The Federal Trade Commission is reviewing Lockheed Martin’s proposed merger with rocket-engine maker Aerojet Rocketdyne. The merger would result in Lockheed absorbing part of its supply chain in a fairly typical example of vertical integration. There are at least five reasons why the resulting concentration need not raise antitrust concerns. First, vertical integration is a common business model in the rocket industry. Second, FTC has approved a similar transaction in the recent past. Third, remedies are readily available to resolve [ Read More…]

Arlington, Virginia-based CACI International is making steady progress growing its footprint in the national security sector. Revenues and earnings have increased at double-digit annual rates over the last two decades, and 2020 saw record bookings for the firm. Although CACI is sometimes described as an IT and professional services enterprise, it is best viewed as a tech company. It works with virtually all of the national laboratories, and invests heavily in R&D. Its software-centric approach to emerging mission areas such [ Read More…]

In 2014, Russia invaded and annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in the largest land seizure in Europe since World War II. Since then, experts have made various predictions of what Moscow’s next target for expansion might be. The Baltic states—Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania—have been one of the most commonly identified future hot spots and a particularly disastrous area for conflict to break out. Once Russian satellites like most countries in the area, they are often seen as the next most likely [ Read More…]

The U.S. Navy’s idea to develop a successor to the DDG-51 Arleigh Burke destroyer is facing high seas and heavy winds on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers aren’t convinced that plans for what the Navy calls DDG(X) are ready for primetime. They are probably right. The sea service is proposing to end Burke production and commence DDG(X) construction at a time when China’s maritime threat is expected to peak. The rationale for developing a new destroyer is largely speculative, and much of [ Read More…]

While the U.S. military likes to talk about being in an era of great power competition, it acts like there is only one real challenger: China. The armed forces are moving to reorganize and re-equip themselves to meet the specific dictates of potential future crises and conflicts in the Indo-Pacific region. Each is seeking to stake a claim on future resources and the prominence of their roles in countering the advance of China. Unfortunately, in its rush to make China [ Read More…]

The Lexington Institute provides the following comments and information for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in conjunction with the interim final rule (IFR) for Mandatory Advance Electronic Information for International Mail Shipments. Since 2017, the Lexington Institute has consistently analyzed and discussed the importance of keeping illegal opioids from entering the United States via the international mail system. The bipartisan Synthetics Trafficking & Overdose Prevention (STOP) Act is an essential tool for confronting America’s opioid epidemic. To read the [ Read More…]

Defense programs have been a boon to Raytheon Technologies during the global pandemic. All four of its business units work with the Pentagon, but the most intriguing part of its national security portfolio resides within Intelligence & Space, the unit led by Roy Azevedo. Intelligence & Space has 5,500 active programs, no one of which contributes more than 2% of the unit’s revenues. About 50% of revenues derive from sensing and effects, 30% from command, control and communications, and 20% [ Read More…]

Former Under Secretary of Defense Frank Kendall is likely to be Secretary of the Air Force for the next four years. Among the myriad programs he must oversee, none is more important than the effort to develop a next-generation heavy bomber, designated the B-21. Kendall should make it an early and urgent goal of his tenure to understand the B-21 inside-out, for at least five reasons. First, the future of the Air Force and U.S. air power depends on the [ Read More…]

America’s most important infrastructure is also our most vulnerable – the electric grid. It is old and literally on the screens of foreign adversaries (e.g., China, Russia, and Iran) who have been attacking it and will continue to do so. For years numerous government agencies have warned about the many dangers to the electric grid. There are important roles for the private sector, the federal government, and state government to take in strengthening and protecting the electric grid. Lexington Institute’s [ Read More…]

In the face of repeated major exploitations of critical U.S. networks, it is past time for the U.S. government to recognize that traditional security systems such as perimeter entry controls or whitelists are no longer adequate. As the SolarWinds hack proved, any security system can be penetrated with enough time and effort. Cybersecurity must be based on “zero trust,” which assumes that threats exist continually both inside and outside a network or cloud environment. A strategy of zero trust must [ Read More…]