Defense
Tighter defense budgets are starting to pinch the nation’s economy, slowing a sluggish recovery even before sharper spending cuts could kick in next year. – USA Today
A group of Senate defense hawks are asking 15 of the biggest defense contractors to explain how $500 billion in defense cuts could impact them, the latest effort in a campaign to pry information from the White House and Pentagon about the automatic cuts. – DEFCON Hill
Maritime patrol is a mission as old as the naval service, but with the advent of the unmanned MQ-4C Triton, the seagoing version of the Global Hawk, the U.S. Navy plans to elevate this definition to an entirely new level. – Aviation Week
While the U.S. congressional earmark ban has not eliminated earmarks, it has changed the way business is done on Capitol Hill, moving it into the shadows and making it difficult for watchdog groups and lobbyists to figure out what’s going on. – Defense News
The War
The U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will be getting an estimated $40 million communications upgrade, signaling it will continue its mission of holding top suspected terrorists and as a major humanitarian aid base in the region. – CNN’s Security Clearance
Spinoff groups from al Qaeda have become increasingly engrossed in insurgencies in Africa and the Middle East, inflicting death and mayhem on local communities. But this emphasis on the pursuit of the enemy nearby has cast doubt on their commitment, in practice, to bin Laden’s war on the “far enemy” – the West and the United States in particular. – Reuters
Missile Defense
The United States on Tuesday renewed urging Russia to participate in an emerging European framework for ballistic missile defense, arguing that cooperation was the only way for Moscow’s fears of a threat to its nuclear missile forces to be put to rest – Global Security Newswire
