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![Marines Launch Drive To Shove Down F-35B Costs](https://breakingdefense.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2013/06/genschmidle-225x150.jpg)
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…
By Colin Clark![European Firms– But Not British — Plead For Help To Build UAVs](https://breakingdefense.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2013/06/Telemos-BAE-Dassault-225x150.jpg)
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…
By Colin ClarkPARIS 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…
By Colin Clark![Does Iran’s New President Open A Path To Nuclear Compromise?](https://breakingdefense.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2013/06/3082535-225x150.jpg)
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…
By Michael AdlerMulti-Domain Operations: Global C2 and Joint Operations
![V-22 Sees Up To 100 Foreign Sales; Drives Flight Costs Down, Boosts Readiness](https://breakingdefense.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2013/06/v22landshyuga-225x150.jpg)
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…
By Colin Clark![French Lessons From Mali: Fight Alone, Supply Together](https://breakingdefense.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2013/02/rafalerefueledbykc10-225x150.jpg)
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](https://breakingdefense.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2013/06/lebourgetlogo-225x150.jpg)
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…
By Colin Clark![The Paris Air Show 2013: Cycles and Realities of the Aviation Market](https://breakingdefense.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2013/06/Paris-Air-Show-F_40ffa3732c35d76f398b2a6269d891464fcf78b357ce5_603_400-225x150.jpg)
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…
By Robbin LairdForward Observer: Technologies for 21st Century Security
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![Army Killed New Carbine Because It Wasn’t Twice As Reliable As Current M4](https://breakingdefense.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2013/06/Soldiers-fire-M4-carbines-size0-army.mil-55077-2009-11-04-151117-225x150.jpg)
The Army has half a million M4 carbines, the lightweight version of the Vietnam-vintage M16. So if the service was going to invest in a replacement, it wanted a “leap ahead” that would, among other things, cut in half the number of times the weapon jammed – a criterion the Army has not made clear…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.![China Set To Grab UAV Market While US Restricts Sales](https://breakingdefense.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2013/06/Chinese-UAV-image-225x150.jpg)
PARIS: Psst. Hey mister. Wanna buy a UAV? China’s got drones for shooting, drones for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and drones for target practice. Cheap prices and no arms export restrictions. And China may grab a significant share of the international market for just those reasons, according to a new report by the U.S-China Economic…
By Colin Clark![Will Europe Ever Build Its Own Fifth Generation Fighter?](https://breakingdefense.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2013/06/lebourgetlogo-225x150.jpg)
This year’s Paris Air Show promises to be one of the most lackluster for the defense sector in at least a decade. America is sending virtually no military aircraft to fly the all-important afternoon displays: no F-22s, no F-35s, no C-17s, no C-130s. American companies have scaled back their executives’ participation, not because it saves any…
By Douglas Barrie![Army Kills New Carbine, Preempting Congress; Industry Groans, ‘Not Again!’](https://breakingdefense.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2013/06/Marine-firing-M4-carbine-120511-M-0000Q-008-225x150.jpg)
“Everybody loses, go home”: That’s what the US Army told the six gunmakers competing to build a new Individual Carbine to replace the widely used M4, itself a derivative of the venerable M16. Of course, it would have helped if the Army had told the competitors the right kind of ammo to fire (more on…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
NSA Monitoring Imbroglio: Much Ado About System That Works
I’ve been trying to figure out a way to address the subtleties that are being missed or ignored by most critics of the NSA’s recently revealed PRISM program, but it’s gotten lost in the process of readying for the Paris Air Show and covering those things that the famous Washington journalism pack isn’t following in…