Defense
Monday, May 27, 2013
Top Story
4/16/2013
Research Study
Introduction
The case for focusing on air dominance has its roots in the most successful of U.S. military operations. One built around it was the invasion of Normandy. Air dominance was the basis of the whole plan as briefed to General George Marshall in early
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Features
2/27/2013
Research Study
Introduction
The United States has enjoyed global air dominance for many decades. No U.S. soldier on the ground has been killed by hostile aircraft since the Korean War, and no U.S. pilot in
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2/7/2013
Research Study
Historically the focus of the defense acquisition and sustainment system has swung pendulum-like between two policy objectives. At one end of the arc, the goal is effectiveness: insuring that the military
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10/3/2012
Research Study
Findings In Brief
The U.S. Air Force operates a fleet of six dozen intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft based on the old Boeing 707 airframe that are essential to the
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Defense Articles
| 12/23/2008 |
Issue Brief
Like Ebenezer Scrooge awakening on Christmas morning to the error of his ways, George W. Bush has belatedly discovered the danger of relying too much on market forces. Last week he agreed to provide
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| 12/17/2008 |
Issue Brief
The approval rate for the U.S. Congress has never been very high; it is one of the few political institutions that ranks below outgoing President Bush in the public’s favor. They are accused and convicted
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| 12/16/2008 |
Issue Brief
On December 10 the New York Times ran a lengthy story by Christopher Drew about the Air Force's F-22 fighter, saying that Pentagon plans to terminate production of the plane put President-elect Barack
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| 12/10/2008 |
Remarks to the Aerospace Industries Association Communications Council
This is just about the bleakest holiday season I can remember, thanks to the unwinding of economic excesses that built up earlier in the decade.
I'm sure holidays were much worse during the Great
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| 12/9/2008 |
Issue Brief
In October of 2000, during the waning days of the Clinton Administration, the Department of the Navy awarded the biggest information-services contract in the history of the federal government. It was
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| 12/3/2008 |
Issue Brief
The aerospace industry has begun a campaign to convince the next administration that support of its programs will help bolster the ailing economy. The industry's trade association paid for a full-page
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| 11/21/2008 |
Research Study
• Digital networks are the nervous system of our civilization, essential to commerce and culture. The entire economy, from banking to utilities to manufacturing to healthcare, relies on internet-style
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| 11/18/2008 |
Issue Brief
During the recent presidential campaign, Democratic candidate Barack Obama stressed in his principle defense position paper the need to preserve our military's "unparalleled air power" and capacity for
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| 11/12/2008 |
Issue Brief
Many Americans find economics boring. For such people, Republican economics in the era of Bush and Reagan has been a godsend. The Republican economic model basically says, "deregulate everything, and
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| 11/7/2008 |
Issue Brief
Vice President-elect Joe Biden was wrong when he said, “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy.” Well, it was more like six hours. Yesterday, as other
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| 11/7/2008 |
Research Study
Cargo loaders are essential to air mobility at major US aerial ports and rugged overseas bases. C-130s, C-17s, giant C-5s and a wide range of contract airlifters from 747s to Russian Antonovs all share
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| 11/4/2008 |
Research Study
Chemical and biological agents, whether in the form of weapons employed by terrorists or rogue states, toxic spills or naturally occurring pandemics, pose a significant risk to the u.s. homeland. The
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| 10/28/2008 |
Issue Brief
With America's economy facing the worst outlook in three generations, it isn't hard to figure out where the next administration -- the Obama Administration -- will focus most of its attention. What could
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| 10/21/2008 |
Issue Brief
Pentagon policymakers tentatively decided this weekend to terminate a competition for the military's next generation of communications satellites. The program was supposed to give each warfighter easy,
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| 10/14/2008 |
Issue Brief
The Reagan Revolution has collapsed. Over the next eight years a resurgent Democratic Party will raise taxes, re-regulate the economy and rethink free trade. Judging from the size of the nation's trade
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| 10/11/2008 |
Issue Brief
To a casual observer, the drumbeat of negative news about naval shipbuilding must make it sound as though the entire fleet modernization program is in disarray. The Navy Secretary canceled contracts
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| 10/7/2008 |
Issue Brief
Over the last eight years, America's military has been transformed. Unfortunately, it has been transformed as much by the actions of our adversaries as by the vision of change that President Bush's Pentagon
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| 10/1/2008 |
Presentation
Today marks the beginning of a new federal fiscal year, and it doesn't take great insight to grasp that this year's budget deliberations are likely to be a bit different from those of previous years.
