Defense
The House Armed Services Committee chairman has some advice for the defense industry: Don’t listen to the Labor Department. Rep. Buck McKeon is in an uproar over the department’s decision to blunt what Republicans consider one of their best planks to turn President Barack Obama out of the White House. – Politico
Rather than try to pass appropriations bills for fiscal 2013, U.S. congressional leaders have decided instead to pass a six-month-long stopgap spending measure that would keep funding at 2012 levels until the end of March. This is bad news for defense companies and Pentagon officials who track the defense appropriations bills, trying to understand what they can expect for funding in the upcoming fiscal year. – Defense News
The Defense Department (DOD) is abandoning its push for wide-scale base closures in the continental United States, focusing instead on plans to draw down military installations overseas, Secretary Leon Panetta announced Monday. – DEFCON Hill
The US military depends on drones. But amidst the justifiable excitement over the rise of the robots, it’s easy to overlook that today’s unmanned systems are not truly autonomous but rather require a lot of human guidance by remote control — and bad design often makes the human’s job needlessly awkward, to the point of causing crashes. Fixing that is the next big challenge for the unmanned industry. – AOL Defense
Cybersecurity
Editorial: The Lieberman-Collins compromise reflected a proper sense of urgency. The House approved its own, somewhat similar, legislation in April, although privacy concerns have led the White House to threaten a veto. The net result is that Congress left town with the nation’s critical infrastructure exposed and cyberdefenses still down. When it returns in September, a concerted effort should be made to pass legislation so the government and private sector can begin to face the onslaught, together. – Washington Post
Nuclear Weapons and Nonproliferation
Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) left for Moscow on Monday as part of a three-nation trip during which he’ll press for extending his signature Nunn-Lugar disarmament agreement, which expires next year. – The Hill’s Global Affairs
The top U.S. Air Force officer said the United States could reduce the size of her “active reserve” stockpile of nuclear weapons, the Boston Globe reported on Monday – Global Security Newswire
Missile Defense
Senate appropriators have rejected a U.S. Missile Defense Agency proposal to provide $44.5 million in fiscal 2013 for placing a laser armament on a massive, developmental unmanned aerial vehicle produced by defense contractor Boeing, Wired magazine reported on Friday – Global Security Newswire
