The baseline funding request for fiscal 2014 for the U.S. National Intelligence Program is $48.2 billion, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says. An undisclosed additional amount will be sought as part of the supplemental, off-book budget request for warfighting. Altogether, $53.9 billion was appropriated for 2013, while $52.6 billion was requested. Meanwhile, the baseline Military Intelligence Program budget request is $14.6 billion, the Pentagon says.

Airlines can save significantly by mining the parts aftermarket, and the avenues that beget those savings just keep getting wider.

South Korea has chosen the Raytheon Advance Combat Radar (RACR) over Northrop Grumman's SABR as the centerpiece of the upgrade of the bulk of its Lockheed Martin F-16s. Subject to U.S. approval, Raytheon will supply 134 RACR sets to South Korea, the company says. BAE Systems is modernizing the same number of South Korean F-16s. Until now, the main unresolved issue in the modernization program was the selection of radar.

The FAA's fiscal 2014 request looks like another example of wishful thinking by the Obama administration. The FAA is proposing to save nearly half a billion dollars in its $15.6 billion request by cutting airport grants while increasing money for airport projects with higher ticket fees, or Passenger Facility Charges (PFC). The administration has asked to do this before—and Congress has rejected it.

As U.S. defense priorities change, Lockheed Martin Space Systems is renewing a strategy that it has used for years: tapping into Silicon Valley's penchant for sharing ideas.

Perfect storm drives early aircraft retirements and engine part-outs

Industry predictions call for 12,000 aircraft to be replaced in the global fleet over the next 20 years as they reach the end of their service lives. As airlines move to more fuel-efficient, quieter and more environmentally sensitive aircraft, older ones are shuffling downstream, often to be parked or dismantled. This may be happening faster than in the past, since operators appear to be deciding more quickly to disassemble, taking advantage of the spare parts market for early end-of-life aircraft and engine models.

The aviation community is calling on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to shelve its newest plan to phase out use of 121.5 MH emergency locator transmitters (ELT), saying the proposed rulemaking is misleading, has a hidden agenda, demonstrates a lack of knowledge of aviation safety and overreaches into FAA’s regulatory authority. FCC earlier this year released a proposal considering “whether to prohibit the certification, manufacture, importation, sale or use of 121.5 MHz ELTs, and, if so, under what timetable.”