Rapid Fire July 26, 2013: South Korea Wants Big Bucks for BMD

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* South Korea’s defense ministry submitted their budget request for 2014-18 to parliament. They’re asking for 214.5 trillion won (about $193 billion) with a beefy missile defense component. * Heading into another budget showdown in the US, the White House wants House Republicans to take their veto threats seriously, though it remains unclear why they should. Just this week, 91 House Democrats were unfazed enough by the Administration’s latest veto threat [PDF] that they voted for the FY14 Appropriations bill. Expect another year with a continuing resolution followed by some sort of last-minute hairball of an omnibus spending bill. * The US Congressional Budget Office tried to assess what would be the impact on the economy of canceling sequestration: “In total, by CBO’s estimates, canceling the automatic spending reductions effective August 1 would increase outlays relative to those under current law by $14 billion in fiscal year 2013 and by $90 billion in fiscal year 2014. Those changes would increase the level of real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product (GDP) by 0.7 percent and increase the level of employment by 0.9 million in the third quarter of calendar year 2014.” * Debate over discontinuing US military aid to Egypt is mired […]

* South Korea’s defense ministry submitted their budget request for 2014-18 to parliament. They’re asking for 214.5 trillion won (about $193 billion) with a beefy missile defense component.

* Heading into another budget showdown in the US, the White House wants House Republicans to take their veto threats seriously, though it remains unclear why they should. Just this week, 91 House Democrats were unfazed enough by the Administration’s latest veto threat [PDF] that they voted for the FY14 Appropriations bill. Expect another year with a continuing resolution followed by some sort of last-minute hairball of an omnibus spending bill.

* The US Congressional Budget Office tried to assess what would be the impact on the economy of canceling sequestration:

“In total, by CBO’s estimates, canceling the automatic spending reductions effective August 1 would increase outlays relative to those under current law by $14 billion in fiscal year 2013 and by $90 billion in fiscal year 2014. Those changes would increase the level of real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product (GDP) by 0.7 percent and increase the level of employment by 0.9 million in the third quarter of calendar year 2014.”

* Debate over discontinuing US military aid to Egypt is mired in contractual and semantic issues.

* With Q2 2013 sales growing by 2% to $3.2B, L-3 Communications announced results in line with other prime contractors. Their funded backlog declined 1% to $10.8B from 6 months ago.

* Dassault Aviation’s H1 2013 sales [PDF] were down 5% to 1.8 billion euros ($2.4B). Finalizing their huge Rafale sale to India would be welcome news, but that may have to wait until the next Indian government settles in sometime next year. In the meantime French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian will have to settle for a feel-good cooperation agreement.

* Safran’s sales grew by 10.2% to more than 7 billion euros (~$9.3B) for the first half of 2013, but then only 10% of their revenue comes from defense.

* EADS is considering reorganizing its various defense and space subsidiaries, possibly under the Airbus Military or Airbus Defence brand, which in effect would make it look more like Boeing, organization-wise. They may even ditch the EADS name altogether.

* Australia signed an agreement to sell 5 additional C-130Hs to Indonesia, following a first batch of 4 aircraft.

* Today’s video shows a load drop from C-17s during the Talisman Saber 2013 bilateral exercise between USPACOM and Australia:

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