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Defense

Defense

Friday, September 3, 2010
Top Story
9/1/2010
Issue Brief
It is now four years since the defense department decided it didn't need to develop two different engines for its single-engine F-35 fighter, and stopped requesting money for the second engine. Since that time, the United Technologies engine that it decided to stick with
Features
8/10/2010
Issue Brief
History will remember Robert Gates as the defense secretary who averted U.S. military defeat in Iraq. Right now, though, he is struggling to prevent a different kind of military setback: congressional
8/4/2010
Issue Brief
Last week, the top executives of the U.S. defense industry met with defense secretary Robert Gates and his key subordinates to discuss Pentagon plans for reducing the cost of doing business. Gates told
7/20/2010
Issue Brief
Defense department acquisition chief Ashton Carter has begun an efficiency initiative aimed at reducing overhead costs by $100 billion during the 2012-2016 period. Carter notes that most of the Pentagon's
Defense Articles
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9/1/2010
Issue Brief
It is now four years since the defense department decided it didn't need to develop two different engines for its single-engine F-35 fighter, and stopped requesting money for the second engine. Since
8/10/2010
Issue Brief
History will remember Robert Gates as the defense secretary who averted U.S. military defeat in Iraq. Right now, though, he is struggling to prevent a different kind of military setback: congressional
8/4/2010
Issue Brief
Last week, the top executives of the U.S. defense industry met with defense secretary Robert Gates and his key subordinates to discuss Pentagon plans for reducing the cost of doing business. Gates told
7/20/2010
Issue Brief
Defense department acquisition chief Ashton Carter has begun an efficiency initiative aimed at reducing overhead costs by $100 billion during the 2012-2016 period. Carter notes that most of the Pentagon's
7/13/2010
Issue Brief
Inside the Navy, a defense newsletter, reported last week that Pentagon policymakers have decided to take the advice of the Government Accountability Office and review whether the business case
6/28/2010
Issue Brief
Sometime in the next two weeks, the Boeing Company and European aerospace giant EADS must submit their proposals for the next round of competition in the Air Force tanker solicitation. The deadline is
6/22/2010
Remarks to the BB&T Capital Markets Defense Teleconference
The defense business isn't like other sectors of the U.S. economy. There is only one customer that matters -- the federal government -- and that customer's behavior often diverges from what we would
6/14/2010
Issue Brief
Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates has delivered a series of speeches this year stressing the need to eliminate unnecessary military spending. Gates claims to have slashed future weapons spending by
6/8/2010
Issue Brief
On March 11, President Obama signed an executive order establishing a "national export initiative." The order implements his commitment in the State of the Union address to double U.S. exports over the
6/2/2010
Issue Brief
The U.S. Navy is conducting a highly successful effort to replace its aging fleet of maritime patrol planes with a military version of the Boeing 737 passenger jet. The planes will perform anti-surface
5/25/2010
Issue Brief
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is being developed to replace most of the Cold War tactical aircraft operated by three U.S. military services and nine allies. The success of the program depends on holding
5/19/2010
Executive Summary
Faced with the need to control the costs and improve the performance of its logistics and sustainment system, the Department of Defense has pursued a deliberate strategy of integrating better the private
5/19/2010
Remarks to the Price Waterhouse Coopers Executive Roundtable
Price Waterhouse Coopers has asked me to speak for the next hour about the defense outlook, which I have interpreted to mean the business outlook for U.S. military contractors over the next few years.
5/10/2010
Issue Brief
The only people celebrating at the Pentagon last week were the Mexicans working on renovating the building. Wednesday was Cinco de Mayo, a holiday for honoring Mexican history and culture. But our notoriously
5/5/2010
Issue Brief
It says a lot about the parlous state of federal finances that defense secretary Robert Gates thinks the Navy can't afford to keep buying the kinds of warships that currently populate its fleet. The
4/27/2010
Issue Brief
We certainly have come a long way since the first computer virus was created in Lahore, Pakistan in 1986. Today, some experts believe that a majority of all new software releases around the world involve
4/21/2010
Issue Brief
The European Aeronautic, Defense & Space Company (EADS) is back in the race to supply the Air Force with a next-generation aerial refueling tanker, announcing on April 20 that it would once again bid
4/13/2010
Issue Brief
With the best of intentions, Congress and the Obama Administration have implemented a series of acquisition-reform measures that are making the problem worse. Efforts to clarify the cost of programs
4/5/2010
Issue Brief
A recent story in Defense News by respected naval analyst Christopher Cavas has investors speculating about the future of Northrop Grumman's Avondale shipyard near New Orleans. The yard faces
3/29/2010
Issue Brief
After a long wait, the joint force is growing accustomed to using the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor in operational missions. However, it will probably take a good deal longer before Osprey missions become routine,
3/22/2010
Issue Brief
Last week brought both good news and bad news for the F-35 joint strike fighter, the biggest weapons program currently being funded by the Pentagon. On the plus side, the Marine version of the plane
3/17/2010
Issue Brief
The Lexington Institute today is releasing a study of European commercial-aircraft subsidies that documents the severe damage they have done to the U.S. aviation industry, and calls on the federal government
3/12/2010
Executive Summary
Sea mines have long posed a threat to the operations of U.S. sea-based forces. Since World War II, sea mines have damaged four times the number of U.S. naval vessels as all other means combined. The
3/8/2010
Issue Brief
Three U.S. military services are developing the F-35 joint strike fighter to replace their aging cold war aircraft and those of allies. The program is performing well in tests, but the key to its success
3/1/2010
Issue Brief
The U.S. Air Force is at the lowest ebb in its 63-year history. Although its capabilities still far surpass those of other air services around the world, it is gradually using up the arsenal it acquired
2/22/2010
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
2/16/2010
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
2/8/2010
Issue Brief
The 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review has produced the most competent, coherent report ever generated in the history of that much-maligned process. It is not a sweeping vision of military transformation,
2/1/2010
Issue Brief
Senior executives at Northrop Grumman have made a tentative decision not to bid in the Air Force's pending re-competition of its KC-X aerial-refueling tanker. Only a year ago, Northrop looked like the
1/25/2010
Issue Brief
On January 8, General Dynamics acquired a little-known product from a Virginia-based tech company that could prove to be one of the most valuable tactical intelligence tools the U.S. Army possesses.
