The governors of Alabama, Mississippi and Lousiana today wrote President Obama about the tanker competition, urging him to choose the aircraft that would do the best job and ignore World Trade Organization rulings about illegal subsidies.

The next major security gaps in the military’s computer networks are likely to be found in the smartphones on which soldiers, sailors and airmen increasingly rely in theater. The Army may equip every soldier with a smartphone and it has experimented for more than a year with phones and how they might be used at […]

Suppose you are the Air Force, or Defense Secretary Robert Gates. You possess a decision sure to ignite a firestorm on Capitol Hill once it is announced. Do you make the announcement about the KC-X airborne tanker when Congress is in town or do you try and slip it in and buy yourself a day or two of peace –and perhaps disrupt the reaction time — of those lawmakers ready to erupt at your decision.

Orlando — The Air Force would like to start work on a sixth generation fighter. It would. And it will work on advanced technologies at the service labs and encourage industry to keep ploughing ahead on promising technologies. But Air Force Secretary Mike Donley made very clear at the Air Force Association conference that the service is focused on building the coming fifth generation aircraft (also known as the Joint Strike Fighter) and has no plans to begin investing the nation’s treasure on a new aircraft.

ORLANDO–Tougher contracts, less ambitious and more flexible requirements must be pursued if the Air Force and the US military are to get the space systems they need, says the head of Air Force Space Command. “We’ve become the poster child for things that are late and expensive.”

It’s 11 days until either the Tea Party drives America to the brink of insolvency, the brave GOP drives the Democrats back from their mad pursuit of a more bloated and tyrannical federal government, or bold politicians on both sides hammer out a way to avoid shutting down the federal government on March 4. Choose your result according to your politics.

ORLANDO – No one will say there will be a bid protest when the $35 billion KC-X tanker contract is awarded in the next few weeks. Neither Boeing nor EADS NA will rule out a protest either. So if — as most observers believe — a protest is filed is the Air Force ready? Does it have a plan?

UPDATED: With LightSquared Company Comments

ORLANDO– Deputy Defense Secretary Bll Lynn has raised concerns with the Federal Communications Commission about a new technology used by a company called Light Squared that jams both military and civilian GPS signals. The Federal Aviation Administration shares the Pentagon’s worries. Air Force Gen. William Shelton, head of Air Force Space Command, disclosed the Pentagon and FAA’s concerns at the Air Force Association winter conference today.

The power of the Tea Party and other deficit conscious Republicans was on full display today as the House passed an amendment stripping $450 million for the second engine for the Joint Strike Fighter from HR 1, the continuing resolution for 2011. The amendment was sponsored by House Armed Services Committee member Rep. Tom Rooney. The vote of 233–198 may mark a tipping point for the debate about whether to cut the defense budget generally.

With the contract award for the $45 billion tanker program less than a month off, EADS NA board chairman Ralph Crosby said today that his company would not rule out a protest, but that his company was unlikely to file one barring an “egregious process error.” That, of course, does not rule out a protest from Boeing if they lose. And it does not rule out a protest from EADS NA if they conclude the Air Force screwed in an impressive fashion.

The House of Representatives looks set to approve $450 million for the second engine for the Joint Strike Fighter, ready to thumb its collective nose at Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the Obama administration and its boldly stated opposition to the program. While a final vote on HR 1, the omnibus spending bill cobbled together by the House Appropriation Committee, isn’t likely until Thursday, the result is likely to be approval.

The tri-national MEADS missile defense program was not doomed by by a US Army eager to save money but by a cost overun of close to $2 billion. MEADS development was supposed to cost roughly $4 billion, so this would have more than qualified for a Nunn-McCurdy breach and required OSD to certify the requirement was still valid and to reform the program. Because of its status as an international program, however, it was not subject to the Nunn-McCurdy provisions.

The Pentagon announced today it would kill MEADS, an anti-missile program once declared the highest priority weapon system for the United States and its allies to build together. The Army has tried several times before to kill the program, which uses the Patriot interceptor, but has always been overruled before by the Office of Secretary of Defense. Germany and Italy have made major political and industrial commitments in pursuit of MEADS and they will doubtless let America know just what they think of this decision.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates really wants to kill the second engine program for the Joint Strike Fighter and he devoted much of his five-minute budget announcement today to that end. General Electric, knowing survival of the program is again on the line, came right out and struck back.

The Pentagon keeps learning from the field that soldiers, sailors and airmen thirst for one thing above all else — better information. It takes the form of what Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale calls “an almost insatiable demand” for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR). To meet that demand the military is asking Congress to fund $5 billion in new unmanned and manned ISR systems. The list is: three more Global Hawks for $1.7 billion; 48 more reaper UAS for $1.4 billion; 36 Grey Eagles for $1 billion; another 12 Liberty MC-12 ISR aircraft for $300 million; accelerate the Fire Scout maritime UAS system with $300 million. On top of that they plan to pour $2.3 billion into improved cyber capabilities.

To be. That, dear readers, is the question. Whether ’tis nobler in the mind of Defense Secretary Robert Gates to suffer the slings and arrows of GE and Rolls Royce’s effective lobbying or to take Armes against a sea of troubles known as the deficit and Congress and by opposing end them. With apologies to Shakespeare and all who love him, this battle does loom as one of the hardest fought and most complex fought in the Beltway trenches in many years, and it will grow hotter this afternoon with the budget’s release.

Monday is budget day. At 2 p.m. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, will begin unveiling details of what will doubtless be one of the most contentious defense budgets since the Clinton administration. Each service and the Missile Defense Agency unveils its budget and answers reporters questions after that. […]

If you believe that the intelligence community blew it on Egypt and missed the early signs of the popular uprising, your opinion is not shared by the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, or several senior intelligence officials.

The Egyptian military, marked so far by its loyalty to civilian authority and its admirable discipline in obeying orders, appears to have intervened and taken control of the country. CIA Director Leon Panetta told the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak may leave office within hours. Egyptian State Television said Mubarak will address the nation soon.

Ash Carter, the Pentagon’s head of acquisition has dropped a hint that there may be cuts to health care and other military personnel costs in the Pentagon budget due to be released next week. “We are looking at health care. We are looking at personnel costs,” Carter told a group of New York investors and defense industry leaders.