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Policy Blog
- Japan’s Rethink Of Aegis Ashore Could Tie Up Navy, Increase Costs And Cause Delays (From Forbes)
On June 15, Japan’s defense minister surprised Washington by suspending work on Aegis Ashore, a system designed to defend the home islands against a North Korean missile attack. Apparently Tokyo will need to craft a modified plan that minimizes the chance interceptor boosters will fall in civilian areas. That’s fine, but what it shouldn’t do is try shifting the land-based [ Read More…]
- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D
- Army Breakthroughs In Long Range Fires Raise Novel Questions About Targeting, Organization & Command (From Forbes)
The U.S. Army’s top modernization priority is increasing the range and lethality of its fires. That effort is going so well that it is now generating options for the future beyond what would have been imaginable a decade or two ago, like a cannon that can hit pinpoint targets over a thousand miles away and a missile that maneuvers at [ Read More…]
- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D
- Ten Performance Gains The Ford-Class Carrier Will Deliver That A Nimitz Never Can (From Forbes)
The USS Gerald R. Ford, lead ship in a new generation of large-deck, nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, is a lot more capable than the Nimitz class which it will replace. It can launch a third more aircraft sorties each day, including unmanned aircraft which Nimitz cannot. It has greatly increased electrical-power generation capacity, and far more efficient weapons handling procedures. Its [ Read More…]
- Election-Year Attacks On Big Tech Will Undercut Peace And Prosperity (From RealClearDefense)
It’s election season. Politicians at both the federal and state levels are looking for ways of bolstering their reelection prospects. One way of doing this is to stage public spectacles, the modern version of ancient Rome’s gladiatorial games, designed to gain support for politicians from average voters. The most recent example of this strategy in action has been a campaign of attacks on so-called Big Tech: companies such as Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Google. I have written more about this [ Read More…]
- Impact Of Pentagon Weapons Spending On Jobs (And Votes) In Four Battleground States (From Forbes)
U.S. presidential elections tend to be decided by small numbers of voters in a handful of battleground states. Partisan sentiment is so evenly split in those states that seemingly minor factors can decide who wins all of a state’s electoral college votes. So the fact that weapons makers play a major role in the economies of states like Arizona, Florida and Pennsylvania has intriguing implications for the November election. I have written a commentary for Forbes detailing the role played [ Read More…]
- The Pandemic and Populism’s Ravages In Latin America (From Forbes)
It has been noted that countries with authoritarian or semi-authoritarian leadership are more likely to become COVID-19 hotspots for longer amounts of time than their liberal-democratic counterparts. The same pattern rings true in Latin America: Authoritarian leadership is one of the clearest deciding factors of any country’s approach to COVID-19. Brazil and Mexico are the most striking examples of this, where each of their presidents was elected on a populist platform, and each has neglected the virus’s danger since it exploded into a global pandemic. I have written more on this topic here.
- Aerojet Concentrates Solid Rocket Motor Work At Camden, Arkansas In Bid To Bolster Competitive Positioning (From Forbes)
Aerojet Rocketdyne has shifted production of large solid rocket motors to Camden, Arkansas from its heritage headquarters site in Sacramento, California. Camden isn’t the most likely place to locate a hub of aerospace innovation, but that is what the company in effect has done. Aerojet has also built new facilities at Camden to support missile defense interceptors, making the small (population: 11,000) city one of the largest rocket and missile propulsion complexes in the world. I have written a piece [ Read More…]
- Zealous Rush To Renewable Energy Is Hurting America’s Poor (From InsideSources)
The cost of electricity is having significant, negative effects on the working class and poor. A 2018 U.S. Department of Energy study found that 21 percent of American households, at least once a year, must forego necessities like food, rent or medicine to keep the electricity on. This problem has become much more troubling with the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent court and regulatory decisions are likely to make the situation even worse. While the price of natural gas, the main staple [ Read More…]
- The Growth Of China Is A Danger To Future U.S. Defense
Throughout history, China has been recognized as one of the most powerful nations to exist on this planet. Dominance in the spice trade and the control over the Silk Road placed the Chinese Empire at a great economic advantage for centuries. Once European nations started to colonize the America’s, however, that took away focus from the materials and supplies Chinese markets produced. For 400 years China was in the background, becoming regarded as a third world country, especially during World [ Read More…]
- Why Boeing Believes It Will Win The Competition To Supply Heavy-Lift Helicopters To Germany And Israel (From Forbes)
The Boeing Company is competing head-to-head with the Sikorsky unit of Lockheed Martin to supply a new generation of heavy lift helicopters to Germany and Israel. Both countries are looking to replace aged CH-53D helicopters, which in effect makes Sikorsky the incumbent. However, Boeing thinks it can beat the latest “K” variant on the CH-53, called King Stallion, with an upgraded version of its CH-47 Chinook. It is telling Germany and Israel it provides just as much usable lifting power [ Read More…]
- The U.S. Should Propose Selling Tanks To Poland (From RealClearDefense)
Poland has become a major factor in NATO’s defense plans. Located along the Alliance’s eastern flank, close to Russia, Poland today and in the future will play the same role for NATO that West Germany did during the decades of deterring the Soviet Union. It is vital to the security and peace of Europe that the Polish military be as strong as possible. While Warsaw has done a great deal to replace its old Soviet-era equipment with modern, Western systems, [ Read More…]
- Time To Ease Unnecessary LNG Export Burdens (From RealClearEnergy)
Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) exports are an important way U.S. energy companies access global markets. That is especially important today, with COVID-19 reducing U.S. energy demand and layoffs mounting in the energy sector. Environmental regulations can hinder these export efforts. A proposed change to the U.S. Department of Energy’s environmental reviews would ease the administrative burden by eliminating unnecessary and burdensome regulations. This rule change will offer some needed and commonsense relief to the natural gas sector and the environment [ Read More…]
- Potential Arms Control Violation Could Derail Pentagon’s Next-Generation Missile Defense Interceptor (From Forbes)
The Pentagon is developing a new interceptor missile to counter long-range ballistic weapons that North Korea might field in the future. It is a necessary step to defend the U.S. homeland against a rogue country that might not be deterrable using other means. However, there is a danger the new interceptor could be derailed in its infancy if it runs afoul of New START limits on offensive weapons. The treaty doesn’t limit missile defenses, but it does prohibit using the [ Read More…]