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June 2010
The world's preeminent trade body today released a detailed report documenting that European commercial-transport producer Airbus has engaged in predatory, illegal trade practices since it was first established in the 1970s. The World Trade Organization (WTO) said that Airbus has received a range
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6/30/2010
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev came to Silicon Valley in an effort to bring the world of modern technology and economics to his country. If he wanted to take a trip back in time and see what it might have been like in his country under Stalin he could have visited the Department of Defense (DoD).
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6/30/2010
The initial public reaction of senior defense-industry officials to the Pentagon's latest cost-cutting initiative was positive, but behind the scenes executives are confused and worried. They don't doubt the sincerity or logic of what defense acquisition czar Ashton Carter is trying to do in targeting
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6/29/2010
One little noticed decision reached at the G-20 Summit was to postpone the transfer of wartime command of allied forces on the Korean Peninsula, originally scheduled for April 2012, until 2015. According to President Obama, "This gives us appropriate time -- within the existing security context
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6/29/2010
The two chief beneficiaries of the collapse of the Bush presidency were Barack Obama and Robert Gates. Both have emerged as the Big Time Operators of our day, with Obama successfully engineering a broad social, tax and fiscal revolution, while Gates engineered the impossible comeback in Iraq, and
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6/28/2010
The Department of Defense today will propose a series of cost-cutting initiatives intended to reduce the budgetary burden of contracting for military goods and services. In meetings with industry executives, acquisition workers and the media, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology
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6/28/2010
The outcome of the Defense Acquisition Board's June 24 meeting on the future of the Global Hawk unmanned aerial system appears to have been a split decision, with some airframes and sensors approved while funding of others was deferred. The mixed outcome introduces an element of uncertainty into
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6/25/2010
There is so much misleading information about the F-35 joint strike fighter in the public record that I feel a need to return to the subject periodically in an attempt to provide some balance. I'm happy to say this time around, though, that for the first time this year the political prospects of
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6/24/2010
The Obama Administration has made much of its efforts to “push the reset” button with respect to the U.S.-Russian relationship. There is a new START agreement providing for modest reductions in the two countries’ strategic arsenals. Washington has gotten Russian agreement to a new round of sanctions
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6/24/2010
The problem with Gen. Stanley McChrystal isn't the childish things he and his aides said to reporter Michael Hastings of Rolling Stone. The real problem is that his strategy in Afghanistan isn't working. The troops hate it, the public is running out of patience, and if the Obama Administration
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6/23/2010
Andrew Roberts’ magnificent study of command relationships in World War II, Masters and Commanders, should be required reading for anyone responsible for the care and feeding of great minds and enormous egos. It is the story of two great political leaders, President Franklin Roosevelt and
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6/23/2010
What can you say to a military service that is faced with a shrinking force structure, increased demand for its services, growing threats and declining budgets? How about get ready for a train wreck; or in the case of the U.S. Navy, a shipwreck.
In a speech on June 8 at the Naval War College,
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6/22/2010
One of the Obama Administration’s most significant policy initiatives has been to reduce the role of private contractors in providing support to the federal government. The administration is concerned that private contractors were performing jobs that should be done only by government employees
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6/21/2010
Communications satellites are the glue that holds together America's global military posture. Without uplinks to orbital relay nodes, there would be no way for ships at sea or warfighters in remote locations such as Afghanistan to quickly and securely communicate with command authorities. The
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6/21/2010
Private contractors now constitute a “fifth” service along side the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. Like the uniformed military, some fight and even die supporting the nation’s missions in those two countries. The latest survey from CENTCOM reports some 250,000 private contractors operating
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6/18/2010
Navy secretary Ray Mabus is an inspired choice to lead the Obama Administration's Gulf Coast recovery initiative. When he was elected Mississippi's governor in 1988, he was the youngest politician to claim that post in over a century. He went on to distinguish himself as a strong advocate of public
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6/18/2010
It is a common sports adage that the best offense is a good defense, and the same can be said of war. To attack one must also be able to defend, yet the tactics employed by insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan reveal a fundamental weakness in our ability to do so. Fortunately, U.S. forces have a
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6/18/2010
Linda Hudson, the recently appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of BAE Systems Inc., informed workers this week that the company was being reorganized into five business units focused on either hardware or services. BAE Systems Inc. is the United States component of U.K.-based BAE Systems
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6/17/2010
The military services seem to be losing their intellectual way. Their responses to challenges, whether budgetary, technological, strategic or operational appear to be to do more of the same. They all rely on the mantra that the security environment is marked by uncertainty in order to make the case
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6/16/2010
Initial reaction to the selection of aviator James Amos as the next Commandant of the Marine Corps has been almost entirely positive. There is also much support for the apparent decision to make the charismatic Joe Dunford Assistant Commandant. Some insiders suspect that Amos will serve for two
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6/16/2010
Performance Based Logistics (PBL) is getting a bad rap in Pentagon and Congressional circles. PBL is an approach to acquiring services and support based on the totality of the requirements rather than just price. PBL bundles the activities associated with maintaining a weapons system or major component
