Author Archives: Daniel Gouré, Ph.D.
The Next Terrorist Challenge: Anti-Aircraft Missiles Israeli sources are reporting that the Hamas terrorist organization is deploying man-portable air defense missiles (MANPADs). Israeli air operations near the border with Gaza, the Hamas stronghold, have already been affected. The missiles in question are reported to be versions [Read More...]
British Defense Cuts May Be A Harbinger Of U.S. Military Trends Yesterday, the British government announced a series of major defense cuts. They were every bit as severe as early reports had suggested. Among the major decisions are reductions in the number of Army brigades, withdrawal of all British forces (20,000 [Read More...]
NATO Should Do Less, But Do It Well The original idea of NATO essentially as an alliance of equals standing shoulder to shoulder in the defense of one another is dead. It died with the demise of the Soviet Union and the end of the threat of massive [Read More...]
Britain’s Defense Review And The End Of NATO All leaks emerging out of the new British government’s defense review indicate a budgetary bloodbath is in the offing. Reports indicate that the review was seeking cuts as deep as 15 percent in the UK’s defense budget. Later reports suggested [Read More...]
A Third Way In Regional Security: Working With Allies A debate is heating up over how the U.S. should approach the security of regions of interest. One side of the debate, represented most recently by professor Robert Pape, argues for reduced U.S. presence on the ground overseas and reliance [Read More...]
JSF Program Creates Unique Sustainment Model The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program could be the single largest and most complex aircraft acquisition program of the 21st Century. The current plan is to produce some 2,440 planes to equip the US military and around 1,700 for [Read More...]
Obama Soon Will Be Rid Of His Meddlesome Secretary Of Defense Many recent commentaries on Bob Woodward’s new book about the strategic review the Obama Administration undertook before deciding on its current strategy for Afghanistan have remarked about the resistance from his military advisors to his efforts to find alternatives to [Read More...]
The Future Of Airborne ISR May Really Be Hot Air The great revolution to emerge from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts is airborne ISR. From having literally only a handful of manned and unmanned aerial ISR sensors at the start of these conflicts, the U.S. military now has almost ten [Read More...]
Army’s Poor Track Record On Armored Vehicle Modernization Has A Silver Lining If you were a betting person, what chances would you give the Army’s Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) program of actually producing a new system? The GCV is the Army’s attempt to salvage something from the debacle of the Future Combat [Read More...]
Improving Defense Efficiency Means Changing DoD’s Culture The Pentagon’s drive to improve acquisition efficiency is in full swing. Senior defense officials from the Secretary on down have adopted the mantra of efficiency as wholeheartedly as their predecessors did the slogan of transformation. Unfortunately, this attempt at reform [Read More...]