Author Archives: Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D
Obama’s Big Bet On Afghanistan Could Boost Democrats
According to Prussian strategist Carl von Clausewitz, war is the continuation of politics by other means. Sometimes, politics seems like the continuation of war by other means. President Obama’s decision to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan may be one [Read More...]
Budget Moves Buoy Defense Industry
Issue Brief
It has been an unsettling year for defense contractors. While industry profitability continues to ride the crest of record post-cold-war military spending, the Obama Administration has sent numerous signals that the sector’s flush times may be coming to [Read More...]
FMTV Protest Finding Is Just Common Sense
It is a common misconception that Department of Defense rules for purchasing weapons are impenetrably arcane. That’s only half true. Much of the time, the principles being applied trace back to basic constitutional guarantees such as due process and equal [Read More...]
F-35 Program Changes Likely To Strengthen Program, Not Weaken It
Jason Sherman of insidedefense.com broke a major story on December 9 concerning likely changes to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. The story said that pursuant to recent budget deliberations, development may be delayed by “at least a year,” the [Read More...]
Trade Expert Disputes Interpretation Of Tanker Subsidies Issue
Noted trade expert and aerospace analyst Joel Johnson thinks I’ve missed the boat — or the widebody — in my recent blog posting on how Airbus subsidies should play in the Air Force tanker competition. He sent us the following [Read More...]
The Cyber Goldrush Begins
Issue Brief
When Chinese agents penetrated the computers of the Obama campaign during the recent election season and stole many sensitive files, they pretty much guaranteed that the nation’s next president would make cybersecurity a national priority. Obama has done [Read More...]
Secure SATCOM Advancing, But Comms Architecture Unsettled
After lengthy delays, the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) communications satellite program is progressing smoothly without any loss of key performance features. That’s important, because new satellites must soon replace the aging Milstar constellation in carrying the most sensitive transmissions [Read More...]
U.S. Security Outlays In 2011 Likely To Approach $800 Billion
In a speech last July, defense secretary Robert Gates defended his plan to terminate or trim dozens of major weapons programs by noting that, according to some estimates, the United States currently accounts for nearly half of all global military [Read More...]
Tanker Wars: Boeing Says Law On Its Side In Subsidies Dispute
An interesting asymmetry has emerged in how the Boeing and Northrop Grumman teams have reacted to the government’s release of a draft request-for-proposal in the Air Force tanker competition. The Northrop Grumman team, which is bidding a modified Airbus A330 [Read More...]
Sweetman Assails My F-35 Brief
Respected aerospace analyst Bill Sweetman dissected my Monday F-35 issue brief in his Aviation Week blog on December 2, and definitely didn’t like what he saw. We don’t have a comments section at Early Warning, but we do try to [Read More...]