New SAIC Starts with Slimmed Down Topline

Asia

• CSIS PacNet [PDF]: Russia may feel compelled to sell its best weapon systems to China despite the fact the Chinese will turn around and copy their tech, but that may no longer be good enough for the Chinese.

• The US GAO dismissed a protest filed by Inchcape Shipping Services against the award of husbanding contracts by the US Navy to reprocure services cancelled with Glenn Defense Marine Asia.

Middle East Primers

• The neoconservative Foreign Policy Initiative updated its timeline on diplomacy and pressure applied to Iran’s nuclear program.

• The influential Council on Foreign Relations offers a backgrounder on security issues pertaining to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

Enabling, then Decrying Surveillance

• The largest tech companies are trying to push back against mass state surveillance, but the irony is that they funded some of the open source technology now enabling said surveillance.

Learning from JIEDDO

• The RAND Corporation evaluated the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) training activity vs. functions within the services and USSOCOM. JIEDDO is going to be shrunk as the Afghan conflict comes to and end, but the RAND analysts conclude that it could be a model for future responses to asymmetric threats that fall outside of the services’ core expertise.

DID Survey

• Reminder: we’re running our annual readership survey. Don’t leave for the weekend without chiming in!

Army Test Lasers; Goes Underground

• The US Army Space and Missile Defense Command has successfully tested the High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator (HEL MD) developed by Boeing to destroy incoming rockets, artillery and mortar with – for now – a 10kw laser.

• The video below shows training developed by the US Army’s Asymmetric Warfare Group (AWG) for subterranean operations: