Over the last half year, China’s military has carefully unveiled its J-20 stealth airplane, threatened US ships and hosed them down, discussed plans for an aircraft carrier and boasted of their being equals with the US on the global stage. In light of all this, we asked the Heritage Foundation’s Dean Cheng to give us some idea of what actually happened during the recent visit of President Hu Jintao and what it means for them and for us. His title says it all: Hu Came and All I Got Was a Joint Statement.

Reports are swirling around that the People’s Liberation Army Navy has successfully tested Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles. If so, this achievement would represent an important advance in China’s strategic capabilities. Norman Polmar, the respected naval and intelligence author. mentioned this at a presentation Wednesday night.

The final decision on the future of what we call Son of FCS is in and the Army has decided to scrap Unattended Ground Sensors and the Class 1 UAS, fondly known as the flying beer keg. Ash Carter, undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics signed a Feb. 3 acquisition decision memorandum making this official.

A solid group of 37 Republican senators, led by Sen. Jon Kyl, tell Secretary of State Hillary Clinton they must be told whether the Obama administration plans to negotiate and sign on to a Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities. The Feb. 2 letter says the senators are “deeply concerned” the administration may pursue an agreement they fear poses “a multitude of potential highly damaging implications for sensitive military and intelligence programs… as well as a tremendous amount of commercial activity.”

Alas, poor Vodaphone. In one of the more interesting cyber war wrinkles, it looks as if hanging-on-by-his-fingernails Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s government ordered the London-based company to send out text messages telling people about protests in support of his rule. That and Egypt’s decision to shut down Internet access are part of a growing trend of targeted Internet shutdowns by worried governments.

While Boeing went public with the news that they had met with the Air Force to discuss their KC-X bid and would revise their offering, EADS NA has stayed mum and only went public when we gave them a call. They also met on Monday with the Air Force. “We received final proposal revisions, which are due to the customer on Friday, Feb. 11 at 8 a.m at Wright Patterson,” said Guy Hicks, head spokesman. Hicks refused to say whether his company would revise its bid.

UPDATED: “A Big Capitulation;” Watch Election Contributions

When President Obama threatened in his State of the Union speech to veto any bill containing earmarks, several people I spoke with later snickered. How is this relatively inexperienced former senator going to put the kibosh on one of the Hill’s most treasured rights. Then our world tipped slightly yesterday with word that Sen. Daniel Inouye, one of the most respected and powerful members of Congress and chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced what he called an “earmark moratorium.”

Ray Mabus, the Navy Secretary who has been whispered of as an unlikely but possible candidate to fill departing Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s shoes, is moving into the lead among some savvy Pentagon handicappers. Mabus appears to have built up steam from his service as the administration’s lead in rebuilding the Gulf states after the BP oil rig exploded.

The White House, Congress NASA, NOAA, Defense Department and prime contractor Northrup Grumman failed time and again in their management and oversight of the multi-billion dollar weather satellite program known as NPOESS. The failures led to billions of dollars in cost overruns, schedule delays and scarred the space acquisition community for years.