1/20/2010
Issue Brief
You could say that the three biggest challenges facing the U.S. Navy's shipbuilding program are money, money, and money. The service has a clear vision of how to construct a networked, flexible fleet
1/11/2010
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,
1/4/2010
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,
12/14/2009
12/14/2009
Issue Brief
It has been an unsettling year for defense contractors. While industry profitability continues to ride the crest of record post-cold-war military spending, the Obama Administration has sent numerous
12/8/2009
Issue Brief
When Chinese agents penetrated the computers of the Obama campaign during the recent election season and stole many sensitive files, they pretty much guaranteed that the nation's next president would
11/30/2009
Issue Brief
If you don't follow the defense business closely, then you can be excused for believing that the F-35 joint strike fighter is in trouble. The $300 billion program to develop a stealthy, multirole tactical
11/17/2009
The Lexington Institute is organizing a Capitol Hill panel on defense acquisition reform on December 1, 2009. Confirmed speakers to date are: • Mr. David Berteau, Senior Advisor, Center for
11/17/2009
Issue Brief
After ten months of testing, the alternate engine that General Electric and Rolls Royce are building for the F-35 joint strike fighter has managed to run for a grand total of 52 hours, during which time
11/11/2009
The Star-Ledger (NJ)
Today marks the 90th anniversary of Veterans Day in America, and I would like to encourage all New Jersey residents to seek out and thank military veterans for their service to our country, especially
11/9/2009
Issue Brief
The Air Force's plan to conduct an expeditious re-competition of its future tanker program has run into trouble. An initial award was overturned when the Government Accountability Office found major
11/2/2009
Issue Brief
Last week, one of the two teams competing to provide the Air Force's future aerial-refueling tanker launched an unusual campaign to overturn the service's strategy for buying the plane. Northrop Grumman
10/27/2009
Issue Brief
The Army is in the process of recompeting the contract for a private company to operate and maintain what is the foundation of its ammunition supply chain, the Radford Army Ammunition Plant (RFAAP) in
10/26/2009
Issue Brief
When the U.S. Army marched off to war earlier in this decade, it took with it communications gear that was woefully inadequate for the demands of irregular warfare. Battlefield communications systems
10/19/2009
Issue Brief
Ever since Czech playwright Karel Capek introduced the concept of mechanical men in his 1921 drama, Rossum's Universal Robots, prophets have been predicting the imminent arrival of machines that
10/13/2009
Issue Brief
Few military missions are more dangerous than combat search and rescue (CSAR). Warfighters and noncombatants stranded in remote locations must be found and retrieved, often while enemies are doing their
10/7/2009
Issue Brief
It is now 20 years since the Soviet Union began breaking up, removing the threat to American survival that spawned the modern defense industry. Industry fortunes have oscillated wildly in the post-communist
10/2/2009
Presentation to the Gyro Club
Denver Athletic Club
Thank you for inviting me here today and making such good arrangements for my visit. I am always happy to be in Denver, where I have lots of family and friends and have spent a great deal of time since
10/1/2009
Issue Brief
Debate is raging on Capitol Hill about whether to buy ten more C-17 military airlifters. It’s astonishing, given that the C-17 is perfect for “the wars we are in” as the Pentagon likes to say. Right
9/28/2009
Issue Brief
The first thing to understand about the Air Force plan to buy a new aerial-refueling tanker is that it is just a tanker. A flying gas station. Either of the planes being proposed for the mission
9/22/2009
Issue Brief
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently cited an estimate that the United States accounts for nearly half of all global military spending. What he didn't mention was that since the current decade
9/17/2009
Issue Brief
On August 28, the U.S. Army's Tank, Automotive & Armaments Command awarded a $4 billion contract to the Oshkosh Corporation to build 23,000 medium-size trucks. The award was an upset win for Oshkosh,
9/10/2009
Issue Brief
If you are a paid Taliban operative or an Iraqi insurgent you may think you know how to slip through the mountains or skulk in the desert without U.S. forces noticing. Guess again. There’s a little
9/8/2009
Issue Brief
Defense secretary Robert Gates has finally found a weapons system he likes. After canceling or cutting back over a dozen major programs in April -- and setting the stage for additional cuts in the fiscal
9/3/2009
Issue Brief
U.S. commanders in Afghanistan are reporting worrisome advances in the battlefield performance of Taliban insurgents. Enemy discipline and morale seem to be improving, encouraged no doubt by the inability
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