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Rapid Fire April 15, 2013: Defense Divestures

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* A down market leads not just to consolidation, but also to spinoffs and divestures. Bloomberg. * House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon [R-CA] has been told by the Pentagon that their reprogramming request, allowed by the FY13 appropriations bill, is coming later this month. * The US DoD’s intent to proceed with a new round of base realignment (BRAC) after the midterm election seems more serious than last year, when the issue was broached merely as a bargaining chip. The services, starting with the Army, are tackling the issue heads on in their congressional testimonies, and there’s money allocated in the FY14 budget request. * USAF Chief of Staff General Mark Welsh told a House hearing that they are working to normalize the use of war supplemental funding (aka OCO) and “should have as much as 90% of our peacetime flying requirement back in our baseline budget.” * Indonesia is said to be interested in wing in-ground effect [PDF] planes from South Korea, which gain extra lift from being close to the sea’s surface. The Arons are a lot smaller than the famed Ekranoplan/ “Caspian Sea Monster”, which mean they might actually work. Still, one hopes the TNI-AL […]

* A down market leads not just to consolidation, but also to spinoffs and divestures. Bloomberg.

* House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon [R-CA] has been told by the Pentagon that their reprogramming request, allowed by the FY13 appropriations bill, is coming later this month.

* The US DoD’s intent to proceed with a new round of base realignment (BRAC) after the midterm election seems more serious than last year, when the issue was broached merely as a bargaining chip. The services, starting with the Army, are tackling the issue heads on in their congressional testimonies, and there’s money allocated in the FY14 budget request.

* USAF Chief of Staff General Mark Welsh told a House hearing that they are working to normalize the use of war supplemental funding (aka OCO) and “should have as much as 90% of our peacetime flying requirement back in our baseline budget.”

* Indonesia is said to be interested in wing in-ground effect [PDF] planes from South Korea, which gain extra lift from being close to the sea’s surface. The Arons are a lot smaller than the famed Ekranoplan/ “Caspian Sea Monster”, which mean they might actually work. Still, one hopes the TNI-AL have better luck than they did with their futuristic patrol vessel.

* The Australian Strategic Policy Institute on US AirSea Battle doctrine:

“There are no ‘good’ military options for fighting a war against China, only ‘least bad’ ones. Seen through this lens, AirSea Battle has the potential to provide for US-Sino deterrence stability by signalling American resolve and capability to resist major Chinese attempts to change the status quo in East Asia by military means. Australia should welcome it as such. At the same time, AirSea Battle can’t provide a panacea for lower level maritime conflicts and it seems partially disconnected from broader US China strategy. […] Also, unlike Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, Australia is not a ‘frontline state’ in an AirSea Battle context.”

* According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), global military expenditure has slightly decreased [PDF] in 2012 and has now been plateauing for 4 years, though it remains higher in real terms than the previous peak reached at the end of the Cold War.

* The London-base International Maritime Bureau (IMB) recorded 66 maritime piracy incidents worldwide during Q1 2013, down from 102 incidents a year ago.

* Otokar seems on its way to snatch a contract for armored vehicles from BMC because of delivery delays that have exasperated the Turkish military.

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