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November 2011
The consensus around Washington is that the failure of the super committee to reach agreement on $1.2 billion in deficit reduction over ten years was a setback for just about everybody involved. Congress showed that it could not achieve a compromise. President Obama demonstrated he has no power
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Date:
11/30/2011
The defense department's logistics system and supply chain face unprecedented challenges. Most obvious is the continuing and growing pressure on defense budgets. Pentagon officials have begun to focus on reducing costs in the supply chain in their attempts to cope with budget woes. There is the
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Date:
11/30/2011
GPS III is beginning to look like "Exhibit A" in the Air Force's case that it has fixed its once-broken space acquisition culture. Both the overhead and ground segments of the next-generation Global Positioning System, known as GPS III, are on budget and on schedule as they progress steadily to
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Date:
11/30/2011
One of the legendary events in the history of U.S. defense planning is a dinner that was held in 1993 between senior officials of the Department of Defense and some fifteen CEOs of the major U.S. defense industries. The story, as recounted by Norm Augustine, then chief executive of Martin Marietta,
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Date:
11/29/2011
I spent much of the day before Thanksgiving in the emergency room of a hospital barely a mile from Plymouth Rock. My 93-year-old mother was experiencing a spike in her blood pressure, and although she showed no signs of distress the healthcare protocols at her assisted-living facility dictated
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Date:
11/29/2011
When President Obama journeys to Scranton, Pennsylvania this week to discuss his jobs bill, he isn't going to have much to say about jobs in the defense sector. That's probably a tactical error for a president seeking reelection, because there are several sizable defense plants in the Scranton
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Date:
11/28/2011
In 2009 the Obama Administration cancelled the plan to deploy a version of the U.S. national missile defense system in Europe, the so-called Third Site. Instead, the White House proposed a tailored regional missile defense based on its Phased Adaptive Architecture (PAA) concept that sought to leverage
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Date:
11/28/2011
This is not the first time the Department of Defense (DoD) has faced significant, even “draconian” spending cuts. This will be the fourth turn of the boom-and-bust screw over the past sixty years. The last time we went through one of these cycles was over the ten years between FY 1989 and FY 1998 when
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Date:
11/23/2011
The number-one question that moderators should be putting to candidates for the Republican presidential nomination at tonight's defense debate is how they would maintain robust military spending in the absence of tax increases without borrowing more money from China. If they don't have a coherent response,
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Date:
11/22/2011
There is a mistaken notion floating around Washington that even if the super committee fails to arrive at a deficit reduction agreement this is no big deal because the reductions do not go into effect until January 2013. The theory goes that Congress will have plenty of time to undo the law or protect
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Date:
11/21/2011
Aviation Week & Space Technology reports today that the nation's biggest weapons development program has surpassed its testing goals for calendar year 2011, and is on track to do the same in 2012. The goal for 2011 was 872 flight tests, and as of last Thursday, 875 had been completed. This
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Date:
11/21/2011
After spending the past three days with the Army’s latest Network Integration Evaluation (NIE), I can make three observations. The first is that today’s soldiers are absolutely amazing individuals. From privates all the way up to generals they demonstrate a combination of brains, initiative, determination,
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Date:
11/18/2011
The senior leadership of the U.S. Army is becoming a bigger threat to the Bradley Fighting Vehicle than insurgents in Southwest Asia. The service's top uniformed acquisition official, Lt. Gen. William Phillips, told Congress on October 26 that the Bradley is "the second-most attrited vehicle" in
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Date:
11/18/2011
Out in the West Texas desert, at the White Sands Missile Range, a miracle is unfolding. For the last three weeks, the Army has been conducting the latest in a series of what it is calling a Network Integration Evaluation (NIE). The immediate goal of the NIE is to evaluate the suitability of near-term
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Date:
11/17/2011
Robert Ewers of Height Analytics put out a note on November 16 suggesting that full-scale sequestration of defense funds under the Budget Control Act is unlikely to occur given the devastating consequences. Among the consequences he cites are a ten-percent year-over-year decline in fiscal 2013
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Date:
11/17/2011
If you need evidence that the Joint Chiefs of Staff weren't exaggerating when they told Congress that budget cuts threaten military modernization, just look at what's happening inside the Air Force. The service is proposing to kill a next-generation weather satellite, which would leave U.S. warfighters
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Date:
11/15/2011
Today, if you were given the choice between operating a company specializing in subprime mortgages or running a private defense company you might want to seriously consider the former. In the subprime mortgage business all you have to contend with is customers who often haven't the money for a reasonable
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Date:
