* Bloomberg reports, based on anonymous sources, that Israel is reviewing what types of systems it will buy from the US with American aid. New V-22s and used KC-135s are part of the talks.
* Coming this Wednesday: the full FY14 authorization markup by the US House Armed Services Committee.
* Back in 2010 former Defense Secretary Robert Gates froze staffing size at the OSD (Office of the Secretary of Defense), defense agencies and combatant commands (COCOMs) for 3 years. Or so he thought. Defense News gathered data that shows 15% headcount growth instead. So you are allowed to doubt that the latest OMB guidance [PDF] asking for FY15 plans from the agencies that reflect a -5% to -10% change from FY14 baselines will come to full effect.
* Daniel Goure at the industry-funded/friendly Lexington Institute has a blunt take on the Pentagon’s overhead:
“Over and over again, DoD has announced a reform effort only to fail to achieve the desired results. The current acquisition reform effort, known as Better Buying Power (BBP), is another example of this kind of insanity: doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result.”
* MTConnect is an open standard meant to make industrial machine tools more open and interopable, like networked computers. The Pentagon is interested for the defense supply chain.
* The Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a think tank close to the Obama administration, thinks [PDF] there is a path to successful outcome in Afghanistan. If the Afghans don’t screw up their forthcoming election, and if Pakistan becomes more helpful, among necessary aligned planets.
* India is working on glide bombs.
* The Australian Strategic Policy Institute presented their latest annual defence budget brief. Video below:
