The CEO of Europe’s premier missile company, MBDA, thinks the US should use the MEADS and Aster anti-missile systems and buy European radar and subsystems as part of its missile defense plan for the continent.

Army drones will have to curtail training and operational flights by fiscal 2012 in the United States unless the FAA approves some form of UAS deconfliction, a top Army UAS official says.

House Republicans mounted a spirited critique of the Obama administration’s new European missile defense plan, saying the intelligence does not support the administration’s claims of a change in the threat. GOP members also claimed the new plan would not sufficiently contain the threat from Iran.

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.

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.

Another senior cyber official has resigned and I hear few encouraging noises from the cyber warriors I speak with at the Pentagon in the wake of Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ decision to create a cyber command. They worry that fundamental policy issues have still not been addressed, leaving the military uncertain what actions it can reasonably expect to take in the event of conflict. Much of this worry derives from the fairly timid report issued by the administration about how it would handle offensive and defense cyber issues. Kevin Coleman has the rest of the story.

The Obama’s administration’s top counter terror official, John Brennan, argued that it’s not about Osama, “It’s about what he represents — the organization that he has tried to build. Clearly, the leadership of al-Qaida is something that is very important. It’s part of our strategy. I think it is important to dismantle that leadership.”

The US has long pondered how best to use its cyber capabilities to attack another country and has long shied away from using them, fearful that we might pull down the Internet curtain on ourselves if we tried to wipe out an enemy’s networks. The New York Times ran a piece this weekend about just how daunting is this balancing act. One of the reasons for that concern is that BotNets — networks of infected computers that can be controlled without the owner knowing it — have become what Kevin Coleman says is “a critical problem that must be addressed.” Wiping out one country’s cyber capabilities could easily affect its neighbors and also invite retaliation against the U.S.

Billions of new money to spend. Major new responsibilities at the senior-most reaches of the federal government. Sounds like a pretty good gig, doesn’t it? But as Kevin Coleman reports at Defense Tech, the job of cyber czar just can’t find a taker. One of the obvious problems with the job is that it comes with few operational power levers but is one of those coordinating jobs. Also, anyone who takes it will have to contend with the fact that the recently appointed head of Cyber Command will control most of the people and most of the tasks, along with the Department of Homeland Security.

South Korea and the US ignored advance warning that North Korea might mount cyber attacks should the US and allies punish the north for launching ballistic missiles. Kevin Coleman, a consultant on cyber war to Strategic Command, says we: knew the attacks were likely, couldn’t handle a relatively unsophisticated (though persistent) attack from one of the world’s less capable cyber forces and still can’t coordinate cyber issues between US government departments and agencies.

One of the oddest looking drones on display at the Paris Air Show is a helicopter whose fuselage is not much bigger than a 1960s’ model Volkswagen Beetle – if that! – and with a propeller in the rear for additional forward thrust. The Xenon, based on the now rarely seen gyrocopter, was acquired from Celia Aviation of Poland for use by Selex Galileo as a Short Take-Off and Landing, Optionally Piloted Vehicle.

Emergency responders, military and Northrop Grumman officials discovered another use for the spy drone Global Hawk after wildfires hit California last year, followed by Hurricane Ike in Florida and Texas. The high-flying surveillance aircraft can be loaded up with communications relays to re-establish vital links destroyed during the disasters.

“You can fly a Global Hawk over a hurricane for its entire life, and drop temperature-measuring devices [into it] and begin to model the development of hurricanes and storms and typhoons,” said Ed Walby of Northrup Grumman, who predicts the unmanned aerial vehicle eventually will replace the hurricane monitoring missions carried out by the Air Force using specially equipped WC-130s.

European aerospace giant EADS has begun production of a system intended to thwart terrorists carrying chemical or explosive weapons, a technology that also promises to be a boon to air travelers long grown frustrated with lines, delays, pat-downs and moving shoeless through airports. And then there are the more invasive searches that can really put a damper on that trip to Disney World…

The Congressional Research Service possesses some of the most acute and reliable defense analysts in town. CRS has laid out four options for their lawmaker leaders to consider as they try to figure out what the heck to do with those VH-71 birds just itching to fly President Obama around. The options range from restructuring the current program and building 23 VH-71s to retrofitting the current fleet. The folks at AvWeek got their hands on the primer and their story appears below.

Few publications can match AvWeek when it comes to enthusiasm for DARPA aerospace stories. They often capture really neat technology that has the potential to be one of those ever elusive game-changers on the battlefield or in everyday life. The following story captures those qualities perfectly. While there’s only $7 million on the table, the Triple T could be used on manned or unmanned aircraft and deployed against other planes, cruise missiles and air defenses — quite a range of capabilities. the story also peeks at some other nifty DARPA efforts in the proposed 2010 budget.

UPDATED: With Adm. Mullen Saying He is Not a “Proponent” of Arming Merchant Marine And Piracy “Is Not My Priority Right Now.“
The head of the Maritime Administration, who oversees America’s merchant marine, said today that he opposed the arming of US merchant seamen to counter pirates. “We do not want to arm mariners in any event,” James Caponiti, acting Maritime Administrator, said at today’s Navy League conference in Washington. He said the risks were just too great even though there is training for mariners to be trained in the use of small arms.

The White House should expect that Rep. Ellen Tauscher’s nomination to be undersecretary of State for arms control and international security will face rough waters in the Senate. During a breakfast speech this morning, Kyl noted wryly that Tauscher’s ostensible new job requires Senate confirmation, a clear signal that he may place a hold on Tauscher’s nomination. A congressional aide confirmed that Kyl is expected to place a hold on the nomination once it is formally made by the White House.

MDA faces cuts of as much as $2 billion in the coming budget. The GOP is not standing still. One of the Senate’s top missile defense advocates, Sen. Jeff Sessionshas written SecDef Robert Gates saying a 20 percent cut to missile defense spending would just be too much.

Iran, after a decade of trying to develop space capabilities, today joined the small club of countries able to build and launch a satellite into orbit. One reason American military and national security officials are so worried: in at least two earlier ballistic missile launches, the Iranians launched in ways that “appear they were designed to optimize an EMP burst,” according to a Pentagon source with detailed knowledge of the Iranian’s efforts and of space technology.