11/15/2011
Even if politicians don't notice how many of the Air Force's major commands are located in "swing" states like Colorado, Illinois and Virginia, there's good reason to believe the service will experience a renaissance in the years ahead. First, the locus of global security concerns is shifting to
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Date:
11/14/2011
There is one international organization that has contributed more than all the others combined to creating the current international system and ensuring the relative peace, stability and prosperity of the world. No, it is not the United Nations. No, it is not the International Monetary Fund. It
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Date:
11/11/2011
Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has maintained his status as likely GOP presidential nominee in 2012, and early speculation is starting on his most important personnel decision: a nominee for Vice President. The VP choice is important, because the Vice President of the United States
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Date:
11/11/2011
Army insiders are worried about the fate of their modernization program. The gifted Gen. Martin Dempsey was unexpectedly elevated to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs after a brief run as the Army's senior officer, and now his respected deputy, Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli, is preparing
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Date:
11/11/2011
I'm an Independent. I voted for Bush in 2000 and Obama in 2008. The 2012 presidential election is about voters like me -- voters who can see the good and the bad in both parties, and therefore are open to persuasion by either. One advantage of not being an ideologue or a partisan loyalist is
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Date:
11/10/2011
When it is not focused on the repetitive crisis in the European Union, Washington’s attention, including that of the Pentagon, is increasingly focused on Asia, in general, and China, in particular. This is understandable for economic, political, demographic and security reasons. China’s march towards
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Date:
11/9/2011
For nearly a decade now, diversification has been the "D" word in the defense industry -- the strategy that dare not speak its name. But conditions have deteriorated so badly in military markets that companies are contemplating expansion into adjacent areas, and even further afield. It's not just
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Date:
11/8/2011
The process of defense industry restructuring which began with ITT’s spinoff of its defense electronics group is picking up speed. Yesterday, General Dynamics announced that it was acquiring armored vehicle maker Force Protection. The GD move expands its portfolio by adding FP’s large installed
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Date:
11/8/2011
The Department of Defense (DoD) is faced with an impossible problem. It needs to find a minimum of $480 billion in savings over the next ten years. At the same time, the Pentagon cannot forego its responsibilities to maintain the military arm of the world’s sole superpower, one with global interests,
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Date:
11/7/2011
Imagine you were planning to hike the entire Appalachian Trail -- all 2,181 miles from Georgia to Maine -- without stopping to replenish supplies. What would you set out with in your backpack? The answer is obvious. Almost everything you carried would be food or water, because that's what you
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Date:
11/7/2011
The modern international system was created by Europe and, for the last 65 years, has been largely maintained by the United States with help from allies across the globe. Now, as both the United States and Europe face their worst financial crises in post-war history they are looking for ways to
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Date:
11/4/2011
The federal government's biggest provider of information technology and services is moving to leverage its fast-growing cyber-security business in new areas by creating a senior executive to pursue opportunities in "regulated and adjacent markets." The new executive, who has not been publicly identified,
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Date:
11/4/2011
Yesterday, the chiefs of the military services spoke before Congress with a single voice to deliver a simple message: the $600 billion in additional spending cuts required if the super committee fails and sequestration is triggered would be disastrous for the military. According to the Army’s new
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Date:
11/3/2011
Over 2,000 years ago, Chinese strategist Sun Tzu cited the five fundamental factors in warfare on the first page of his seminal treatise, The Art of War. They were (1) morale, (2) weather, (3) terrain, (4) command, and (5) doctrine. If you've ever tried to fly a plane in fog or drive a
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Date:
11/3/2011
Oh no. This is terrible. The program that critics of defense spending love to hate is becoming a normal acquisition program. What are the F-35 deniers to do? Well, they could go after the V-22 Osprey. Whoops, that’s not a good answer. The Osprey is performing amazingly well in combat and has the
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Date:
11/2/2011
There was a time when the Pentagon's idea of smart acquisition practices meant things like multiyear contracts and avoiding excessive testing. Not now. The current approach to promoting efficiency in weapons purchases is mainly about shifting risk to industry and cutting the performance of next-generation
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Date:
11/2/2011
The debate in the West over the future of warfare has been going on for almost two decades now. Two questions dominate the debate. The first is the extent to which information technologies (IT), overall, but specifically cyber capabilities, would shape future warfare. The second is the extent of
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Date:
11/1/2011