Author Archives: Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D
SCIENCE FICTION COMES TO COMBAT
When I was a kid, I used to read a lot of science fiction. Books like Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein. As I grew older, though, I began to realize I was living science fiction — things were changing so [Read More...]
RON SUGAR: THE PAGE TURNS ON AN AMERICAN SUCCESS STORY
When retiring Northrop Grumman chairman Ron Sugar was six years old, his parents packed the family into a old Ford and moved from Toronto to Los Angeles. The trip to California took nine days, and their destination was one of [Read More...]
Details Of Army Truck Award Reveal Numerous Errors
Issue Brief
On August 28, the U.S. Army’s Tank, Automotive & Armaments Command awarded a $4 billion contract to the Oshkosh Corporation to build 23,000 medium-size trucks. The award was an upset win for Oshkosh, which beat commercial truck manufacturer [Read More...]
A Future Trade War? It’s Already Here.
There’s a lot of talk in Washington right now that President Obama’s tariff on Chinese tires and the dispute over Airbus subsidies could lead to a trade war. That’s kind of odd, since the tariff was levied pursuant to agreements [Read More...]
China Using Trade Earnings To Make Strategic Purchases
The United States has incurred a trade deficit of over a trillion dollars with China since the decade began. As a result, the Chinese government has accumulated vast reserves of dollars. A prevailing fantasy in Washington is that Beijing will [Read More...]
If Joint Radio Dies, Warfighters Will Too
During the Cold War, America’s military services acquired a diverse collection of radios without much oversight or coordination. As a result, the joint force today is saddled with an aging inventory of incompatible systems that often fails to provide adequate [Read More...]
What Peace Dividend? War Costs Going Up, Not Down
One of the unspoken assumptions of the Obama game plan for governance was that lots of money could be freed up for domestic programs if the military got out of Iraq. That plan is not working out. Not only is [Read More...]
Airbus Illegal Subsidies: Washington Must Act
Issue Brief
The World Trade Organization has determined that European Union countries used illegal subsidies in enabling Airbus to build airliners that compete with planes made by Boeing. The practical effect of these subsidies was to give Airbus an unfair [Read More...]
WTO Nukes Tanker Plan: Time To Revisit Dual Sourcing
The World Trade Organization has handed Boeing’s friends on Capitol Hill a powerful tool to block award of the Air Force’s next tanker to any offeror using an Airbus airframe. The Northrop Grumman team competing against Boeing for the award [Read More...]
Pax Romana: How Did The Romans Do It?
Because the first volume of Edward Gibbon’s monumental The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire appeared in 1776, it had a profound impact on the thinking of the Founding Fathers. George Washington paraphrased Gibbon’s insight that “they preserved peace [Read More...]