The United States is the only nation that operates a fleet of large-deck, nuclear-powered aircraft carriers–eleven in all. They are the signature expression of American military power, and by far the most powerful conventional warfighting system ever conceived. Unfortunately, much of the public never hears the details of why carriers are indispensable in U.S. strategy. If the rationale for today’s carrier fleet were distilled down to five features, they would likely be these: unique warfighting capacity, unique endurance in combat [ Read More…]

This June, the Virginia-class attack submarine USS New Mexico finished interoperability training with Navy SEALs in the Mediterranean Sea. The locations of these submarines are rarely confirmed because their missions are so secretive. The Navy seldom reveals any details of their operations. However, it is safe to assume that at least one Virginia-class sub is deployed in the Mediterranean at any given time. The Virginia class is a nuclear-powered attack submarine. Unlike the U.S. Navy’s other submarines—ballistic missile subs and cruise missile carriers—the Virginia [ Read More…]

Opioid deaths have spiked by 49 percent since 2018, with 69,710 Americans killed by opioids in 2020. Much needs to be done. While U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has been intercepting and seizing much larger amounts of fentanyl at the Mexican border, little has been done to stem the influx of deadly, illegal opioids that enter the U.S. through the international mail system. By aggressively deploying data analytics and rigorously enforcing the Synthetics Trafficking and Overdose Prevention Act (STOP [ Read More…]

The evacuation of U.S. personnel from Afghanistan is not the only time in recent history when Washington has given up on a fight and left locals in the lurch. It happened in Saigon in 1975, in Beirut in 1983, in Mogadishu in 1993, and, arguably, in Syria in 2019. Some foreign capitals are connecting these dots to conclude Washington is not reliable when the chips are down. Against that backdrop, selling weapons so countries can defend themselves may be the [ Read More…]

The Federal Trade Commission appears to be wrapping up its analysis of Lockheed Martin’s proposed merger with Aerojet Rocketdyne. Every merger is unique, but this transaction may be more unusual than most given the players and products involved. Here are five considerations that will likely shape how the FTC assesses the proposed combination. (1) Defense is not like a commercial business, it is a monopsony market, so the opinion of the military customer matters. (2) Integration, both horizontal and vertical, [ Read More…]

It is time to get serious about shoring up NATO’s defensive capabilities in Eastern Europe. Russian continues to undertake activities designed to intimidate NATO allies and undermine the stability of neighboring Eastern European countries. The Russian military is improving its abilities to deploy large, combined armed forces along its western border and to conduct short notice attacks anywhere from the Baltics to the Black Sea. Against this background, numerous experts and policy institutions have advocated for a more forceful approach [ Read More…]

When Raytheon and United Technologies merged in 2020 to become Raytheon Technologies, they created an aerospace enterprise with unrivaled market breadth and technical depth. There is a real possibility that by mid-decade, RTX will be the biggest aerospace and defense business in America. At present, Boeing and Lockheed Martin have more sizable sales, but Boeing has suffered significant setbacks in both its commercial and defense units, while Lockheed has only a modest commercial presence. Moreover, much of the content found [ Read More…]

The world is going to need 50 percent more energy by 2050, including a large amount of oil. This challenge can be met while also addressing climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Through data analytics, U.S. oil companies are taking many steps to significantly cut their emissions soon. Policymakers should encourage these actions as the U.S. oil industry is large, recent events have shown the continuing importance of oil, and other oil producers worldwide do not have the same [ Read More…]

The U.S. Army’s program to field a more resilient and versatile successor to the Humvee light truck has unfolded in remarkably smooth fashion. Manufacturer Oshkosh, which won the contract in 2015, has delivered 13,000 vehicles to the Army and other services on schedule and below budget. Nonetheless, the plan has always been to recompete the contract, to see whether a different company might surpass the incumbent on pricing while delivering equal or better quality. A draft request for proposals will [ Read More…]

In response to the danger posed by COVID-19, remote working has become the norm for the Department of Defense (DoD). As a result, there has been an explosion of endpoints (laptops, desktops, tablets, mobile phones, and servers) on Pentagon networks. Congress is pressing DoD to improve its abilities to monitor endpoints and assure that only legitimate ones are permitted on the networks. The bigger challenge is how to protect not just networks and their endpoints but everything that is an [ Read More…]