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July 2012
One of the most difficult challenges for U.S. security policy in the 21st century is developing and maintaining its network of alliance relationships. Some traditional structures such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization appear increasingly threadbare as member after member reduces their defense
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7/30/2012
The U.S. defense industry used to be regarded as a bastion of white male executives. It still is seen that way in some quarters, but the reality is that women are rapidly ascending into top jobs across the defense sector. Since the new year began, General Dynamics has announced its next Chairman
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7/30/2012
One of the few ways to get the media’s attention in Washington is to claim that a government program is going to be more expensive than was originally projected. The bigger the number, the bigger the headline and the greater the feigned outrage on Capitol Hill. This is particularly true for major
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7/27/2012
When the jammer currently carried on U.S. electronic-warfare planes first debuted 40 years ago, there were no digital datalinks, no cell phones, no frequency-hopping radios, no monopulse radars and no improvised explosive devices. Today, those developments largely define the threat environment
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7/27/2012
For years we at the Lexington Institute have been sounding the tocsin about the impact of bad regulations and misguided acquisition policies on the cost of defense goods and services. We published a study that argued that the Department of Defense could save tens of billions of dollars a year by
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7/26/2012
After Barack Obama carried New Mexico by a 15-point margin in the 2008 presidential race, some people forgot it was a swing state. But the reality is that Al Gore won the state by only 300 votes in 2000, and George Bush carried it by 6,000 in 2004, so there is no guarantee it will go for Obama
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7/26/2012
Retired Army Reservist Tom Hathaway wasn't much impressed with Dan Goure's criticism of the military retirement system in a July 23 blog posting. Hathaway sent the following rebuttal explaining the logic of the military retirement system.
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In a recent article, Dr. Daniel Goure made
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7/26/2012
According to reports by Bloomberg’s Tony Capaccio and Defense News’ Sean Riley, the Defense Department’s Inspector General (IG) has concluded that the Pentagon’s efforts to deploy six massive enterprise resource planning (ERP) software programs are way over budget and years behind
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7/24/2012
Northrop Grumman, one of the biggest military contractors in the world, disclosed a series of leadership changes yesterday reflecting the growing role of women at the top of the defense industry. In what amounts to a generational renewal of its senior ranks, the company elevated three top-performing
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Date:
7/24/2012
Wall Street loves Raytheon. The company's stock is selling at a premium to that of its rivals in the defense sector, and consensus estimates on forward earnings are rosy despite the drumbeat of bad news out of the Pentagon. Raytheon's popularity can be traced to several factors. First, its fate
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7/23/2012
For the past sixty years, U.S. defense planning has counted on the quality of its weapons and personnel to make up for a persistent shortfall in quantities. During the Cold War the United States pushed the technological envelope to acquire better tanks, airplanes, submarines and missiles than those
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Date:
7/23/2012
I am that most valuable of commodities in this election season, an undecided voter registered in a swing state (Virginia). You might think that being a 60-year-old white male who works at a conservative think tank, I'd be leaning toward the Republican. Well I'm not, because I'm waiting for Mr.
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7/20/2012
Last week, United Technologies announced the pending sale of its Rocketdyne subsidiary to GenCorp. Rocketdyne’s principal claim to fame was as a maker of large, liquid-fueled rocket motors such as those that powered Atlas, Delta and Saturn rockets as well as the Space Shuttle. In its new home,
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Date:
7/20/2012
Wherever you go in America, you are under surveillance. At any ATM, every public building, on all major highways, in many public elevators and even on the sidewalk in front of your neighbor’s house (if he has a security system), you are being watched. In addition, as YouTube and the nightly news
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7/19/2012
The U.S. Army has been trying for nearly a decade to develop a lightweight, affordable radio that can connect individual soldiers to its tactical information network. Once that connection is established, the fog of war will be lifted and the resources available to each warfighter for achieving
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7/19/2012
The most fundamental mission of each of this nation’s security organizations, whether civil or military, is the protection of the homeland and the American people from attack. Traditionally, that has meant protection against hostile military forces that might blockade our sea lanes, and our shores,
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7/18/2012
The Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) released a study on Tuesday estimating that if the sequestration provisions of the Budget Control Act are triggered on January 2 as currently legislated, the number of jobs lost would be about as great as the number created during the time President Obama
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7/18/2012
