Author Archives: Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

January 15, 2010Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Aegis Progress Raises Doubts About Need For CG(X) Missile Cruiser At the beginning of the decade, the U.S. Navy radically restructured its plans for modernizing surface combatants. The surface-combatant force structure traditionally had consisted of large cruisers, medium-sized destroyers, and frigates small enough to operate in shallow water. In 2001 [Read More...]

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

Marines Rush To Defend “Forcible Entry” Inside the Navy reports this week that the Marine Corps has launched a congressional lobbying campaign to undercut the Navy’s shipbuilding goals, citing a chart entitled “Marine Corps Shipbuilding Requirements” that was briefed on December 18. Among other things, the [Read More...]

January 13, 2010Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Restoring Fiscal Discipline Will Require Cuts In Defense Spending Tom Donnelly of the American Enterprise Institute has written a long rebuttal to my Monday issue brief, which argued that the Quadrennial Defense Review can never be what conservatives want it to be — a 20 year strategic plan insulated [Read More...]

January 12, 2010Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Navy Plans To Operate 11 Aircraft Carriers Through 2040 As the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review approaches its release date in early February, rumors have been flying about a possible cut in the number of aircraft carriers that the U.S. Navy operates. The Fleet currently contains eleven carriers, but according [Read More...]

January 11, 2010Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Why QDR Can’t Be What Conservatives Want It To Be Issue Brief The Heritage Foundation’s first security backgrounder of the new year says the Quadrennial Defense Review process is broken: “Instead of establishing a road map for defense programs for the next 20 years, previous QDRs have been too budget-driven, [Read More...]

January 11, 2010Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

U.S. Lost 47,000 Manufacturing Jobs Per Month Over Last Ten Years The federal government released December employment results for the economy last week. The manufacturing sector lost another 27,000 jobs, according to the Wall Street Journal. That may sound bad, but compared with the rest of the decade, it actually was [Read More...]

January 8, 2010Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Need For New Ballistic-Missile Sub Delays Development Of Virginia Replacement Here’s a paradox from the world of naval shipbuilding. The Navy’s need to begin development of a new ballistic-missile submarine in 2012 virtually guarantees that the Virginia-class attack sub will stay in production through 2025 — even though Virginia has [Read More...]

January 7, 2010Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Bloomberg Reveals F-35 Budget Changes; Big Shifts But Modest Revenue Impact Tony Capaccio of Bloomberg Business News scooped the competition yesterday by revealing Pentagon plans to make major budget adjustments to its biggest weapons program, the F-35 fighter. Capaccio reported that the fiscal 2011 budget request being sent to Congress in [Read More...]

January 5, 2010Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Northrop Grumman Bites The Bullet And Moves To D.C. In his first day on the job Monday, incoming Northrop Grumman CEO Wes Bush announced the company would move its corporate headquarters to the Washington area. The move is long overdue, given how tight the competition has become among the [Read More...]

January 4, 2010Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Each Big Defense Company Faces A Key Challenge In 2010 Issue Brief The Obama Administration’s fiscal 2011 defense request will exceed $700 billion. With $547 billion likely to be sought for regular defense spending and another $163 billion for overseas contingencies, 2011 looks like yet another year in which the [Read More...]