The number of warships in the U.S. naval fleet has not managed to get above 300 for two decades. Meanwhile, the country the Chief of Naval Operations describes as “our pacing threat,” China, is headed for 400 warships in its own fleet at mid-decade. The disparity is even worse than it seems, because Chinese forces are concentrated close to home, where Beijing also sustains a growing arsenal of long-range, antiship weapons. So what does the U.S. Navy propose to do? [ Read More…]

There are several reasons why the Baltic states are uniquely vulnerable to Russian invasion. The prime reason why they might be the Kremlin’s next target is that each of them, particularly Estonia and Latvia, has an ethnic Russian minority population. Moscow’s justification for prior invasions, including the ongoing one in Ukraine, is that ethnic Russians have to be “liberated” from oppressive non-Russian governments. However, geography plays a significant role in adding to the Baltics’ vulnerability. More so than Finland, which [ Read More…]

The staggering pollution from Russia’s pre-war, largely unregulated oil and natural gas industry is getting much worse. To offset this and drive significant environmental improvements in oil and natural gas production worldwide, it is essential to have dynamic, technologically innovative U.S. oil and natural gas companies. Central to a cleaner industry is the widespread adoption of data analytics which directly results in reduced methane and other emissions. Expanded use of data also reduces flaring and makes drilling more efficient, among [ Read More…]

May 5, 2022 Meeting Governors, thank you for the opportunity to address you. In an April 12th article in The Washington Post, when talking about the need for many types of capital investments at the U.S. Postal Service, Postmaster General DeJoy said, “I have 30-year-old IT. I have to spend a couple billion dollars to get my IT relevant.” The Lexington Institute applauds the Postmaster General’s candor and urges the Postal Service to prioritize overdue information technology investments. This may [ Read More…]

Most of the war coverage from Ukraine is about what’s happening on the ground, but eventually NATO will have to rethink other facets of its military preparations in light of Russia’s aggression. One area that needs a close look with regard to both Russia and China is whether America and its allies have an adequate fleet of maritime patrol aircraft–particularly for finding and defeating hostile submarines. The U.S. Navy has developed a state-of-the-art patrol plane called the P-8 Poseidon based [ Read More…]

The rush by some conservative Republicans to join Democrats in attacking Big Tech merits a rethink. Recent events show that we must assess the future of Big Tech in the context of what America’s adversaries are doing and the role tech companies have in economic growth. Simply put, Donald Trump’s hurt feelings over bans on Twitter and Facebook must not be the driving force for Republicans’ tech policies. Keeping China at bay, economically and militarily, and empowering Ukraine against Russia [ Read More…]

The Government Accountability Office has released its latest annual report on the F-35 fighter acquisition program, pursuant to direction by Congress. It is titled “F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: Cost Growth and Schedule Delays Continue,” so casual observers can be excused for assuming it is highly critical. It actually isn’t: the report acknowledges early on that the cost of the program has remained relatively stable since 2012, and that the pricetag to produce each fighter is falling steadily. More importantly, the [ Read More…]

The Boeing company reported dreadful first-quarter results on April 27, far worse than analysts were expecting. At this point, Boeing should be recovering steadily from MAX setbacks and the global pandemic, but new problems keep cropping up–both on the commercial and on the defense side. The company probably cannot survive if it stays on its current vector. Political elites in Washington seem oblivious to what that would mean. America would lose its biggest exporter, and probably its global dominance of [ Read More…]

The transfer of weapons, ammunition, and other supplies from the U.S. and NATO countries to Ukraine has been the lifeline that allowed Kyiv to hold off Moscow’s assault. The U.S. alone has provided to date some $4 billion in assistance. This has included many weapons that have proven particularly effective: Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, Javelin anti-tank weapons, and drones. Poland has sent some T-72 tanks to Ukraine. Warsaw has hundreds of additional Soviet-era tanks that it could send to Ukraine, providing [ Read More…]

After eight weeks of fighting in Ukraine, the notion that Russia is a near-peer of the U.S. is beginning to look doubtful. It seems more likely that Putin’s Russia is shadow of its former, Soviet self. That raises the possibility that the Ukraine campaign isn’t just the next chapter in Putin’s reign, but perhaps the last chapter. There is plenty of evidence. First, its military performance is abysmal, suggesting the armed forces have been afflicted with the same corruption that [ Read More…]