The U.S. Army is poorly deployed to assist NATO in deterring Russian conventional aggression against the Alliance. The U.S. Army is essentially based in the Continental United States, while the likely place for conflict with Russia is on NATO’s eastern border. Recognizing this, over the past several years, the Army has been increasing its force structure in Europe. It has done so by rotating individual units, including Armored Brigade Combat Teams, into the continent. While a good first step, this [ Read More…]

One of the nation’s leading military contractors has come up with a novel way of accelerating the velocity of defense innovation. BAE Systems, Inc. has created an organization called FAST Labs that leverages the commercial innovation ecosystem in places like Austin and Boston to bring cutting-edge technologies to warfighters. The basic idea is to work with venture capital, technology accelerators and research universities to identify dual-use technologies that might solve tough challenges for the nation’s military. With 850 scientists and [ Read More…]

If the U.S. Postal Service were a company, it would be the third largest headquartered in the Washington, D.C. region. The Postal Service’s finances are in dismal shape and without Congressional action it will face a liquidity crisis, which will impact every home and business. Mail and package delivery could even grind to a halt. Lexington Institute’s Paul Steidler addresses these issues in a commentary for the Fairfax County Times here.    

China is seeking to displace America as the dominant military power in the Western Pacific, and that puts U.S. maritime capabilities in Beijing’s cross hairs. Although the U.S. Navy has launched an ambitious program of innovation and investment to foil Beijing’s plans, several fundamental factors will make it hard for the Navy to continue dominating in the Western Pacific. First, geography is not on America’s side. Second, China is increasingly able to target U.S. military assets on land and at [ Read More…]

The great power race to dominate advanced computing technologies – cloud applications, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) – is intensifying. China is seeking to replace the U.S. as the dominant player in these areas. The intensifying competition with Russia and China is a primary reason DoD is seeking to acquire an enterprise-wide cloud computing infrastructure. The key to this capability is the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) program. JEDI is envisioned as the general-purpose cloud, the base to [ Read More…]

The Trump Administration disclosed on Monday that it has commenced the process of levying tariffs against European countries for illegally subsidizing Airbus.  This move is long overdue, and is the end result of 14 years of legal wrangling before the World Trade Organization.  The WTO has consistently upheld the contention of the United States that Europe stole half of the global market for jetliners through a multi-decade pattern of subverting trade treaties.  Boeing and its now departed domestic competitors were [ Read More…]

During the decades of the Cold War there were numerous arms races between the United States and the Soviet Union. First, in the 1940s, was the race to develop nuclear weapons. In the 1950s and 1960s the two superpowers raced to see who could be first to deploy jet bombers and land- and sea-based ballistic missiles that could carry nuclear warheads. Now a new arms race has begun. This is the race to build and put in the field super-fast [ Read More…]

In the aftermath of two Boeing 737 Max accidents, some observers are speculating that the company and its air-safety regulator are too close for comfort. It is hard to reconcile that suspicion with the fact that the Max took five years to be certified by the Federal Aviation Administration, even though it is a derivative of a previous design. The reason FAA allows industry to perform many of the routine tasks associated with certification is so that government resources can [ Read More…]

The Air Force appears to have completed its Critical Design Review of the emerging B-21 bomber, inspiring confidence and optimism that a new-generation of stealth will be ready for war by the mid-2020s, and beyond. The apparent program progress does, at very least, raise the question as to whether to new bomber could be an important element of the service’s “faster” acquisition strategy. Although acquisition and schedule specifics are not discussed regarding the B-21 program, the Air Force’s 2018 Acquisition [ Read More…]

Ever since Russian president Vladimir Putin announced last year that his country had successfully tested a hypersonic weapon, the Pentagon has been growing its investment in such technology.  Hypersonic munitions are being developed for the Air Force, the Army and the Navy.  However, relatively little money is being devoted to defending against hypersonic threats.  That is a serious oversight, because current anti-ballistic defenses will need to be modified to cope with boost-glide weapons that do not have a fixed trajectory.  [ Read More…]