* US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dempsey told reporters it would have been “literally impossible” for the Department of Defense to integrate sequestration in its FY14 budget request. After all, the Budget Control Act was signed by the President only 18 months before the budget was due. And preparing two budgets just in case sequestration would not be repelled was not possible, even the more so because of furloughs that were scheduled to start weeks after the legal deadline to submit the president budget. There’s a full video here, if you care to pay for someone to insult your intelligence. At least Dempsey agrees that constraints can have the benefit of pushing an organization to work more efficiently.
* The outlook for a quick termination of sequestration does not seem improved now that delays at airports because of air controller furloughs will be fixed with an exception. This resolves one of the sequester’s most visible and annoying features for the general public, as part of the plague of locusts threatened by the Administration back in February, and makes past presidential threats of veto for such adjustments look vacuous.
* Raytheon will pay an $8M fine after reaching an agreement with the State Department on grounds of civil violations of the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).
* Logisticians from the US Army’s Distribution Command Operation Center (SDDC) pooled cargo from Florida to Central America on one vessel, for 3 joint exercises held at the same time. The result: stack ’em high.
* The US Army’s Contracting Command has postponed the deadline for its JLTV market survey to May 10.
* Tunisian troops are fighting a group of about 50 jihadists, according to the AFP. They have been operating almost openly there in past months.
* Spend Matters thinks the UK MoD’s plan to get its procurement managed by a government owned, contractor operated organization (GOCO) probably won’t happen, While Defence with a C worries the government has already reached a conclusion.
