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…]

It appears that Marine Corps Commandant General David Berger may have told the story of how his Service needed to transform itself too well. As part of his vision for a new Marine Corps, the Commandant called for reducing the size of the Navy’s fleet of large amphibious warships and acquiring a new class of smaller, lighter vessels. Unfortunately, many observers, defense experts, and even some senior Pentagon officials concluded that General Berger’s modernization program required an either-or decision: either the [ Read More…]

While the Postal Service Reform Act is often touted as improving mail delivery times and service, it will have the opposite effect. As Congress was considering the legislation, signed by President Biden on April 6, the U.S. Postal Service was slowing delivery times for 39 percent of first-class mail, which it could do on its own. And things have gotten worse. The Postal Service is now saying it will be years before it now meets the slower standards that went [ Read More…]

In March 2021, Bloomberg BusinessWeek published an essay on economist Charles Goodhart’s 1975 law that “any observed statistical regularity will tend to collapse once pressure is placed upon it for control purposes.” The examples cited in the Bloomberg article are interesting, but they are mostly through a regulatory and microeconomic prism. The most important use of Goodhart’s law might be in targeting public policy goals, according to Lexington CEO Merrick “Mac” Carey. A PDF of Mr. Carey’s article from The International [ Read More…]

There’s a lot of talk in the federal government about tapping “non-traditional” sources for imaginative innovations. Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) is one of those rare contractors that was non-traditional long before it was fashionable. The company was acquired in 1994 by Eren and Fatih Ozmen, Turkish immigrants who came to America as students and have now become billionaires as a result of their out-of-the-box approach to solving national challenges. Rather than taking SNC public, the Ozmens decided to keep the [ Read More…]