After considerable reflection and multiple false starts, the Army has settled on a roadmap for modernizing its fleet of combat helicopters. It will develop a new scout helicopter, a successor to the Black Hawk utility helicopter, and an unmanned aerial system to support rotorcraft while upgrading the Apache tank-killer and Chinook heavy-lift helicopter. The plan has many moving pieces, but fundamentally it is about shifting warfighting capabilities from an emphasis on counter-insurgency warfare to preparations for great-power competition with Russia [ Read More…]

The federal system for awarding security clearances was in disarray when President Trump was inaugurated. An Obama-era decision to terminate the contract of the company conducting most of the government’s background checks led to long delays in completing investigations. Within months after Trump took office, the backlog of open investigations had risen to over 700,000.  At that point, Congress passed legislation directing that all defense-related clearance activities be shifted from the Office of Personnel Management to a Pentagon agency. The [ Read More…]

President Trump has said that without the wall there is no border security and that “the Tech ‘stuff’ is just, by comparison, meaningless bells & whistles.” He is correct, at least in part. Walls work. The U.S. southern border needs more walls. But walls alone are not enough. They must be backed up by an array of sensors that will allow the Border Patrol to know who is attempting to go through, over or under the walls. Moreover, there are [ Read More…]

 In an appearance on ABC7’s Government Matters on January 2, Lexington Institute Senior Vice President Dr. Dan Goure explained the circumstances surrounding President Trump’s upcoming elevation of Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Goure echoed his recent RealClearDefense article, “Why General Mark Milley and Why Now?” in his comments, calling the Army head an “agent of change.” Akin to President Trump, he said, Milley seeks to revolutionize the way the military fights. [ Read More…]

After a dozen years of research and reflection, the U.S. Army is ready to select a design to replace the engines in its Black Hawk and Apache helicopters. Whether it picks the GE or the Honeywell/Pratt & Whitney offering, it will be getting big gains in performance, fuel efficiency and reliability. GE is offering a refinement of the “single-spool” configuration currently used in all Army rotorcraft, while the Honeywell/Pratt team is offering a very different “dual-spool” architecture that it says [ Read More…]

The U.S. Postal Service and the Trump Administration make for a pair of strange bedfellows, but they agree on this: without major Postal Reform action soon, the U.S. Postal Service could face a liquidity crisis. This will not only disrupt the Postal Service’s operations but the U.S. economy. It will necessitate a large taxpayer bailout and force important reforms to be legislated under duress. No one can say for certain when the crisis will occur. In fact, since 2009, the [ Read More…]

2018 is shaping up to be a watershed year for Pratt & Whitney’s revolutionary Geared Turbofan. Pratt spent $10 billion and 20 years refining the technology, and 2018 was the year in which that investment began paying off in the form of broad acceptance among airlines around the world. Over 30 carriers have now made orders or commitments for 10,000 of the engines. The engine has proven it can deliver the promised fuel efficiency and emissions reductions while also achieving [ Read More…]

The return to major power competition and the new focus on multi-domain operations has altered the role of the Marine Corps and amphibious ships. It’s a change in the way Washington views Marine Corps Expeditionary Warfare, and it has ramifications for amphibious ship construction and modernization. New scenarios with China, Russia and others demand that U.S. policymakers count on the amphibious fleet as a joint asset. In multi-domain operations, every amphib will be a potential forward node for tactical data [ Read More…]

The Air Force is buying a new intercontinental ballistic missile at a time when the Trump Administration has expressed concern military contracting practices are undermining the defense industrial base. The Air Force’s missile is an opportunity to demonstrate that the military can get a good deal without hurting the industrial base. The specific issue is whether the U.S. will continue to have competing sources for large solid rocket motors, or end up with only one. If the service mandates competitive [ Read More…]

September 27, 2018 marked one of the most important milestones for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program. On that date, the U.S. Marine Corps conducted the first combat strikes by the U.S. military employing the revolutionary fifth-generation fighter. Perhaps equally impressive, this mission in Afghanistan was conducted by the short-takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) variant of the JSF, the F-35B, from an amphibious warfare ship. The F-35B allows large deck amphibious warfare ships to undertake missions that until now would have [ Read More…]