Procurement

The Government Accountability Office set up a sting operation to get companies to sell counterfeit parts to a fake company.

Defense industry giant Lockheed Martin will pay the Pentagon $15.9 million, according to the Justice Department. 

With Pentagon budgets shrinking, many major U.S. defense firms are looking to foreign markets to support their bottom lines.

Now, a special House defense panel is pushing the Pentagon to give smaller defense companies the same opportunity.

Numerous cost and schedule problems on the Pentagon's Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) might force a key American ally to bail out of the program. 

Canadian Associate Defense Minister Julian Fantino said Tuesday that government officials could pull the plug on its portion of the multimillion-dollar project. 

"The determinate decision has not yet been made as to whether or not we are going to actually purchase, buy, acquire the F-35," Fantino said, according to the Ottawa Citizen. "We have not yet discounted the possibility of backing out of the program." 

Sens. Carl Levin and John McCain accused the Defense secretary of not consulting with Congress before making the decision.

Drone technology might be the wave of the future, but Northrop Grumman lost out with one of its drone programs in the Pentagon’s 2013 budget proposal.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the Pentagon was killing Northrop’s Global Hawk Block 30 program, an unmanned drone, in favor of the older U-2 manned aircraft.

Northrop Grumman issued a statement Thursday saying it was “disappointed” with the decision and wants the Pentagon to look at alternatives to killing the program.

The Pentagon on Tuesday saluted Japan for selecting the U.S.-made F-35 as its new fighter jet, a move that provides a shot in the arm for the troubled program.

"We're pleased that Japan will purchase F-35 next-gen aircraft," Pentagon press secretary George Little tweeted Tuesday morning.

Japan joins more than 10 other American allies that have signaled an intention to buy the Lockheed Martin-made fighter jet.

Pentagon officials "are grateful for our strong ally's confidence in [the] U.S. industrial base," Little added.

The contract will cover 60 fighter jets and could be worth up to $8 billion.

The F35 selection marks an end to Tokyo's F-X fighter competition, which also included the F-35's older rival, the Boeing-made F/A-18. The Typhoon, an European fighter jet, also was in the race.

Kendall is a logical successor to the job who should be able to avoid a Senate confirmation fight.

An internal Pentagon report found new F-35 problems that could spawn further delays and cost spikes for the troubled fighter program, a government watchdog says.

The internal Defense Department report uncovered 13 issues that likely will cause new setbacks for the biggest Pentagon program ever.

The Aerospace Industries Association of America (AIA) on Monday hailed a move by the U.S. Trade Representative to reopen the U.S. case in the World Trade Organization against the European Union over subsidies to Airbus.

The association signaled the decision to examine whether EU member states have complied with a past WTO ruling is also important for setting precedents for new entrants into large civil aircraft market such as Canada and China.

“This process should result in the ending of non-compliant launch aid for aircraft production—loans provided by European governments that substantially reduce the business risk of introducing new-model airplanes,” AIA said in a statement.

“At the end of the day, it is critical for WTO member countries developing, or considering developing, civil aviation products to operate according to free and fair trade principles for the health, stability and growth of our industry,” the group said.

Boeing and Airbus have been feuding for decades over subsidies, and the WTO has found that Airbus benefited from illegally structured launch aid loans while Boeing benefited from U.S. government contracts in a way that made the contracts illegal subsidies to Boeing’s civilian aircraft business.

The aircraft disputes are the largest trade cases in WTO history and a source of tension between Europe and the United States.

The EU on Dec. 1 claimed that it had come fully into compliance with a WTO ruling that EU member states had provided illegal aid to Airbus.

On Friday the U.S. challenged that claim and set in motion talks that can ultimately lead to the formation of a WTO compliance panel to investigate the EU claims. That process could lead to trade sanctions on the EU.