Author Archives: Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D
Tanker Wars: Northrop No-Bid Threat Is Real Northrop Grumman President Wes Bush sent a letter to Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter yesterday threatening to withdraw his team from the next round of competition in the Air Force’s future tanker program if changes were not made to the [Read More...]
Reconnaissance Office Conflict Rules Create Shortage Of Key Skills The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is implementing new rules designed to limit contractor conflicts of interest in a way that will undermine its ability to build the next generation of spy satellites. The recently strengthened rules, covering what the government [Read More...]
FOUR REASONS FOR CONFIDENCE IN THE F-35 Issue Brief
If you don’t follow the defense business closely, then you can be excused for believing that the F-35 joint strike fighter is in trouble. The $300 billion program to develop a stealthy, multirole tactical aircraft for three U.S. [Read More...]
Army Trucks: Contractor Tax Ploy Highlights Flawed Selection Process The winning bidder in the Army’s recent award of a contract for 23,000 trucks is providing fresh evidence that the service erred in assessing its qualifications to carry out the contract. Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Corporation is seeking $40 million in state [Read More...]
Oppenheimer Sees Big Contraction In U.S. Defense Market Oppenheimer & Co. financial analyst Myles Walton foresees a major contraction in U.S. defense demand over the next several years. In a November 5 note, Walton stated, “We still expect a typical multi-year downcycle in investment spending, which could amount [Read More...]
Murtha Said To Be Resisting C-17 Price Increase In Conference Defense appropriations insiders say Representative Jack Murtha is resisting a major unit-cost increase for the C-17 cargo plane in ongoing negotiations over the fiscal 2010 budget. Although Murtha is frequently depicted in the media as being a bit too helpful [Read More...]
Bloomberg’s Capaccio Reports China Close To Deploying Anti-Carrier Missile Tony Capaccio of Bloomberg Business News reported on Monday that China is “close to fielding the world’s first anti-ship ballistic missile.” Citing sources in U.S. naval intelligence, Capaccio stated that the missile would have a range of 1,500 kilometers (900 [Read More...]
Alternate Engine Problems Prove Critics Were Right Issue Brief
After ten months of testing, the alternate engine that General Electric and Rolls Royce are building for the F-35 joint strike fighter has managed to run for a grand total of 52 hours, during which time the engine [Read More...]
GE’s Breathtaking Hypocrisy On Preserving U.S. Competitiveness Last June, General Electric Chairman Jeffrey Immelt visited Detroit and issued a clarion call to America’s leaders. He warned that America could not remain an economic superpower if it produced only services, and said, “We must make a serious commitment [Read More...]
GAO: No Conflict, But A Definite Double Standard Last week, the Government Accountability Office dismissed my November 6 blog posting that raised the possibility it might have a conflict of interest in judging tanker protests. GAO is responsible for reviewing such protests, but as I pointed out in [Read More...]