South Korea: No to Boeing’s Silent Eagle

Morning Coffee is a robust blend of links to news around the internet concerning the Naval Air Station Patuxent River economic community. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the Leader’s owners or staff.

 

In a surprise decision, South Korea has rejected a Boeing bid to supply 60 F-15 Silent Eagle fighter jets, preferring to aim for a more advanced fighter such as Lockheed Martin’s F-35A, reports the Christian Science Monitor.

 

President Obama welcomed an opportunity for “a different relationship” with Iran in his annual address to the United Nations Tuesday, USA TODAY reports.  He also asked the U.N. Security Council to support a resolution spelling out consequences for Syria if it fails to turn over its chemical weapons to the international community. A three-minute clip is here.  Also: Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reports.

 

U.S. Senate Republicans on Tuesday appeared to fall in line with their leaders who want to pass an emergency spending bill by Sept. 30 to avoid a government shutdown, even if it means abandoning efforts to defund the Affordable Health Care Act, Reuters reports. The Senate will hold its first vote Wednesday on a measure to fund the Pentagon and other federal agencies through mid-December, Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid said, according to Defense News.

 

New Stimson Center report spells out how Pentagon could cut $50 billion from its budget, The Hill reports.  One recommendation: slow purchases of F-35s.

 

Boeing is reconfiguring mothballed older F-16s to fly without pilots, CNN Security Clearance reports. Live fire trials for these jets are coming up at Holloman AFB, NM, Flightglobal’s Dew Line reports.

 

Some data show that the “S” in STEM may be overrated, with scientists earning lower wages than college grads in technology, engineering and math, reports NextGov.

 

Non-military applications for drones deserve more support, says a NextGov commentary.

 

George Washington University poll released Tuesday shows public’s confidence in federal workers is at a new low, Government Executive reports.

 

The New Yorker reviews Command and Control, a new book by Eric Schlosser, calling it “an excellent journalistic investigation of the efforts made since the first atomic bomb was exploded, outside Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945, to put some kind of harness on nuclear weaponry.”