Pratt & Whitney must be feeling the heat from the GE/Rolls Royce team if their latest posting on the company blog is any indication. As the defense authorization conference talks gather steam, these wars of words will be watched closely by staff and their bosses, also known as lawmakers.

Through the years I’ve seen a good deal of ground bots being developed for troops in the zone. But I’ve never seen one as seemingly resilient and simply functional as the Recon Robotics Recon Scout XT. Weighing in at 1.2lbs and able to withstand a drop from three stories up, the Recon Scout XT can shoot real time video day or night.

The debate over U.S. strategy in Afghanistan has settled into a choice between the labor intensive counterinsurgency approach, which seeks to protect the population, versus what Brig. Gen. H.R. McMaster calls the “raiding” approach, which would rely on overhead sensors and stand-off precision strike to eliminate the Taliban. That approach, rooted in strategic bombing theory, is an attempt to find an easy way out of a complex situation, but it won’t work in Afghanistan, he said.

When I did my first story about Israeli capabilities for striking Iran’s nuclear sites it was 2006 and the consensus view was that Israel might well try a strike someday but probably not just yet. Today, the timeline is short. We have Saudi Arabia telling Israel it can overfly on the way to Iran. And the Saudis are trying to buy Russian missile systems to keep them out of Iranian hands.

Northrop Grumman is really, really worried that Boeing will get the march on them in the tanker competition because its KC-X pricing data was revealed during the last go-round. But last week’s congressional briefing appears to indicate the Pentagon gives short shrift to Northrop’s concerns.

The flight ramp at Kandahar airfield is crammed full of drones and strike aircraft supporting the added troops arriving in southern Afghanistan, said Air Force Brig. Gen. Walsh, who commands an air wing there. The Air Force is sending even more drones to the theater to boost the vital overwatch to ground troops battling Taliban fighters.

UPDATED: Boeing Spokesman Says No Decision “About Which Plane To Offer Or Whether To Offer Both“

Building a bid for a major acquisition program like the KC-X tanker is expensive and consumes many man hours, but Boeing will place bids for both the 767 and the 777 versions of their airborne tanker.

With debate surrounding the deployment of more troops to Afghanistan and whether to launch a counterinsurgency operation or a counterterrorism campaign there, it’s important to see up close and personal what the fight is like.

In a Defense Department world where multi-billion-dollar contracts for aircraft will likely first net you long waits, missed deadlines and demands for millions more bucks before a plane appears on the horizon, the Air Force’s latest counter-intelligence aircraft is an anomaly.

The Obama administration won an impressive legislative battle when it convinced senators to drop funding for the F-22. One of the key arsenals in the administration’s legislative battle kit was a strongly and clearly worded threat to kill bills that funded the Raptor. In its latest Statement of Administration Policy the White House cavils about spending decisions by the Senate appropriators and leaves no one in doubt it will do nothing to stop the bill.

Expect fireworks from a pair of meetings yesterday and Wednesday about the future of what was one of Americas most closely guarded secret weapons, the National Reconnaissance Office. A tiger team is meeting to discuss what could be an enormous expansion of the NRO’s power, from its current focus on building and operating highly classified imaging and radar satellites to building and operating all US military and intelligence space and ISR assets

UPDATED: Here Is the Draft RFP. Click Here for Pentagon Tanker Briefing

The Pentagon sent a very clear message to Boeing, Northrop Grumman and their affiliated companies in the Thursday briefings to Congress — play nice. One phrase in the briefing will echo throughout the selection process: “KC-X should be ready to go to war on day 1.”

The long expected request for more troops from Afghan commander Gen. McChrystal is due within the next two days, his commander, Gen. Petraeus said. While he wouldn’t elaborate on the “pre-decisional” size of that request, Petraeus said both he and Joint Chiefs chair Adm. Mike Mullen endorsed McChrystal’s new strategy, leaked earlier this week. Petraeus highlighted a critical shortage of forward air controllers in Afghanistan.

UPDATED: Pentagon Briefing on RFP Set for 4 PM Thursday

Deputy Defense Secretart Bill Lynn, acquisition czar Ash Carter and at least one other official will be fanning across Capitol Hill Thursday to brief senior defense lawmakers about the imminent draft RFP for the KC-X tanker competition.

UPDATED: GE/RR Will Offer Detailed Fixed Price Proposal Friday or Monday
The war for the Joint Strike Fighter’s engine money has developed a new front: when is a fixed price offer actually a fixed price offer. We spoke with a source over the weekend who read us some emails which were apparently from Pentagon officials claiming that General Electric and Rolls Royce, makers of the F136, had not actually made the government a fixed price offer.

The insurgent threat in Afghanistan has been allowed to grow for too long, “unchecked by commensurate counter-action,” Afghan commander Gen. McChrystal says, “the insurgents currently have the initiative.” The fate of the Afghan war now depends on the success or failure of a planned counteroffensive to wrest that initiative away.

With the heat building for President Obama to decide how many troops to send to Afghanistan and just what strategy to pursue, Sen. Carl Levin has rebuffed calls from three senior senators for the Senate Armed Services Committee to hold hearings about the way ahead. Levin told Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) ranking member of the committee, Joseph Lieberman, (I.-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) that he did not yet think it time for a hearing.

A draft version of the Army Capstone Concept is online and the service wants your input. The document is supposed to be finished by December. The ACC is an effort to place “modernization decisions in a broader context of future armed conflict.” It drops many of the, quite frankly, unrealistic ideas found in the 2005 version. Read it and post your comments. Let the Army know if they have got it right.

This is an exclusive video of the Army’s hovering T-Hawk Class 1 UAV. The drone is intended for small unit reconnaissance on an objective and can be flown on the move by a Soldier-packable control system. Images can be beamed back to a command center or broadcast on hand-held imaging devices.

While Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ new missile defense plan has been slammed by Republicans for either giving in to the Russians, abandoning our allies or focusing on the wrong threat, there are other questions that need answering.