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July 2010
As domestic demand for military goods begins to soften, the U.S. defense industry is seeking to sustain profits by selling more of its products overseas. Although the United States already generates about two-thirds of all cross-border arms sales around the world, there appears to be considerable
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7/30/2010
On August 1 an international convention banning cluster munitions will enter into effect having been ratified by 30 countries. Another 75 have signed the convention but not fully ratified it. The convention prohibits signatory nations from using, developing, producing, acquiring, stockpiling, retaining
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7/30/2010
Every two years, the United States organizes and hosts the Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC). This is the world’s largest maritime exercise, this year involving some 32 ships, 5 submarines, more than 170 aircraft and 20,000 personnel. Participating countries include Australia, Canada, Chile,
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7/29/2010
The military balance across the Taiwan Straits appears to be moving inexorably against Taiwan. China continues to expand its array of ballistic missiles pointed at the island. The People’s Liberation Army is rapidly expanding its Navy with five new classes of submarines and a variety of surface
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7/28/2010
The Defense Business Board (DBB), a panel consisting of senior former defense officials, business executives and economists has just published its study of how the Department of Defense (DoD) can reduce overhead costs and improve business practices. According to the Board, if DoD were a corporation
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7/27/2010
News that Army leaders were impressed by the most recent demonstration of the battlefield network that Boeing developed for future armored forces is the latest indication that the aerospace behemoth's defense operations may be stabilizing after years of erosion. Boeing mounted a big push to grow
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7/26/2010
In a July 15 hearing before the House Subcommittee on Border, Maritime, and Global Counterterrorism, Nancy Malinowski, Vice President for System Operation Services at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), testified that despite unmanned aerial systems (UASs) being a promising technology, “the
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7/26/2010
As part of the stimulus package, President Obama provided billions of dollars to develop and operate high-speed passenger rail in the United States. The purpose is to replicate the high-speed rail transportation networks that exist in Europe, Japan and China. Unfortunately, this program is not likely
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7/26/2010
Reports are circulating that the Defense Business Board (DBB), a Pentagon advisory board of retired economic and business leaders, will recommend ways that the Department of Defense can reduce its costs. In keeping with Defense Secretary Gates’ focus on reducing overhead and redundant functions,
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7/23/2010
Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter called me today to clarify a key point about his ongoing efficiency drive. Carter said he was an avid reader of Lexington's briefs and liked this week's assessment of the efficiency initiative, but despite his polite and positive comments he was clearly
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7/23/2010
The great post-September 11 defense build up is drawing to a close. Over the last decade defense spending doubled. As the threat appears to be diminishing and as domestic economic difficulties loom large there are increasing calls to reduce defense budgets and the size of the military. Even those
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7/22/2010
Nuclear-powered warships are uniquely suited to America's global maritime role, because they have unlimited range and are less dependent on overseas logistics support than warships powered by fossil fuels. However, the special skills required to design and build such vessels are concentrated in
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7/22/2010
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has proposed a new deadline of 2014 for U.S. withdrawal from his country. The communiqué published this week at the end of an international conference in the capitol of Kabul and attended by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued a call for Afghan security forces
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7/21/2010
BAE Systems Inc. scored a major coup on Tuesday with the announcement that industry powerhouse Lawrence B. Prior III would depart the number-two position at ManTech International to become BAE's Executive Vice President for services. Prior will oversee all of BAE's U.S. intelligence and support
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7/21/2010
The last two days, Washington has been abuzz as a result of a serialized story in the Washington Post about what is often called the Intelligence Community (IC). The story suggests that the IC is big, expensive, cumbersome and not effective enough. What a shock; a government bureaucracy that
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7/20/2010
Last week's meeting between defense department officials implementing a new efficiency initiative and representatives from the defense industry did not go well. Although everybody in industry understands the need to cut costs, there is pervasive skepticism about the government's ability or willingness
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7/19/2010
