How Russia Improved its Military With An Economy the Size of Spain. Subtitle: “The Russians spend the highest share of their military budget on procurement and build much of the equipment in-house.” Other facts: since 2015, Russia bought 250 long-range ballistic missiles, 1,000 helicopters were modernized, and 1,000 combat airplanes were bought or modernized. 3.5 million (5%) of Russia’s workforce is in defense.
SlateStarCodex: “… a Navy scientist has filed a patent for a quantum superconducter antigravity drive capable of UFO-like feats of impossible aeronautics. When the Patent Office rejected it as outlandish, the Chief Technical Officer of naval aviation personally wrote the Patent Office saying it was totally possible and a matter of national security, after which the Patent Office relented and granted the patent.” Read the whole story from The Drive.
National Defense Authorization Bill Stalls at Senate and House Leadership Level. The second CR will expire on Dec. 20. Remaining issues include space force, employee benefits, and PFAS.
The Air Force Is Retiring The B-1B Lancer Bomber. Not today. The plan is to begin retirement in 2025, finishing the process in 2036.
On its second attempt, SpaceX sends Dragon soaring to the ISS. Tenth Falcon 9 launch of 2019, and 76th overall.
Related: SpaceX’s First Rideshare Customer Means Competition for Northrop. What is meant by rideshare? “Its mission in orbit will be to attach to another company’s satellite and push it into its targeted orbit — then detach and move on to perform the same service for other satellites.”
Pentagon Prototypes 5G With Innovation On-Ramp. Key point: there’s a National Spectrum Consortium with 260 members that is run through an Other Transaction contract which can provide task orders to any consortium member. By the way, the Space Enterprise Consortium might see Air Force funding increase 24-fold!
A look at the Army’s FVL goals, and the cost of relevancy. Two aircraft: future armed recon and future long-range assault. Moving out of prototype design and into competitive prototyping phase. Candidates for OT + Sec. 804?
More on the audit, a Michigan State professor tried to track down the $21 trillion in “unsupported journal voucher adjustments.” He gets frustrated.
Opinion piece from Sen. Grassley: The Pentagon’s Autopilot Budget Is Wasting Too Many Tax Dollars. He mostly talks about the DOD audit. That’s a separate issue (accounting = what happened in the past… budget = future plan). It’s difficult to imagine more time spent on the budget process. As I’ve argued, simplify the budget process and spend more time on accountability of what was actually done.
U.S. Navy Plans To Stop Buying P-8 Poseidon Sub Hunters Despite Growing Undersea Threat. Another view from ComNavOps is that the P-8 just didn’t meet performance requirements even if it was relatively on-time and on-budget.
In case you missed it: General Dynamics Wins $22.2 Billion for Virginia-Class Subs.
Killing Cruise Missiles: Pentagon To Test Rival Lasers. Subtitle: “DoD is finalizing contracts for three competing demonstrators, aiming for a 300-kilowatt weapon by 2022 and 500 kW by 2024.”
“About 150 people gathered in the Capitol rotunda on Friday to convince community members and politicians to oppose plans to bring a squadron of F-35 fighter jets to Madison’s Truax Field.” Link is here. Estimated that 1,000 homes in Wisconsin will become unsuitable for living, worth $255 million.
Commanding Space: The Story Behind the Space Force.
The ergodicity problem in economics. A slice: “Economics typically deals with systems far from equilibrium — specifically with models of growth. It may therefore come as a surprise to learn that the prevailing formulations of economic theory — expected utility theory and its descendants — make an indiscriminate assumption of ergodicity. This is largely because foundational concepts to do with risk and randomness originated in seventeenth-century economics.”
Whistleblower lawsuit claims defense contractor defrauded Pentagon of $1.3 billion in MRAP deal. Whistleblower was at the contractor’s contract management department. A slice: “The company charged about $250,000 for each chassis, but sold an identical product for half the price to other customers.” Hard to figure it all out, considering how DOD creates a lot of compliance costs that have to get absorbed somewhere, and it’s unlikely to be on commercial contracts.
Trae Stevens: The Ethics of Defense Technology Development: An Investor’s Perspective
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