The Program for Public Consultation, the Center for Public Integrity and the Stimson Center recently published a report on the attitudes of Americans towards defense spending. Never mind that the most interesting information was about the growing willingness of Americans of all persuasions to cut
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7/17/2012
The Department of Defense’s effort to improve its acquisition practices and reduce costs is focused intensely on increasing competition. More contracts are being awarded competitively and periods of performance are being shortened to permit more frequent competitions. The Pentagon is seeking to
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7/16/2012
At the Farnborough international airshow last week, the four European countries with a big stake in Airbus -- Britain, France, Germany and Spain -- held a press conference to discuss why the subsidies they give to the aerospace giant are permissible under World Trade Organization rules. The statement
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7/16/2012
Decisions in Washington have consequences that are often different than what those who made them thought they would be. An example of this is the Obama Administration’s policy of insourcing. This is transferring work that had been done by the private sector into the public sector. One reason given
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7/13/2012
Lightning may seldom strike twice in the same place, but Lockheed Martin's F-35 Lightning II manages to be struck on a regular basis in the media -- often for fanciful or downright foolish reasons. The latest tempest now blowing out to sea was spawned by a think piece Chief of Naval Operations
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7/13/2012
As oil sanctions continue to tighten the economic noose on Iran, all sides are building up their military capabilities. Last week Iran announced that it had conducted another large scale ballistic missile exercise involving Shahab 1, 2 and 3 missiles with ranges of, respectively, 300, 500 and 1,000
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7/12/2012
On Tuesday the Navy issued a solicitation that could end up driving consolidation of the military-electronics business in the years ahead. The service released a request for proposals as it begins the "technology development" phase of its Next Generation Jammer program, an effort that will eventually
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Date:
7/12/2012
Flight testing of the tri-service F-35 Joint Strike Fighter continued to accelerate in June, accomplishing more tasks than in any previous month. June marked the eighteenth consecutive month in which flight testing of the plane was ahead of schedule. A total of 595 flight tests were conducted
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7/11/2012
Four months before the November election, presidential contenders Barack Obama and Mitt Romney look likely to draw nearly equal numbers of votes, both at the polls and in the electoral college. In such races, a handful of swing states can decide the outcome. And within each state, a handful of
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Date:
7/10/2012
Several years ago, the Air Force recognized that it needed to have on hand a new type of aircraft designed expressly to support counterinsurgency missions and to be operated and maintained by allies and partners. The "test case" was the new Afghan Air Force. The U.S. Air Force published a request
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7/10/2012
The federal government is spending billions of dollars annually combating attacks on U.S. computer networks and information resources. However, it does not appear to have firm criteria for how government agencies and owners of critical infrastructure should go about selecting providers of cybersecurity
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7/9/2012
The Department of Defense (DoD) likes to pretend it does not really have to pay attention to the defense industrial base or to develop an industrial policy. It holds firmly to the fantasy that when the government waves money at the private sector the latter will respond rapidly and effectively.
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7/9/2012
Yesterday, the British Defence Secretary, Philip Hammond, announced the latest in a series of cuts to the British military. The new British Army will consist of some 80,000 regulars plus about 30,000 reservists. According to the Ministry of Defence (MoD), the new, "leaner" British Army will be able
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7/6/2012
War has always been an incubator for innovation. This is no less true of the current fights in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the most important innovations to come out of the past decade of conflict, really a military revolution, was in unmanned tactical Intelligence, Reconnaissance and Surveillance
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7/5/2012
France's Bureau of Investigation and Analysis today released its final report on the 2009 crash of an Airbus A330 jetliner that claimed over 200 lives. The report correctly cited a malfunctioning air-speed indicator and inappropriate pilot responses as the primary causes of the crash. However,
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7/5/2012
Monday's announcement by Airbus parent EADS that it will set up commercial-transport production in Alabama presents Boeing with a major problem. Although the two rivals have been competing globally for decades, this is the first time the European company has proposed to establish a manufacturing
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7/3/2012
No one ever wants to cut the bone and muscle out of defense but everyone wants to cut the fat. Even the most ardent supporters of a strong defense and robust defense budgets will in the same breath speak of reducing waste. The trouble is that there is no agreement regarding what constitutes fat
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7/2/2012
The Future Combat System has come to be regarded by some experts as the biggest mis-step made by the Army's acquisition community in modern times. InsideDefense.com reported on June 15 that once termination fees on the canceled family of networked vehicles are paid to prime-contractor Boeing, the
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Date:
7/2/2012