For
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| 9/30/2008 |
Issue Brief
In mid-summer the Navy outraged some of its strongest supporters on Capitol Hill by proposing to end a next-generation destroyer program after building only two vessels, potentially squandering billions
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| 9/22/2008 |
Issue Brief
The global community is gradually moving to ban conventional weapons that are deemed too indiscriminate in their effects to comply with prevailing standards of behavior in wartime. Weapons such as land
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| 9/18/2008 |
Issue Brief
Here's a quick quiz about national security. What is the single greatest danger to America's survival? Global terrorism? Biological warfare? Cyber attacks? Nope, none of the above. The biggest threat
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| 9/17/2008 |
Presentation to the Air Force Assn. Annual Conference
The topic of today's panel is the decline of American air dominance and its implications for the Air Force's future roles.
Since my friend Rebecca Grant has already explained why it is essential for
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| 9/17/2008 |
Research Study
The Navy and Marine Corps are implementing network-centric warfare concepts to cope with a diverse array of emerging threats. Wireless networks enable the sea services to apply limited warfighting assets
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| 9/15/2008 |
Research Study A Joint Publication of Iris Independent Research and the Lexington Institute
America has counted on bombers for tough missions for decades, but the bomber fleet will struggle to do its job as a capability void opens after 2015.
Talk of a new bomber has come in fits and starts
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| 9/10/2008 |
Research Study Presented to the Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States
The term strategic posture generally is associated with the means and methods by which nations pursue their national interests -- principally military forces and the way they are organized and employed.
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| 9/9/2008 |
Issue Brief
Presidential campaigns are so much about posturing that it's easy to miss what's really going on. Take national security policy. John McCain and Barack Obama want you to think they represent diametrically
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| 8/28/2008 |
Research Study A Joint Study by the Center for American Progress and the Lexington Institute
Sea-based missile defense options are expanding. The fleet is rapidly evolving from a limited, experimental system to an operational, battle-ready missile defense capability. Since 2002, there have been
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| 8/18/2008 |
Issue Brief
During its eight years in office, the Bush Administration has tried to transform every facet of the military enterprise. In some areas, such as joint cooperation against irregular threats, it has made
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| 8/15/2008 |
Presentation
I wish to thank Mr. Hughes and the Strategic Posture Commission for this opportunity to speak on an issue of great and growing importance to U.S. national security. This effort is long past due if the
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| 8/6/2008 |
Issue Brief
The United States currently accounts for nearly half of all global military expenditures. There is reason to believe that the armed forces will need to make do with less money in the future. But the
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| 8/6/2008 |
Issue Brief
In October, 2001, five people were killed and twelve injured when a series of anthrax laced letters were sent to major U.S. news organizations and prominent members of Congress. Now, seven years later,
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| 7/31/2008 |
Issue Brief
Surveys of public opinion indicate that consumer confidence is very low and four out of five voters think the nation is on the wrong track. President Bush gets much of the blame for the public’s pessimism.
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| 7/30/2008 |
Research Study
For more than fifty years the United States has maintained the world’s preeminent military. Now, at the beginning of a new century, the continued dominance of that force may be in serious jeopardy. Future
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| 7/22/2008 |
Issue Brief
Some of the saddest stories to come out of recent military conflicts concern children who found the unexploded remains of cluster bombs. Cluster bombs are designed to neutralize a wide area by carpeting
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| 7/16/2008 |
Issue Brief
This summer marks the tenth anniversary of a powerful metaphor for the decline of U.S. air power. Air Force Gen. David Deptula was piloting his F-15C fighter (supposedly the best fighter in the world)
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| 6/30/2008 |
Issue Brief
Despite being the land of plenty – even excess – in recent years the United States has experienced an epidemic of eating disorders. One of these, Bulimia, a condition reported to have afflicted the late
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| 6/24/2008 |
Issue Brief
The Government Accountability Office's stinging rebuke of the Air Force tanker competition last week was so sweeping that some observers say a new award may not be made for years. That would be very
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| 6/23/2008 |
Remarks to the Congressional Missile Defense Conference
I want to spend ten minutes today explaining why missile defense is more feasible and desirable now than it was during the cold war.
