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Policy Blog
- Boeing Products Bulk Large In Latest Foreign Military Sales Report (From Forbes)
Boeing’s defense and space business is in recovery mode after suffering a series of setbacks due to fixed-price development contracts. It is not alone. The business has embarked on a path to sustained profitability that includes increased sales to foreign customers, and 2023 was a bit of a banner year. Boeing accounted for over a third of all U.S. Foreign [ Read More…]
- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D
- How Submarine-Launched Systems Can Overwhelm Chinese Warships In The Taiwan Strait (From Forbes)
The danger of a Chinese amphibious assault on Taiwan is the central driver of U.S. defense strategy. China’s military advantages in the region are growing, and it is not clear that most U.S. warfighting systems will be able to operate near Taiwan in the future. But submarines are an exception–an exception that can prove decisive if the Navy uses them [ Read More…]
- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D
- Air Force’s Sentinel ICBM Program Is Struggling, Potentially Impacting Nuclear Deterrence (From Forbes)
Bloomberg News reports that the Air Force’s effort to replace its aging ICBM force is facing substantial cost growth and multiyear delays. Called Sentinel, the program involves developing a new missile to replace Minuteman III and replacing a vast infrastructure of underground silos and launch centers. The Air Force contends the missile is not a problem, at least at present, [ Read More…]
- Keep the EU Out Of America’s Business (From InsideSources DC Journal)
The European Union (EU), which has dismally failed to foster a business climate where tech companies can thrive, is now aiming to cripple America’s tech leaders, potentially also landing a body blow to the broader U.S. economy. More distressing is that the EU is being aided and abetted in its regulatory attacks by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The EU and the U.S. have often squared off on economic issues. But the mother of all EU attacks on U.S. [ Read More…]
- The Microsoft Russian Hack Raises Major Questions For Policymakers
In a legally required filing, Microsoft on January 19 disclosed that senior executives’ e-mail accounts had been hacked by “a nation-state associated threat actor” widely believed to be Nobelium, a cybercriminal group affiliated with Russia’s government. This is the same group behind the 2015-16 attack on the Democratic National Committee and 2020 SolarWinds attack, which led to data breaches in the federal government and thousands of organizations. The incident is disturbing on a stand-alone basis. This is compounded by Nobelium’s [ Read More…]
- Pentagon Makes It Official: U.S. Industrial Decline Is Undermining National Defense (From Forbes)
Earlier this month the Pentagon released its first-ever National Defense Industrial Strategy. Its tone is strikingly similar to industrial assessments conducted during the Trump administration. That is arguably a good thing, in the sense that it demonstrates there is a broad, bipartisan consensus about the need to reverse the nation’s steady industrial decay. The good news is that America is still the global leader in software and services, thanks to companies like Amazon and Google. But if it is to [ Read More…]
- Federal Trade Commission Should Halt Work With EU Regulators (Public Meeting Comments)
At today’s open meeting of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), whose attendees included Chair Lina Khan, Lexington Institute’s Paul Steidler called on the FTC to “cease and desist immediately” its discussions with European Union regulators regarding enforcement of the Digital Markets Act and other measures. His remarks are below and in the PDF here. Chair Khan and members of the FTC, thank you for this opportunity. I am with the Lexington Institute, a think tank in Arlington, Virginia. There is [ Read More…]
- Intelligence Community Search For A Large Language Model Poses Unique Challenges
(The following guest essay explains technical challenges associated with developing an AI Large Language Model suitable for use by the intelligence community. The authors are chief executive officer and chief data scientist of Kingfisher Systems.) In an interview with Bloomberg on September 26, Chief Technology Officer Nand Mulchandani indicated that the Central Intelligence Agency may seek to build a Large Language Model (LLM) for use by the Intelligence Community (IC), because the market-leading, commercially available LLMs are unsuitable for IC [ Read More…]
- Why The U.S. Needs A Third Site For National Missile Defense (From Forbes)
The U.S. currently has two sites dedicated to defending the American homeland against ballistic missile attack. The major site is at Fort Greely in Alaska. A much smaller site is at Vandenberg AFB in California. The Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency says that it has no requirement for an additional site, but that’s because it has no plan to defeat a Russian or Chinese attack. It is focused solely on the relatively small North Korean arsenal. U.S. nuclear strategy needs to [ Read More…]
- Superhornets Strike Back. The World’s Just Watched A Turnaround In Tactics Worthy Of A Hollywood Thriller (From Fox News)
On Thursday night, over 100 weapons struck 60 targets in 16 Houthi rebel areas across Yemen. The scope of the strike on 16 different areas tells me that U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) has been watching the Houthis and developing targets for months. At the center of the action was the F/A-18EF Superhornet. The Superhornets carry advanced weapons like the satellite-guided Joint Direct Attack Munition or JDAM and the Joint Standoff weapon, a glide bomb that can hit targets from outside some air [ Read More…]
- GOP Senate Dysfunction Aids Progressives Controlling The Federal Trade Commission (From The Hill)
Republican Senators gave Senator Elizabeth Warren and progressive ideologues running the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) an early Christmas present by failing to confirm three well-qualified nominees to be commissioners. This unforced error shows that Republicans can be as dysfunctional in the Senate as in the House. As a result, the FTC, which is by law supposed to be bipartisan, continues to operate with three Democrat commissioners and has not had a Republican commissioner since March 31, 2023. Government works best [ Read More…]
- What Would The U.S. Defense Posture Look Like In A Second Trump Presidency? (From Forbes)
Former President Donald Trump has a decent shot at winning reelection in 2024. Contrary to popular perception, that would not portend an unpredictable presidency, at least when it comes to defense. Trump has bedrock convictions about war and peace that would shape his military posture. Among other things, he believes in peace through strength, nuclear firepower rather than arms control, prioritizing the China threat, avoiding over-reliance on allies, staying out of regional conflicts, and using long-range weapons as an alternative [ Read More…]
- America Will Have To Heavily Arm NATO’s Six Frontline States If Ukraine Falters—Especially Finland (From RealClearDefense)
Amid the chaos of last year’s House of Representatives Speaker fight, Congressional aid to Ukraine became a casualty. When Kevin McCarthy, a supporter of the Ukraine war effort, was ousted, that support was not shared by his successors and several of his colleagues. But what that faction in Congress fails to acknowledge or understand is that it is infinitely more dangerous for Ukraine to be defeated and have Russia on the doorstep of the West. If Ukraine’s efforts are exhausted [ Read More…]