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Sen. Sessions: GOP Might Ease Initial Sequestration Cuts

CAPITOL HILL: On issues from nuclear weapons to the spending cuts known as sequestration, political common ground has turned into a war-torn no-man’s-land where both sides fear to tread. That intractable divide between the parties was on full display this morning at One Constitution Avenue, across the street from the US Capitol, where Alabama Senator…

Top Official Admits F-35 Stealth Fighter Secrets Stolen

Top Official Admits F-35 Stealth Fighter Secrets Stolen
Top Official Admits F-35 Stealth Fighter Secrets Stolen

Yesterday, at a subcommittee hearing attended by just half a dozen Senators, the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer made a blunt admission: The military’s most expensive program, the stealthy F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, has been hacked and the stolen data used by America’s adversaries. acquisition undersecretary Frank Kendall didn’t say by whom, but the answer is…

Stars of 2013 Paris Air Show: Russian Su-35; European Neuron UAV: NO Americans

Stars of 2013 Paris Air Show: Russian Su-35; European Neuron UAV: NO Americans
Stars of 2013 Paris Air Show: Russian Su-35; European Neuron UAV: NO Americans

PARIS AIR SHOW: It’s fair to say that the unabashed star of this show was the Russian Sukhoi Su-35 fighter. It didn’t fly much but when it did, jaws dropped. With no American military fighters, helicopters or cargo planes flying here this year, the Su-35 pretty much had the show to itself, since the European…

F-35 Sails Through Crucial Senate Hearing; Witnesses Testify There’s No Alternative

F-35 Sails Through Crucial Senate Hearing; Witnesses Testify There’s No Alternative
F-35 Sails Through Crucial Senate Hearing; Witnesses Testify There’s No Alternative

CAPITOL HILL: The Pentagon’s most expensive conventional weapon program emerged largely unscathed from perhaps its most intensive review before the crucial congressional subcommittee that controls military funding. As over budget and behind schedule as the $391 billion, 2,443-plane F-35 program has fallen since initial promises of a low-cost, multi-service Joint Strike Fighter, two high-powered panels…

BAE Pushes Its T-X Bird At Paris Show; Gen. Welsh Tells DC ‘We’re On Track’

BAE Pushes Its T-X Bird At Paris Show; Gen. Welsh Tells DC ‘We’re On Track’
BAE Pushes Its T-X Bird At Paris Show; Gen. Welsh Tells DC ‘We’re On Track’

PARIS AIR SHOW: It is one of the hottest competitions for which there is not yet a formal Pentagon program. The Air Force’s next generation trainer — known as T-X — will be worth some $11 billion for some 350 planes. Lockheed Martin and the South Korean maker of the T-50 have teamed up to…

Marines Launch Drive To Shove Down F-35B Costs

Marines Launch Drive To Shove Down F-35B Costs
Marines Launch Drive To Shove Down F-35B Costs

PARIS AIR SHOW: The top Marine aviator, Lt. Gen. Robert Schmidle, announced a “very aggressive program” at the world’s largest airshow to bring down the costs of operating and maintaining the Marines’ F-35B model of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. His choice of Paris as the venue for the announcement spoke volumes. The international partners in…

European Firms– But Not British — Plead For Help To Build UAVs

European Firms– But Not British — Plead For Help To Build UAVs
European Firms– But Not British — Plead For Help To Build UAVs

PARIS AIR SHOW: If you think times are tough in the United States defense world, consider that three of Europe’s biggest defense companies, where defense budgets have been on a downward trajectory for a decade, have issued a plea for help building a European medium altitude drone. In a press release sent out simulatenously in…

Navy’s F-35 Is Top Priority For New Lockheed Aeronautics Chief; Carrier Landings Key To Confidence

  PARIS AIR SHOW: “The word commitment should mean something. When I give you my commitment you should be able to trust that I’m going to do what I said I’m going to do.” That’s the message Orlando Carvalho, new head of Lockheed Martin’s iconic aeronautics business wants to send the US Navy, the service most…

Does Iran’s New President Open A Path To Nuclear Compromise?

Does Iran’s New President Open A Path To Nuclear Compromise?
Does Iran’s New President Open A Path To Nuclear Compromise?

Will Iran’s new president defuse the confrontation with the United States over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program? Hassan Rowhani, elected with a narrow 50.7 percent of the votes in Friday’s presidential election, inherits a dangerous stalemate. Iran is stonewalling on answering UN inspectors’ questions about possible military dimensions of its nuclear program, while talks with…

CSAF Welsh: Sequester Groundings Threaten Readiness For Syria

CSAF Welsh: Sequester Groundings Threaten Readiness For Syria
CSAF Welsh: Sequester Groundings Threaten Readiness For Syria

ARLINGTON: As if Syria and sequestration weren’t complicated enough on their own, the combat training cutbacks required by the sequester are cutting into the military’s readiness to intervene, the Air Force Chief of Staff, Gen. Mark Welsh, told reporters this morning. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno has expressed similar concerns about his service’s…

V-22 Sees Up To 100 Foreign Sales; Drives Flight Costs Down, Boosts Readiness

V-22 Sees Up To 100 Foreign Sales; Drives Flight Costs Down, Boosts Readiness
V-22 Sees Up To 100 Foreign Sales; Drives Flight Costs Down, Boosts Readiness

PARIS AIR SHOW:  Flight hour costs have dropped while readiness rates have improved for the  V-22, a rare feat indeed for a modern combat aircraft. Critics have pointed to the V-22’s readiness rates and costs as yet another reason to curtail the program, but when I asked Marine Col. Greg Masiello, manager of the Joint…

French Lessons From Mali: Fight Alone, Supply Together

French Lessons From Mali: Fight Alone, Supply Together
French Lessons From Mali: Fight Alone, Supply Together

By Murielle Delaporte French forces appear to have succeeded in Mali. They blunted the mad progress of Islamist forces during Operation Serval for those who don’t know, the serval is a gorgeous, sleek and fast African cat known for grabbing hidden prey from rocks and holes) drove them back to the northern mountains and seem to have broken the…

Paris Air Show Preview: Boosting Foreign Sales, Arms Exports Hot Topics

Paris Air Show Preview: Boosting Foreign Sales, Arms Exports Hot Topics
Paris Air Show Preview: Boosting Foreign Sales, Arms Exports Hot Topics

PARIS: Our first video from the 2013 Paris Air Show. To loyal readers, we hope you celebrated our second anniversary yesterday. Our web site went live on June 15, 2011 at the last Paris Air Show. Since arriving in Paris on Friday, I’ve interviewed or taken part in media roundtables with more than a dozen…

The Paris Air Show 2013: Cycles and Realities of the Aviation Market

The Paris Air Show 2013: Cycles and Realities of the Aviation Market
The Paris Air Show 2013: Cycles and Realities of the Aviation Market

America’s defense industry is deep in economic pessimism but the rest of the world isn’t defined by sequestration and the Afghan drawdown, and that will be very clear at next week’s Paris Air Show. This year’s show will probably be defined by commercial aviation, especially the twin aisle jet market. Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner will return…