Author Archives: Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D
2011 Budget Highlights Need For Rotorcraft, Reapers, Growlers & Joint Strike Fighter A draft overview of the defense department’s fiscal 2011 budget request highlights a handful of weapons programs as key to current and future military operations. The document was leaked last week, but media reports have only mentioned a small portion [Read More...]
Navy Next-Gen Network Looks Highly Vulnerable To Cyber Attack The Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) is the biggest intranet in the world. With 800,000 users, some people say the only network that’s bigger is the Internet itself. But NMCI has spawned more than its share of controversy, because the [Read More...]
GD Acquires Crucial Tactical Intelligence Tool Issue Brief
On January 8, General Dynamics acquired a little-known product from a Virginia-based tech company that could prove to be one of the most valuable tactical intelligence tools the U.S. Army possesses. The program is called the Tactical Ground [Read More...]
Deficit Reduction: Pentagon Must Stop Adding People, Begin Cutting Workforce The federal budget is trapped in a structural deficit that the White House says will average 6% of gross domestic product over the next ten years. Since federal spending only claims about 20% of GDP in a normal year, that [Read More...]
Draft Budget Overview Reveals QDR Priorities Although the most recent version of the Quadrennial Defense Review is classified “secret,” an unclassified overview of the fiscal 2011 defense budget circulating in Washington reveals the basic outlines of the QDR. It lists the major themes of the QDR [Read More...]
Congressional Testimony: Trident Sub Successor Should Be Funded Differently Yesterday I had the honor of testifying before the Seapower & Expeditionary Forces Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee concerning Navy shipbuilding plans. My prepared remarks are below. In general, I agreed with Navy plans for submarines, carriers and [Read More...]
The Three Biggest Challenges Facing Naval Shipbuilding Issue Brief
You could say that the three biggest challenges facing the U.S. Navy’s shipbuilding program are money, money, and money. The service has a clear vision of how to construct a networked, flexible fleet suitable for use across the [Read More...]
Did Lax Treatment Of Terrorists Put Brown Over The Top? The convincing win of Republican candidate Scott Brown in yesterday’s special election to fill the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy is being attributed to many factors — a weak economy, anti-incumbent populism, Obamacare, etc. But Brown’s campaign [Read More...]
Lowball Bid Casts Further Doubt On Army Truck Award The story of how Oshkosh Corporation beat out incumbent BAE Systems to win an Army contract for 23,000 trucks and trailers just keeps getting worse and worse. First the Government Accountability Office found that the Army overrated the production capabilities [Read More...]
“Faster!” — Navy Shipbuilding’s Mantra In The New Millennium Ten years ago, renowned author James Gleick published a book called Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything. The book documented how new information technologies were speeding up the pace of innovation, investing and just about every other facet of [Read More...]