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6/15/2010
The pace of merger and acquisition activity in the defense sector has quickened recently as company executives grow apprehensive about a potential downturn in military demand beginning with the 2012 budget. Because there is only one customer who matters in the defense business -- the federal government
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6/15/2010
As U.S. defense spending begins to decline the Obama Administration needs to give greater attention to foreign military sales of U.S. weapons systems. Foreign military sales help the U.S. balance of payments and retains high paying, mostly union jobs. In addition, such sales reduce the price for
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Date:
6/14/2010
China is the great economic success story of the new millennium. Its economic growth has outpaced that of every other industrialized country, and it now routinely out-produces America in such basic commodities as aluminum, steel and cement. Under the watchful eye of a highly interventionist central
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Date:
6/14/2010
You'd think that 180 years after farm boy Abraham Lincoln began his political career on the American frontier, we'd have a little more perspective than he did on what it takes to sustain democracy. Well, guess again. Despite his lack of formal education, young Lincoln saw with remarkable clarity
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6/11/2010
The Obama Administration’s strategy for success in Afghanistan depends heavily on the Coalition’s ability to create a large and effective Afghan National Police (ANP) force. After years of well-documented failure and nearly $7 billion, the U.S. State Department was removed as the agency responsible
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6/11/2010
The Obama Administration plan to reorganize America's manned space-flight program is making rapid progress on at least one front: dismantling what was inherited from previous administrations. The last mission of the Space Shuttle is now only five months away, after which the United States will
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Date:
6/10/2010
In the wake of his announcement that the United States will be reducing its defense expenditures and force structure over the next five years, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates went to Europe to plead with the NATO countries not to shrink their militaries any further. According to press reports,
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6/10/2010
The U.S. Department of Defense plans to spend over $200 billion in fiscal 2011 on operations and maintenance. That's more than any other country spends on its entire military establishment. Some observers think "O&M" is a good place to look for savings as Secretary Gates initiates a multi-year
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6/9/2010
Faced with essentially flat defense budgets, increasing personnel costs and the need to recapitalize an aging force structure, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has a plan to save $100 billion over five years. Two-thirds of the savings are supposed to come from reducing overhead and one-third from
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Date:
6/9/2010
When President Obama's job-approval rating dipped below 50% for the first time during Thanksgiving week last year, some observers concluded that the long honeymoon the new president had enjoyed with voters had finally come to an end. Presidents who can't elicit at least a 50% approval rating from
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6/9/2010
There have been many reports, studies and books written about the lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan for the conduct of irregular warfare. The military services are embedding the combat lessons learned in their operating concepts, doctrine, tactics and force structure.
Less well documented and
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6/8/2010
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently turned what had been a simmering debate over the future of the U.S. military into a full-fledged conflagration. In a series of speeches he questioned both the long-term viability and the affordability of the current force structure. He noted the operational
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Date:
6/7/2010
The Boeing Company disclosed today that it intends to be a bidder in the competition to build a next-generation presidential helicopter. It said it had purchased the rights to build a domestic version of the AgustaWestland EH101 helicopter -- the same rotorcraft that Lockheed Martin offered in
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Date:
6/7/2010
One of the most important lessons not only of the Cold War but of the new conflicts beginning in the late 20th century is the value of collective military capabilities. NATO is the archetype of the way to pursue collective defense. First, there is the integrated military command structure. Second,
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6/4/2010
I was born in 1951, part of the postwar surge in child-bearing that came to be known as the Baby Boom. The Baby Boom was preceded by relatively low birthrates during the Depression and the War, and it was followed by a more drawn out "baby bust" that probably traces its origins to the wide availability
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6/4/2010
When Israel enforces its blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza it is criticized by a large part of the world. When the U.S. employs unmanned aerial systems (or drones) to attack Al Qaeda and Taliban targets in half a dozen countries around the world, its actions are met with silence. What is the difference?
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Date:
6/3/2010
In the two decades since the Cold War ended, the world has undergone a technological revolution. Every facet of commerce and culture has been reshaped by the growing ubiquity of digital sensors, processors and networks. We tend not to notice how dependent we are on these new technologies until
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Date:
6/3/2010
The Obama Administration is worried increasingly about the danger posed by homegrown terrorism. In the past year there has been the Zazi plot to blow up the Grand Central and Times Square subway stations in New York, the Christmas Day airline bomber and the attempt to detonate a car bomb in Times
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Date:
6/2/2010
The F-35 joint strike fighter has survived a Nunn-McCurdy review required of all weapons systems that exceed so-called "critical" thresholds for cost increases. Defense acquisition czar Ashton Carter will tell Congress this week that the program is essential to national security, is grounded in
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Date:
6/1/2010
Following its success in negotiating a new START Treaty with Russia, the Obama Administration and the Global Zero posse are energized to move forward on their plan for the elimination all nuclear weapons. Those who think that it is a bad idea for the U.S. to pursue further deep reductions in strategic
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Date:
6/1/2010