* Sean O’Keefe, head of EADS North America and the NDIA trade association, urges the US government to at least grant the Pentagon flexibility within sequestration-level budgets.
* Latest from the US GAO: feed us more acquisition metrics; improve Army Industrial Operations carryovers; tracking of contractor performance is not so great.
* The US Navy finally awarded its Next Generation Enterprise Network (NGEN) intranet contract. A team led by HP got the award, worth up to $3.45B over 5 years.
* On the other hand the Navy postponed the release of its draft RFP for F/A-18 A-D depot level maintenancem to September 2013.
* China is offering to send combat troops as part of a UN peacekeeping mission in Mali. An interesting first, if the UN takes the Chinese up on their offer (edit: looks like they do). Financial Times.
* Russia military personnel evacuated their naval base in Syria, reportedly out of concern of how the civil war is evolving. Separately, Russia is said to plan the opening of an airbase in Belarus, near Poland and Lituania.
* DARPA narrowed the field in its robotics challenge to the 7 best teams, after a bit of consolidation among some of the first round applicants.
* Senator Kelly Ayotte [R-NH, SASC member] spoke at the Heritage Foundation about the need to maintain a strong US defense and what a grand strategy for the country would look like. Daniel Goure at the Lexington Institute is a fan. Video below.
* Today’s 2nd video is showing the aft island of HMS Queen Elizabeth lowered into place:
