According to just-released December 2009 data, USAF’s C-130 avionics modernization program breached Nunn-McCurdy protocols, showing a 17.9 percent increase in average procurement unit cost; the “significant breach” threshold is 15 percent. In its release, the Pentagon noted that the increase for the on again-off again Hercules AMP stemmed from a change in strategy that accounted for depot installs during the Future Years Defense Program, an updated estimate for level of spares, and the addition of previously uncounted training systems costs. Late last year, USAF concluded a three-year development test and evaluation phase for the cockpit avionics, communications, and navigation upgrades, but service officials had said tight dollars might derail the program in favor of higher priorities. After months of speculation, though, USAF included the C-130 AMP in its 2011 budget request.
Just days after a Defense Intelligence Agency report predicted new ballistic missile testing by North Korea, the Pyongyang regime fired a a submarine-launched ballistic missile which landed in the Sea of Japan. While U.S. Indo-Pacific Command downplayed the test as representing no new threat to the U.S. or regional allies,…