Since the advent of military aviation, armies and air forces have been working on ever more sophisticated ways of airdropping personnel and supplies from moving aircraft. While the largest air landing operations were in World War Two, they have been employed in military operations as recently as the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In addition to air assaults, the delivery of equipment supplies by parachute became an important means of supporting forward deployed forces, particularly those operating behind enemy lines. Advances [ Read More…]

The U.S. Army is accelerating its search for a new Patriot air defense radar that can detect diverse threats approaching from any direction at any altitude. Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon will compete in a “sense-off” this spring to see which company can offer the most versatile, reliable, resilient and producible solution. Raytheon is staking its claim on the basis of unique experience with gallium nitride technology (GaN). GaN functions far better than the silicon traditionally used in chips [ Read More…]

— Kris Osborn is a Senior Fellow at The Lexington Institute — Should a mechanized column of heavily armored Russian vehicles launch an aggressive, forward-leaning assault into Eastern Europe 10 years from now, complete with air and artillery support – – just what kinds of specific armored vehicles would best position a US/NATO response? Such a scenario, however likely, incorporates some of the complexities now informing current Army thinking. How much can current platforms, such as the 1980s-era Abrams tank, be upgraded [ Read More…]

The U.S. Navy wants to acquire a new large surface combatant (LSC). The question is why? Ostensibly, the LSC will replace the aging Ticonderoga-class cruisers and possibly supersede the Arleigh Burke DDG-51 destroyers. It is supposed to be larger than the Arleigh Burkes but deploy many of the same systems, have lots of room for future growth and be capable of incorporating new capabilities such as large missiles, autonomous platforms and directed-energy weapons when they are developed. Considering that the Navy [ Read More…]

Air-to-air refueling is the capability that allows airpower to achieve both reach and persistence. From the early days of flight, clever engineers worked on ways to refuel aircraft in flight. The dominant airpower nations are those that invested in aerial refueling capabilities, not only specially configured aircraft and the systems to transfer fuel, but the techniques that allow refueling operations to be integrated into air mobility and strike missions. The U.S. military has been a pioneer in the field of [ Read More…]

Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson disclosed on March 8 that she will likely leave government service in May to become president of the University of Texas at El Paso. It isn’t hard to understand the attraction of running a highly-regarded research university near her home state of New Mexico, but you have to wonder why a person so perfectly suited to leading the Air Force would want to leave after only two years on the job. The answer [ Read More…]

The Pentagon’s annual military spending has increased $100 billion over the last three years, with the biggest percentage increases coming in weapons accounts. Somehow, though, the rate at which key warfighting systems are being bought has not increased. In some cases, the rate is actually declining. How is that possible? Part of the explanation is that planners have become enamored with an array of new warfighting technologies not yet ready for fielding, and as a result money is going into [ Read More…]

To preserve and further unleash the economic benefits of e-commerce, the United States needs to end postal subsidies that benefit other countries. This means restructuring or ending our membership in the Universal Postal Union, a United Nations-specialty organization. Lexington Institute’s Paul Steidler addresses these issues in a commentary for InsideSources here.

Kris Osborn is a Senior Fellow at The Lexington Institute The increasing global reach of Chinese nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines, armed with JL-2 weapons reportedly able to hit parts of the US, continues to inspire an ongoing Navy effort to accelerate production of attack submarines, prepare long-dwell drones for deployment to the Pacific and continue acquisition of torpedo-armed sub-hunting planes such as the P-8/A Poseidon. Seeking to overcome the Pacific’s “tyranny of distance” dispersed geography, and track China’s expanding fleet of [ Read More…]

President Trump’s ambivalence about continued U.S. participation in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is traceable in large part to the behavior of its biggest European member. Germany is not contributing to the alliance at a pace commensurate with its economic resources or military requirements. Its defense budget barely exceeds 1% of GDP, even though NATO members are supposed to be aiming for at least 2% (America is over 3%). Its military forces are in a depressed state of readiness. [ Read More…]