U.S. to cut Pentagon budget
Pentagon officials announced yesterday that the U.S. defense budget for 2013 will cut military spending by five percent to $525 million, marking the first decrease in the Pentagon’s base budget since Sept. 11. The base proposal does however exclude operations in conflicts such as Iraq and Afghanistan which amounted to $118 billion last year in addition to the main Pentagon operations. The budget proposal is set to be unveiled as President Barack Obama shifts US military focus away from counter-insurgency towards South East Asia.
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DoD unprepared for cyber-war
According to the latest annual report from J. Michael Gilmore, Pentagon Director of Operational Test and Evaluation, the DoD abilities are "not sufficient to prevent an advanced adversary from adversely affecting the missions that were being exercised." It goes on to claim that the Defense Department's posture for warding off cyber-attacks has in some aspects worsened over the last year, despite small improvements in network defence.
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Rosoboronexport, Russia’s state defense corporation signed a deal in December, selling Syria 36 Yak-130 advanced training fighter planes for $550 million. The Jets intended for Syria will be manufactured separately from those commissioned in Russia. Although a Rosoboronexport spokesman declined to comment on the deal, Russia’s first daily business newspaper Kommersant reported, "As soon as Syria transfers the advance to Russia, the factory will immediately assume the assembly of the second set for Syria."
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé announced yesterday that France would not give in to “panic” and pull its troops out of Afghanistan this year after four French soldiers were killed last week. The four unarmed soldiers were killed at a base in eastern Afghanistan in an attack that left 15 other French troops wounded. Juppé was responding to a call from former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius
EADS Chief Executive Louis Gallois has urged the British and French governments to open up plans for a proposed MALE Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to include EADS and other European partners. By opening up the programme, EADS hopes to avoid a repetition of the Eurofighter Typhoon versus Rafale combat aircrafts clash, which divided European industry into a battle for foreign sales last year.
China is alleged to have launched a new cyber-weapon against the US Defense Department’s common access cards, with the technology to get inside individual computers after users open a standard PDF email file. When an access card is used, the virus embeds itself in the user’s computer and logs personal identification numbers and codes associated with that card, enabling the creators to steal information from military networks...
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