taliban want. Hint: not equality for women.
* Australia’s official thinking on Afghanistan is cautiously downplaying expectations about these talks with the Taliban.
* Yet another explosion in a Russian ammo depot shows that the country’s lofty rearmament goals may be significantly constrained by ongoing ineptitude and/or carelessness.
* Russia is reportedly going to be the main beneficiary of Azerbaijan’s rising defense budget.
* Canada’s DND offers a backgrounder on its defence relationship with the US.
* Many politicians and generals like to moan about how the future is dangerous and uncertain. That is of course a cop-out to dodge proper thinking and planning. When was the future ever predictable and safe? The Australian Strategic Policy Institute comes up with a matrix of strategic scenarios for their country based on possible American and Chinese behavior in the region.
* The Satellite Industry Association (SIA) has a report [PDF] on the state of their industry. They’re saying the global sat industry grew 7% to almost $190B in 2012. From a total of more than 1,000 satellites currently operating, about 8% are dedicated to military surveillance and another 16% to government communications. The launch segment is the smallest but also fastest rising, as bigger payloads more than compensated a drop in the number of launches.
* On display [in French] at the Paris airshow: French small business SilMach and the French DGA procurement agency developed together “ChronoMEMS” mechanical sensors that can monitor external mechanical events without using electronics or a battery. They are already used on SPRAT assault bridges (see also video in French) but could be applied in a variety of other ways such as tracking vibrations on an aircraft.
* The UK is proceeding with another round of Army redundancies. 4,480 personnel, 84% of which applied, will be notified. More in the video below:
