Megan Scully of CongressDaily reports that, in crafting the 2008 defense policy bill, lawmakers reduced the “specialty metals” pain delivered by the “Buy America” rule in last year’s defense bill. Supporters of the Buy America provision say the new bill, which is on its way to the President for signature, provides a compromise that still supports domestic metals suppliers. Many in the defense industry had complained about the earlier provision, which they believed was overly restrictive, citing the expense in trying to determine the origins of various metals. The Pentagon had to issue waivers to keep some critical products flowing.
RTX’s Raytheon unit was able to “significantly” extend the range of the AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile using mostly software changes in experimental tests last year, expanding the reach and lethality of the standard U.S. dogfighting weapon, company officials said Sept. 15.
