News
SpaceX rocket blasts off for space station cargo run
A rocket built by Space Exploration Technologies blasted off March 1 carrying a capsule filled with food, supplies and science experiments for the International Space Station.
Business
Boeing cuts contract workers at 787 plant in South Carolina
Boeing is trimming the number of temporary contract workers employed at its South Carolina assembly plant. The company said March 1 that the reductions have been planned for some time and have nothing to do with battery problems in its 787 jetliners. It didn’t say how many workers are affected.
Defense
Grounded U.S. F-35 fighter jet fleet to resume flights
The Pentagon has said it will resume flights on its F-35 fighter jets, after the whole fleet was grounded last week. A cracked turbine blade found on a plane prompted the suspension. But tests showed that this was a “unique” problem and not a design flaw, engine maker Pratt and Whitney said.
Spending cuts due to ground Navy’s Blue Angels flying team
Blue Angels pilot Dave Tickle said he is focused on practicing maneuvers for an upcoming show in California instead of worrying about how federal spending cuts will threaten performances this year by the U.S. Navy’s renowned flight demonstration squadron.
Space
China to send astronauts on mission to dock with orbiting space station this summer
China will send three astronauts on a mission to its orbiting space station this summer as part of preparations to establish an even larger permanent presence above Earth, the manned space program said Feb. 28.
International
British Army will leave Germany on time, ministers will promise
Army sources have revealed that German bases scheduled for closure in 2020 could now be shut down by 2018 as part of a deal to announced by the Ministry of Defence next week.
There is no magic alternative to Trident – Britain has got to keep it
Defence policy is based on the analysis of risk and the willingness to commit the resources to meet them. All of us are aware that the risks to our national security are changing. Iran’s secret plutonium programme, reported by the Telegraph this week, offers yet more proof of this. We are all acutely conscious, too, that we live in straitened times. But this must not lead us to draw the wrong conclusions about the future of our own independent nuclear deterrent – something that has underpinned our national security since the dawn of the nuclear age.
United Kingdom: Unused Ministry of Defence gear costs billions
The public accounts committee urged the MoD to sell supplies with a total value of £3.4?billion that it has identified as appropriate for disposal.
U.K.-France ‘entente frugale’ defense pact here to stay
Dubbed the ‘entente frugale’ by wags and criticized by some as a dangerous dilution of military sovereignty, Franco-British defense cooperation is nonetheless growing stronger.
China defense spending seen rising as territorial rows deepen
A series of territorial disputes with its neighbors will ensure China boosts defense spending when it reveals this year’s military budget ahead of the annual parliamentary sitting next week, security experts say.
Brazil launches program to build nuclear submarine in a decade
Brazil March 1 advanced toward its target of joining the small club of nations that have nuclear-powered submarines with the opening of a naval shipyard installation that will build French-designed submarines.
Viewpoint
Does anybody still need aircraft carriers?
by Tom de Castella, BBC News Magazine
A major piece of Britain’s new one has arrived at a dockyard, China is testing one, but 100 years after the concept was invented, does anybody still need aircraft carriers?
