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September 2011
Over the last ten years, the defense department's maintenance depots, shipyards and logistics centers have worked hard to reinvent themselves while supporting warfighters engaged in fighting overseas conflicts. Most people associated with the public-sector logistics system will tell you the facilities
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Date:
9/30/2011
The U.S. Air Force has spent years trying to posture itself for an omnibus information-services competition under the rubric of NETCENTS-2. The name "NETCENTS" is a contraction of the phrase "network-centric solutions," and it says something about how long the second phase in the program is taking
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Date:
9/29/2011
The conventional wisdom in Washington is that defense budgets will have to be slashed. For many, including the outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reduced spending is viewed as an important part of the effort to restore U.S. economic strength. To some, particularly in Congress, defense
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Date:
9/28/2011
Back on August 18, I suggested that the Budget Control Act (BCA) contained two traps, one for the Obama Administration and the other for Republicans in Congress, particularly the new “Tea Party” faction. The traps are built into the automatic cuts that will be triggered by a failure of the so-called
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Date:
9/28/2011
The U.S. Army has remarkably little to show for the hundreds of billions of dollars it has spent on modernization since 9-11. Its helicopter fleet is in reasonably good shape because the service decided to keep buying systems like the Apache, Black Hawk and Chinook that had already proven themselves,
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Date:
9/28/2011
The Air Force senior leadership is adamant that their service must have the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). With its advanced stealth features and 21st century sensor capabilities, the JSF will be a game changer in air warfare not only for the Air Force but for the Navy and Marine Corps as well.
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9/26/2011
This is the week that Pentagon policymakers begin sorting out how to assure that one of the military's most important reconnaissance systems will be available to warfighters at an affordable price. The RQ-4 Global Hawk is an unmanned aircraft conceived to replace the venerable U-2 spy plane with
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Date:
9/26/2011
Why does the Air Force need a new bomber? There are three parts to that answer, one geostrategic, one operational and one technological. Geostrategically, unless Mexico or Canada become major threats, the United States is a long way from virtually all likely zones of conflict. Access to overseas
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9/23/2011
Could the EU collapse? Unthinkable! Impossible! Yet, that is what was being said just a few months ago about the possibility that Greece would default on its debt. Now, as Europe struggles to put together a second bailout package for that country, the conversation has increasingly focused not on
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Date:
9/21/2011
During the first decade of the new millennium, America's share of global exports of manufactured goods fell from 13.8 percent to 9.6 percent. Not coincidentally, its share of global output dropped rapidly too, and an average of over 40,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs disappeared every month for ten
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Date:
9/21/2011
Yesterday the Air Force fired the first volley in what is likely to be an extended and intense “food fight” between the military services over their respective shares of future defense budgets. Everyone understands that even under the most optimistic scenario, defense spending will decline significantly
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Date:
9/20/2011
Proponents of the administration's jobs bill say that if the $447 billion measure is enacted, it could create 1-2 million new jobs. However, defense cuts that may occur pursuant to the deficit-reduction law signed by President Obama in August could wipe out a million jobs, blunting the job-creation
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Date:
9/20/2011
Across a large swathe of the world, from Libya and Yemen to Afghanistan and the tribal regions of Pakistan, western airpower is almost continually engaged in combat. In an attempt to bring the Libyan civil war to a successful conclusion NATO has increased the intensity of air strikes against Gaddafi’s
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Date:
9/19/2011
The National Taxpayer Union (NTU) and the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) are two generally well-regarded advocacy organizations with respectable analytic capabilities. But the NTU's and PIRG’s proposals to reduce defense spending neither further the national discussion on how much to reduce
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9/16/2011
This week the defense subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee cut $26 billion from the Obama Administration's fiscal 2012 budget request. The move is intended to align future Pentagon spending with the requirements of the recently enacted Budget Control Act. However, the cuts the subcommittee
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Date:
9/16/2011
For years now we at the Lexington Institute have been warning anyone who would listen that the array of military equipment that allowed the U.S. for thirty years to win the Cold War and operate as the sole superpower is wearing out. Now this story is front page in today’s Wall Street Journal.
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9/15/2011
The sad truth is that even when the 600 pound gorilla in the room tries to behave properly it is just so big and takes up so much space that the practical consequences of its actions often limit the freedom of those around it. So it is when the Office of Federal Procurement, a part of the Office
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Date:
9/14/2011
During his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on September 13, deputy defense secretary-designate Ashton Carter assured legislators that the Pentagon is working real hard to reduce a trillion-dollar bill for sustaining the F-35 fighter over its 50-year operational lifetime.
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Date:
9/14/2011
Every lover of old movies knows of Inspector Harry Callahan, the world-weary detective made famous by Clint Eastwood in a series of classic 1970s films. Harry was not only a tough guy and deadly with his massive handgun but a practical philosopher. In the 1973 movie Magnum Force, Harry delivers
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Date:
9/13/2011
Michael Lewis of Lazard Capital Markets predicts that defense stocks will be encountering headwinds as the congressional super-committee set up to rein in deficits deliberates on budget cuts. Maybe so, but analysts have been surprised by the strong turnout at industry investor days and Lockheed
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Date:
9/13/2011
Since coming into office, the Obama Administration has been focused on making military procurement more efficient. The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics has formulated a wide range of policies and initiatives designed to streamline the acquisition process and rein
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Date:
9/12/2011
Every generation produces its share of zealots and malcontents, but ours is unique in the degree to which it has empowered them with new technology. It isn't just the possibilities presented to extremists by new methods of mass murder, but the tools that allow them to communicate securely among
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Date:
9/9/2011
In last night’s speech to a joint session of Congress, President Obama emphasized the importance of additional spending on infrastructure. He made a point of talking about the need to repair roads, bridges and schools. He spoke about the importance of new airports and faster railroads. As the President
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Date:
9/9/2011
Large defense cuts are coming. If the military is to avoid becoming a hollow force it needs to find new ways to save money while still maintaining critical capabilities.
One area worth examining is roles and missions. There have been several attempts over the last few decades to find budgetary
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Date:
9/8/2011
The U.S. Department of Defense is the largest consumer of advanced technology and technical services in the world, awarding $400 billion in contracts each year. You'd think all that demand would be a source of strength for U.S. manufacturers. After all, $400 billion is a quarter of the value of all
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Date:
9/7/2011
The service hardest hit over the past decade by program terminations and cutbacks has been the Marine Corps. First there was the decision to truncate the Navy’s DDG 1000 program -- the future fire support platform for amphibious operations -- at three ships. Then there was the decision to terminate
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Date:
9/6/2011
The U.S. Department of Defense is an engine of innovation. From jet engines to lasers to digital networking, America's military has pioneered the development of new technologies with the potential to transform commerce and culture. One of the most spectacularly successful examples is the Global Positioning
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Date:
9/2/2011
As part of its planning to deal with looming defense budget cuts, the Army is said to be offering up between 10 and 15 Active Component Combat Brigades and, possibly, another 5 to 8 Reserve Component Combat Brigades. The Marine Corps has contingency plans to reduce the number of infantry and artillery
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Date:
9/2/2011
You know the budget wars are heating up when a senior Republican senator starts attacking weapons programs important to other legislators in his own party. That's what happened yesterday, when Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss assailed Pentagon purchases of Boeing's carrier-based F/A-18 Super Hornet,
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Date:
9/1/2011
Since taking office, one of the central pillars of the Obama Administration’s economic policy has been green energy. The White House painted a rosy picture of a future dominated by clean renewable energy. In the processes of building that future, millions of jobs would be created. Hundreds of billions
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Date:
9/1/2011