Author Archives: Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

February 23, 2005Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

The Air Force’s Other Procurement Scandal Issue Brief In 1501, Pope Alexander VI admitted that he had fathered his daughter’s child. Now that was a scandal. Scandals nowadays seem to be less clearcut. In fact, sometimes it seems that what becomes a scandal is more a [Read More...]

February 16, 2005Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Reconnaissance Sometimes Redundancy Is Desirable Issue Brief If there’s one thing defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld doesn’t like, it’s redundancy. He killed the Army’s Crusader artillery vehicle because he thought the Air Force could provide more responsive fire support. He wants to terminate the Air Force’s [Read More...]

February 10, 2005Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

How The Democrats Became Irrelevant Issue Brief There’s a fierce battle being waged in Washington over deficits, entitlements, and military spending priorities. But it isn’t between the Democrats and the Republicans, it’s between the optimistic and pessimistic wings of the Republican Party. You see, the [Read More...]

February 4, 2005Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

2006 Military Budget: Consumption Up, Investment Down Issue Brief The basic outlines of the Pentagon’s budget request for the 2006 fiscal year beginning October 1 were revealed yesterday by Anthony Capaccio of Bloomberg Business News. Capaccio has a long history of breaking important news about military budgets [Read More...]

February 2, 2005Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Missing Information Distorts F-22 Debate Issue Brief What’s wrong with this picture? At $258 million apiece, the New York Times reports, the Air Force’s F-22 Raptor is “the most expensive fighter in history.” So defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld has proposed cutting 100 Raptors from production [Read More...]

January 25, 2005Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

National Defense: Did The Democrats Win? Issue Brief The defense mess is really your fault, you know, because you voted for John Kerry. I warned you that if you voted for Kerry, idealism would replace national interest as the main driver of security policy. I warned [Read More...]

January 18, 2005Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Pentagon Planners Target New England Issue Brief If you want to understand what’s happening to the defense budget, don’t look at the topline. Look at how money is shifting among activities within the budget. When you track those shifts, it becomes apparent that military spending [Read More...]

January 13, 2005Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Future Security: A Big Problem, Barely Noticed Issue Brief Every summer I take my wife and the twins to visit Mom in Massachusetts. She lives there because she retired to the place her immigrant parents first came a century ago, to work in what was then the [Read More...]

January 7, 2005Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Rumsfeld Plan Closes Six of Seven Aircraft Lines Issue Brief There’s an urban myth inside the Washington Beltway that Republicans do a better job of running the government because so many of them come from the business world. Maybe that was true when Dwight Eisenhower was President, but [Read More...]

December 29, 2004Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Rumsfeld’s Final Act Threatens Future Readiness Issue Brief In Greek tragedies, the outcome is foreshadowed long before the final act, but the protagonists are powerless to avert their fate because they cannot change their natures. So it is with Donald Rumsfeld. For four years, friends have [Read More...]