Let me begin with a little bit of history.
The missile defense
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| 6/23/2008 |
Remarks to the Congressional Missile Defense Conference
Over the past seven years, the Bush Administration fundamentally changed the face of U.S. missile defense. In so doing, it has significantly improved this Nation’s ability to defend against ballistic
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| 6/20/2008 |
Issue Brief
As Air Force planners struggle to balance their final budget request for this disappointing decade, it is becoming increasingly apparent that many of the service's planes will require the aerospace equivalent
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| 6/10/2008 |
Issue Brief
The forced resignation of the Air Force's top civilian and uniform leaders last week is the latest chapter in a chronicle of decline that has been unfolding for decades. The political influence of U.S.
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| 6/9/2008 |
Presentation to the 2008 Air Force Strategy Conference
What are Black Swans?
The term Black Swan comes from a book by Nassim Taleb, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. The title derives from the fact that in Europe all swans were
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| 6/4/2008 |
Issue Brief
If you think that having three surface warfare officers in a row at the helm of the U.S. Navy has created a bias in favor of surface combatants, then you must not be paying attention to news about naval
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| 6/2/2008 |
Issue Brief
The post-Bush missile defense debate is already underway inside the Beltway and the Pentagon. One of the primary focuses is what role the U.S. Navy will play in the wake of their highly successful Aegis
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| 5/28/2008 |
Issue Brief
It is now three months since the Air Force shocked the world by awarding the contract for its next-generation aerial-refueling tanker to Northrop Grumman and the European parent of Airbus. Throughout
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| 5/20/2008 |
Issue Brief
Imagine that in 1902, Secretary of War Elihu Root had told President Teddy Roosevelt the difficulty of suppressing the Philippine Insurrection proved future weapons would need to be useful in conducting
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| 5/16/2008 |
Issue Brief
Many of you may remember the famous Peanuts cartoons in which Lucy would play the psychiatrist, offering to diagnose Charlie Brown’s problems for five cents a session. Well, a new therapist has hung
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| 5/15/2008 |
Issue Brief
The conventional wisdom about American politics is that the nation has become deeply polarized since the Vietnam War, with voters increasingly crowding to opposite extremes of the political spectrum.
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| 5/12/2008 |
Presentation to the Heritage Foundation Seminar for Journalists
The next president will confront a series of national security challenges that are in many ways as daunting as those made by President’s Truman and Eisenhower at the start of the Cold War. Then the challenges
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| 5/6/2008 |
Issue Brief
It is now nearly 20 years since the Berlin Wall was breached, providing a powerful symbol of communism's impending collapse. That event also marked the end of an era in American defense planning, because
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| 4/29/2008 |
Issue Brief
If you want to understand how former allies end up going to war -- or former lovers end up getting divorced -- take a look at how Boeing and the Air Force are treating each other in their angry confrontation
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| 4/24/2008 |
Issue Brief
Remember the Reagan Revolution? It's over. For 30 years, the political system has been dismantling the burden of taxes and regulations imposed on the economy by the New Deal. When Ronald Reagan won
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| 4/22/2008 |
Presentation to Jane's Cityforum Defense Conference
I have been asked to spend 15 minutes describing the "givens" of U.S. defense acquisition through 2012, meaning the things that we can assume with high confidence will happen.
