On February 13th, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will hear oral arguments concerning whether chip maker Qualcomm should be forced to license its hard-won patents to competitors such as Huawei. A lower court ruled that the company must share intellectual property with rivals to avoid engaging in anti-competitive behavior, but applying that principle globally rather than just within U.S. borders is a novel interpretation of antitrust law. If the lower court ruling is upheld, the Qualcomm [ Read More…]

There are many positive developments regarding U.S. energy policy, including on the cybersecurity front. America’s economy and national security are strengthened by having higher U.S. energy production and liquefied natural gas exports. There has also been unprecedented attention, and a much-needed sense of urgency, concerning electric grid cybersecurity.

There is concern in the Pentagon that China and Russia are catching up with U.S. warfighting capabilities. Many policymakers are convinced that a solution lies, at least in part, in tapping a wider range of sources for military technology–especially commercial tech companies. Unfortunately, many commercial enterprises lack the resources to deal with the Pentagon’s baroque acquisition system. One way around this problem is to partner with established military contractors who do know how to navigate the acquisition bureaucracy. Raytheon and [ Read More…]

Last Friday, the Army announced that it was canceling the rapid prototyping phase of the new Optionally-Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV), intended to replace its aging fleet of Bradley Infantry Vehicles. This decision appears to be another in a series of acquisition missteps by the U.S. Army and a blow to the reputation of Futures Command. But before one judges the Army incapable of managing a new vehicle acquisition program, one must remember two things. First, OMFV is not dead; it [ Read More…]

Below is a synopsis of six particularly notable developments since November 2019 re: steps being taken to protect the U.S. electric grid from cyberattacks and the evolving nature of these threats. National Security Council Report. On December 12 the President’s National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC) provided a report to the President and the National Security Council urging that stronger steps be taken to protect U.S. companies from cyberattacks. “U.S. companies find themselves on the front lines of a cyber war [ Read More…]

No matter how well trained America’s military is, it can’t win overseas wars unless it has a way of getting to the fight.  Troops can be flown to war zones, but equipment and supplies need to go mainly by sea.  The U.S. Navy, working with the Transportation Department’s Maritime Administration, has assembled a dedicated fleet of roll-on/roll-off carriers plus other specialized vessels for moving materiel forward. It also has 15 vessels prepositioned near possible war zones.  But the fleet aging, [ Read More…]

In the years since the Cold War ended, the U.S. Army has faced repeated setbacks in trying to modernize its weapons.  Several major initiatives were canceled, and counter-insurgency campaigns in Southwest Asia distracted planners from the threat posed by near-peer adversaries.  But today the Army has a modernization plan that shows greater promise than at any time since President Reagan left office.  Five factors seem to be driving the improved outlook for recapitalizing aged warfighting systems: the availability of adequate [ Read More…]

It is generally recognized that the key to the U.S. Army’s efforts to prepare itself for a new era of great power conflict is a new set of long-range fire systems. General John Murray, the head of Army Futures Command, testified before Congress that “our first modernization priority is to restore the Army’s Long-Range Precision Fires (LRPF) capabilities in order to regain our dominance in range, lethality, and target acquisition.” To that end, the Army has a plan to upgrade or [ Read More…]

Yesterday the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) issued a legally required five-year strategic plan. Key information in the report and related observations are below. This is the most candid the Postal Service has ever been about its financial challenges. On page 12 USPS says, “We have an underfunded balance sheet, significant debt, and insufficient cash to weather unforeseen cyclicality or changes in business conditions.” Page 17 reads, “…we expect to run out of liquidity by 2021 if we pay all our [ Read More…]

NATO has a rich history to build upon but it needs to move its strategy center to the East. For fifty years NATO was focused on deterring the Soviet threat by zealously guarding the inner-German border. The threat is just as serious today, but its geographic focus has shifted eastward. The NATO members along the Russian border should be the focus of immediate U.S. and alliance engagement and support. Poland is the emerging economic magnet for Europe and demonstrates the [ Read More…]