Author Archives: Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

February 26, 2010Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Tanker Dilemma: What Are Northrop Grumman’s Options? After four years and $200 million in expenses, Northrop Grumman may have reached a dead end in its bid to build the Air Force’s future aerial-refueling tanker. That can’t come as a total surprise to newly-minted CEO Wes Bush, who [Read More...]

February 25, 2010Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Tanker Strategy Triggers Northrop Commitment To Withdraw Even before the defense department unveiled its final strategy for acquiring a new aerial-refueling tanker yesterday, Northrop Grumman was deep into preparations for announcing that it would not bid. Pentagon officials had sent Northrop and its rival, Boeing, clear signals [Read More...]

February 24, 2010Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

C-17 Veto Threat: Pentagon Working Hard To Destroy U.S. Jobs (And Exports) If you want to understand why President Obama’s job-approval level has fallen to 38% among independents in Ohio — the most important “swing state” in the electoral system — then take a look at what our Republican-holdover defense secretary is [Read More...]

February 23, 2010Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

A Lesson For Army Planners: Stryker Mobility, Adaptability Really Matters In Afghanistan A story by Sean Naylor in Defense News this week about the success of the Army’s sole Stryker brigade in Afghanistan contains important lessons about how future armored vehicles should be designed. Naylor reports that eight-wheel Stryker armored vehicles are [Read More...]

February 22, 2010Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Is America Entering A Period Of Political Instability? Issue Brief Remember the optimism with which Americans greeted the new millennium? Everything seemed to be going our way: the U.S. economy was nearly a third of global output, household net worth was rising fast and the federal budget was [Read More...]

February 19, 2010Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Army Ground Combat Vehicle Plan May Be Unraveling When defense secretary Robert Gates recommended cancellation of the Army’s planned family of future combat vehicles last April, he emphasized the need to develop vehicles that incorporated the operational lessons of recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those lessons, which [Read More...]

February 17, 2010Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Are Republicans Losing Their Electoral Edge on Defense Issues? In the years after the Vietnam War, the nation’s increasingly polarized political parties became binary opposites of each other on virtually every policy issue. In general, Democrats wanted to throw money at domestic programs while slashing defense outlays, while Republicans [Read More...]

February 16, 2010Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Americans In Space: The Final Act Begins Issue Brief It is now nearly a quarter century since the Challenger Space Shuttle exploded, handing America’s manned space flight program its first big setback after a long string of successes. The years since then have been a continuous disappointment [Read More...]

February 16, 2010Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Aerospace & Defense Could Prove Crucial to Meeting Obama Export Goal The Democratic Leadership Council put out an interesting trade brief last week about President Obama’s pledge to double U.S. exports in five years. That pledge, contained in the president’s State of the Union speech, would require lifting total exports from [Read More...]

February 14, 2010Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Weapons Spending: Much of the Logic Behind Acquisition Reform is Flawed The Department of Defense has embarked on another crusade to reform the weapons acquisition process. It’s a worthwhile effort, because the department wastes billions of dollars every year on poorly managed programs and processes. But the ranks of military reformers [Read More...]