Author Archives: Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D
Pentagon Threat Matrix: Wrong Again Issue BriefThe Pentagon is gearing up for another congressionally-mandated Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) next year. The exercise is supposed to provide a fundamental analysis of military requirements and capabilities that can guide defense spending through the end of the [Read More...]
Iraq: The Price of Ignorance Issue BriefIn early spring of 1915, the British government formed a committee to determine what its goals should be in the Middle East once the war was over. The term “Middle East” had only recently been coined by naval [Read More...]
Fleeting Targets: Rethinking Orbital and Airborne Sensors Fleeting Targets: Logic Flow
• In the future, most military targets will be fleeting – mobile, time-sensitive & hard to track.
• U.S. forces are resolving the issues associated with finding & targeting conventional mobile targets (SAM’s, Scud launchers, etc.). [Read More...]
Kerry as Commander-In-Chief Issue BriefGeorge W. Bush has a decidedly mixed record as Commander-in-Chief. On Bush’s watch, the nation has suffered the worst terrorist attacks in history; a series of severe intelligence failures; an unnecessary war brought on partly by the biases [Read More...]
Druyun Debacle Raises Larger Questions Issue BriefThe Wall Street Journal reports today that Pentagon officials are investigating whether Boeing was improperly awarded a multi-billion-dollar contract to develop the nation’s next generation of photo-reconnaissance satellites. Known as the Future Imagery Architecture, the program has been [Read More...]
Saving the Space-Based Radar Issue BriefA series of intelligence failures has underscored the need to improve U.S. collection and analysis capabilities. Part of that challenge is developing a global network of sensors that can continuously monitor indications of danger across the electromagnetic spectrum [Read More...]
Rumsfeld’s Next Four Years Issue BriefThe Democratic Party seems to be reverting to the chronic electoral inferiority that resulted in it sending only two men to the White House during the entire 70-year period from the Civil War to the Great Depression. The [Read More...]
How to Fix Iraq Issue BriefWhat’s wrong with this picture? The world’s sole remaining superpower mounts a campaign to depose a brutal dictator and bring democracy to his long-suffering nation. The superpower commits billions of dollars to rebuilding the country, and struggles to [Read More...]
No Way Out Issue BriefOf the ill-fated U.S. intervention in Vietnam a generation ago, at least one positive thing may be said: when it came time to depart, little of strategic value was left behind other than America’s credibility. Indochina had few [Read More...]
Shipbuilding: The Navy Needs Help Now Issue BriefWith the Soviet Union long gone and pirates a thing of the past, some people think that America no longer needs a big navy. Navy leaders don’t agree, but budgetary pressures are forcing them to take steps that [Read More...]