I will divide my discussion
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| 4/15/2008 |
Issue Brief
On July 9, 1861, as the Union mobilized to fight the Confederacy, the New York Times editorialized that the War Department was too corrupt to equip soldiers successfully: "It would seem as if some potent
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| 4/11/2008 |
Research Study
• The Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) program is a family of ground combat vehicles and unmanned reconnaissance aircraft tied together by a high-capacity wireless network. It is the centerpiece of
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| 4/8/2008 |
Issue Brief
What's wrong with this picture? The Air Force plans to spend over a hundred billion dollars to buy 2,000 new fighters, but it can't find the money to upgrade a handful of radar planes with better technology
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| 4/2/2008 |
Issue Brief
Military expert Anthony Cordesman claims the Bush Administration has fielded "the worst wartime national security team in United States history." That's pretty harsh. LBJ and Nixon managed to squander
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| 3/25/2008 |
Issue Brief
The growing rift between the Bush Administration and Pakistan’s new government over how to deal with militants operating in tribal areas along the Afghan border is a reminder that America’s global war
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| 3/20/2008 |
Issue Brief
It looks like the economic history of the Bush era is going to end much the same way it began: with the government struggling to prevent a recession from turning into a depression. The downturn in President
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| 3/12/2008 |
Issue Brief
When Boeing executives heard last week that they had failed to beat Northrop Grumman in any of the five selection criteria for the Air Force's future aerial-refueling tanker, they were incredulous. Their
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| 3/10/2008 |
Issue Brief
In a recent report on the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) program to deploy advanced detectors of nuclear materials, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) focuses on minutiae and fails to
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| 3/5/2008 |
Issue Brief
On February 20, 2008 a single modified Standard 3 missile (SM-3) launched by the Aegis cruiser Lake Erie hit and destroyed an errant U.S. intelligence satellite some 130 miles above the Earth.
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| 3/3/2008 |
Issue Brief
Last week Northrop Grumman and European partner EADS confounded expectations by beating incumbent Boeing for the contract to build the Air Force's next-generation aerial refueling tanker. The initial
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| 2/25/2008 |
Presentation to Army Leaders at the RAND Arroyo Center
Thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight, discussing what may be the single most neglected factor in Army plans for the future.
That factor is politics -- the process by which we periodically
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| 2/20/2008 |
Issue Brief
Today's Democratic Party is so stridently opposed to the war in Iraq that it's hard to believe the same party presided over most of the big military buildups of the last century. Sometimes it seems more
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| 2/20/2008 |
Issue Brief
The recent surge of forces in Iraq has proven so successful that the Army may soon begin revisiting prewar plans for the rationalization of its domestic logistics network. Supply centers and repair depots
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| 2/12/2008 |
Issue Brief
When you consider how much money Americans spend on defense -- about $4 trillion so far in this decade alone -- it's amazing what a poor job we do of maintaining our military arsenal. In the years since
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| 2/4/2008 |
Issue Brief
Today, the Bush Administration requested that Congress provide the Department of Defense with a baseline budget of $515 billion in fiscal 2009 (beginning October 1 of this year). It also requested $21
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| 2/1/2008 |
Research Study
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is being developed to meet the future needs of three U.S. military services and eight foreign allies for an agile, affordable multi-role aircraft. It is expected to be the
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| 1/30/2008 |
Issue Brief
With several of the big networking initiatives begun during Donald Rumsfeld's tenure as defense secretary beginning to implode, many observers are curious why the Army remains so committed to its Future
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| 1/22/2008 |
Issue Brief
Running the Pentagon isn't most people's idea of fun. The hours are long, the criticism is constant, and the pay isn't much higher than the median household income in nearby Fairfax County. So it is
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| 1/15/2008 |
Issue Brief
Sometime in February, the Pentagon's Defense Acquisition Board will meet to ratify a plan for what looks likely to be the biggest purchase of wide-body aircraft in the world during the early decades of
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| 1/8/2008 |
Issue Brief
Next weekend the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, Virginia will be hosting D.C. Big Flea, the biggest flea market in the mid-Atlantic states. If you are still looking for that flintlock musket to put
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| 1/4/2008 |
Research Study
This report aims to look at the broad issue of maritime security in international waters, and its implications for United States policy. The topics addressed include conventional military threats, pirates
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