WASHINGTON, Nov 22 (Reuters) – Lockheed Martin Corp
said it received a boost to a contract for upgrades to its
premier but problem-plagued F-22 Raptor fighter plane, raising
the deal’s potential value to $7.4 billion through next year.

Clarifying U.S. Air Force information published last week,
the Pentagon’s top supplier said on Tuesday that the previous
lid on the 10-year “Raptor Enhancement Development and
Integration” contract was $6 billion.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States is giving, not selling, two dozen second-hand F-16 fighter planes to Indonesia to strengthen security ties with an “important U.S. partner,” the Defense Department said on Monday,

Elaborating on an announcement on Friday by the presidents of the two countries, the department said Jakarta would cover an estimated up to $750 million to refurbish the late-model fighters and overhaul their engines.

By Jim Wolf

(Reuters) – The United States plans to supply 24 refurbished F-16C/D fighter aircraft to Indonesia, the presidents of the two countries announced in Bali on Friday on the fringes of an Asia-Pacific summit.

It was the second militarily significant announcement of President Barack Obama’s ongoing nine-day Asia-Pacific trip.

By Jim Wolf

(Reuters) – The U.S. military now has a legal framework to cover offensive operations in cyberspace, the commander of the U.S. Strategic Command said Wednesday, less than a month after terming this a work in progress.

“I do not believe that we need new explicit authorities to conduct offensive operations of any kind,” Air Force General Robert Kehler said in the latest sign of quickening U.S. military preparations for possible cyber warfare.

By Jim Wolf

(Reuters) – The command responsible for U.S. military space operations lacks enough data to determine who interfered with two U.S. government satellites, anomalies behind perhaps the most explosive charge in a report on China sent to the U.S. Congress on Wednesday.

“What I have seen is inconclusive,” General Robert Kehler, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, said in a teleconference from Omaha, Nebraska, home to the military outfit that conducts U.S. space and cyberspace operations.

WASHINGTON, Nov 16 (Reuters) – China’s economy is moving up
the value chain and its currency could “mount a challenge” to the
U.S. dollar in five to 10 years, a congressionally created
commission reported Wednesday.

Gone are the days when Beijing was content to be the low-end
factory of the world, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review
Commission said in its 2011 report to the U.S. Congress.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The sun’s abundant energy, if harvested in space, could provide a cost-effective way to meet global power needs in as little as 30 years with seed money from governments, according to a study by an international scientific group.

Orbiting power plants capable of collecting solar energy and beaming it to Earth appear “technically feasible” within a decade or two based on technologies now in the laboratory, a study group of the Paris-headquartered International Academy of Astronautics said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The sun’s abundant energy, if harvested in space, could provide a cost-effective way to meet global power needs in as little as 30 years with seed money from governments, according to a study by an international scientific group.

Orbiting power plants capable of collecting solar energy and beaming it to Earth appear “technically feasible” within a decade or two based on technologies now in the laboratory, a study group of the Paris-headquartered International Academy of Astronautics said.

WASHINGTON, Nov 10 (Reuters) – The U.S. Navy said Thursday
it was penalizing shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc for management lapses on a destroyer program.

The Naval Sea Systems Command said 5 percent of progress
payments were being withheld on a $697.6 million contract
awarded in September for a new Arleigh Burke-class destroyer.

, Nov 7 (Reuters) – The Pentagon’s advanced
research arm said on Monday it is boosting efforts to build
offensive cyber arms for possible keyboard-launched U.S.
military attacks against enemy targets.

The military needs “more and better options” to meet cyber
threats to a growing range of industrial and other systems
controlled by computers vulnerable to penetration, including
cars, Regina Dugan, director of the Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency, told a first-of-its kind conference.