The Obama Administration has been throwing money at so-called green technologies. Between $80 and $100 billion were included in the 2009 stimulus bill for a wide variety of green initiatives ranging from improving home insulation and high speed trains to research into batteries and improved solar
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7/19/2010
Northrop Grumman's disclosure this week that it may exit the naval shipbuilding business has generated a wave of speculation among investors about defense-industry consolidation. Investors have long known that demand for defense goods and services would soften as U.S. forces began to withdraw from
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7/16/2010
Wayne Biddle began his 1991 history of the aerospace industry, Barons of the Sky, with the observation that "corporations destroy history." Unless there is a legal requirement to maintain records, companies are usually too focused on the present to maintain detailed archives about their
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7/15/2010
If we accept the Obama Administration’s characterization of who we are fighting at home and abroad, it is inappropriate to use the military, perhaps even the CIA, to go after them. In a recent interview, Attorney General Eric Holder repeatedly rejected the idea that ideology was even part of the
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7/15/2010
Northrop Grumman disclosed on July 13 that it would consolidate naval shipbuilding operations on the Gulf Coast, and seriously consider exiting the shipbuilding business through a sale or spinoff of its yards. Chief Executive Officer Wes Bush bluntly stated what many people inside the company already
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7/14/2010
A recent study by the Sustainable Defense Task Force (which includes prominent intellectuals from the Cato Institute, Center for American Progress and New America Foundation) proposes what it calls a sustainable defense posture that will save around one trillion dollars over the next decade. It
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7/14/2010
Stephen Ambrose’s Band of Brothers, the story of the exploits of Easy Company, 506 parachute infantry, 101st Division captured the attention of the American people and became an extremely popular miniseries. This year HBO began airing The Pacific, a ten-part miniseries produced by
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7/13/2010
Last week, U.S. aerospace giant Boeing and its European counterpart, EADS, submitted proposals to supply the Air Force's next-generation aerial-refueling tanker. The service plans to buy 179 modified commercial transports in the first phase of a multi-decade program that eventually will replace
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7/12/2010
On June 28, the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, Dr. Ashton Carter held a convocation for defense industry leaders. The subject was restoring affordability and productivity in defense acquisition. The Under Secretary began by telling his audience that the era
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7/12/2010
Secretary Robert Gates is now two for two in his selection of outstanding military officers to manage America’s current wars. First there was the selection of General David Petraeus to replace the media-challenged General Stanley McChrystal in Afghanistan. Now, the Secretary has recommended General
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7/9/2010
The U.S. Army has been working very hard to reinvent itself. It has published a new Capstone concept that defines the future security environment and broadly what it demands of the Army in the way of capabilities. It has a draft operating concept that defines in more detail the missions the Army
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7/9/2010
If there is a war at sea in the near future, it will likely be in the Persian Gulf. It is the nexus of the geo-strategic, ideological and religious struggle between Iran on one side and the United States, the West and the non-Shia Muslim world on the other. It is also the one place where Iran can
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7/7/2010
While the U.S. Government and the national security community worry about the outcomes of the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, pressing the reset button with Russia and dealing with the threat of proliferation, they are all but oblivious to the largest most significant strategic challenge
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7/6/2010
Thomas Jefferson was 33 years old when he wrote the Declaration of Independence, so it is probably too late for you and me to achieve such a notable level of fame. He also attempted, in his draft, to blast the British for bringing slavery to America, but the Southern delegates insisted on excising
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7/4/2010
For more than six decades, the U.S. Navy has kept America safe, guarded our overseas interests, reassured allies, patrolled the global commons and assisted the victims of manmade and natural disasters. Under the rubric of forward deployed credible combat power, the Navy designed a force structure
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7/2/2010
Barack Obama seems like a decent, hard-working and admirable fellow. He is clearly smart, well-educated, and reasonably honest (for a politician). He is a good family man, and is doing largely what he said he would do during the 2008 campaign and in his platform. In the foot-steps of Jackson and
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7/1/2010
The United States has a long history of being caught by surprise when other countries demonstrate their mastery of advanced military technologies, particularly nuclear weapons. The list of strategic surprises is remarkably long: the Soviet Union’s atomic bomb test in 1949, its launch of Sputnik
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Date:
7/1/2010