* The international RIMPAC 2014 exercise will take place between June 26 and August 1 and involve 47 surface ships, 6 submarines, 200+ aircraft, and 25,000 people. China will participate for the first time, following an invitation extended by then US SecDef Panetta in 2012, though China’s defense ministry has mentioned this only in passing so far.
* Vietnamese officials say that Vietnamese naval ships and Chinese vessels have collided in the South China Sea, while the Philippines detained 11 Chinese fishermen accused of collecting endangered turtles.
* East Asia Forum: Indian Ocean could get choppy without regional security cooperation.
* Foreign Policy worries that it was a bad idea for the United States to test boost-glide weapons, thus leading China to pursue powerful conventional weapons that could one day threaten the continental US.
* India’s Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran has advised the government against blacklisting AgustaWestland, at least for now.
Lose Some, Win Some
* Spending on the US Air Force’s next long-range bomber may reach $9.5B/year starting in FY20, according to Bloomberg.
* 3 of the US Navy’s P-3 Orions have been assessed as crushed beyond repair in a maintenance depot buried in snow in Japan last February.
JSF Tests
* Today’s video provides a wrap up of the flight tests performed by the F-35 Integrated Test Force at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station, including weapons and refueling tests – but the word “software” is left unsaid: