Energy storage is often touted as integral for promoting renewable power generation and thus saving the planet from climate change. But energy storage, particularly at the utility level, can also significantly strengthen the electric grid’s reliability. Advocates for energy storage typically focus on how this emerging, likely soon-to-be-booming technology will make it more economical for intermittent renewable power sources to be widely used. By its very nature energy storage enhances electric grid security by reserving power for difficult or crisis [ Read More…]

The United States is rapidly building an international community based around the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The military value of such a community is indisputable. The F-35 will be one of the pillars supporting the creation of a new, sensor-rich way of warfare. But as the negotiations that led to the opening of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) demonstrated, potential international sales of the F-35 can provide significant diplomatic leverage as well. Moreover, experience has shown [ Read More…]

Independent research and development (IR&D) is a type of defense innovation in which companies are reimbursed for work that the government did not request. Its goal is to give companies broad latitude to innovate, exercising judgment and expertise the government may lack. A recent study by the Government Accountability Office found that only about 40% of IR&D projects align closely with Pentagon modernization priorities, and that two-thirds are not focused on game-changing (“disruptive”) breakthroughs. However, GAO’s methodology is suspect. The [ Read More…]

Even before this summer’s mail delays, first-class mail service had been sharply deteriorating. Today, it takes close to a day longer to deliver a letter than it did in 2012. The key reasons for this are the U.S. Postal Service has twice lowered delivery standards (in 2012 and 2015) while aggressively pursuing packages. The Postal Service needs a fundamental restructuring so that first-class mail service improves and so that costs are better understood and delineated between the separate mail and [ Read More…]

Read the full report as a PDF here. Executive Summary The U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS) mail delivery standards and performance are under intense scrutiny as the election approaches and it recovers from a summer disruption. First-class mail delivered on time fell to as low as 83 percent in July before starting to recover. It was above 90 percent when Postmaster General Louis DeJoy took office on June 15. Getting back to the 90 percent rate, however, is nothing to celebrate. [ Read More…]

Japan’s decision to cancel construction of a land-based missile defense for the home islands has opened up a new competitive battleground between rivals Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Technologies. Both companies manufacture state-of-the-art missile defense radars, but Raytheon’s SPY-6 is the U.S. Navy’s baseline for upgrading missile defenses at sea. Lockheed’s SPY-7 is being developed for defense of the U.S. homeland from sites on shore. So if Japan sticks with its plan to rely on Aegis warships for homeland defense rather [ Read More…]

On August 7, United Launch Alliance and SpaceX won the competition to provide launch services to the Space Force through 2027. However, a curious thing happened with pricing. ULA got $337 million to perform two missions during the first year, while SpaceX got $316 million to perform one mission. The latter amount is over twice the price that SpaceX founder Elon Musk stated in 2018 would be the maximum cost for using its Falcon Heavy rocket. It is also far [ Read More…]

The U.S. House of Representatives Oversight and Reform Committee will be doing something today it has not done in this session of Congress: marking up, that is acting on, a piece of legislation specific to the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). On August 25, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), chair of the committee, introduced H.R. 8109, the Nonpartisan Postmaster General Act. The crux of the measure is to prevent anyone who has held elected office in the past four years, or served [ Read More…]

Over the last 20 years, the Pratt & Whitney unit of Raytheon Technologies has won contracts to provide engines for the Air Force’s newest fighter, tanker and bomber. You could say it has won the Triple Crown of Air Force propulsion competitions. Only one competition remains to cement its dominance for decades to come: the program that will reengine the iconic B-52 bomber. Each of the planes is 60 years old and has eight engines, which means reengining entails “significant [ Read More…]

The U.S. Army was a mess when Donald Trump became president in January of 2017. Only two of its brigades were in a high state of readiness, its modernization plan was faltering, and the Army seemed trapped in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Today, four years later, the Army has been transformed. What happened? Five things stand out: a team at the top with good chemistry that agreed on what had to be done to fix the institution; more money [ Read More…]