Author Archives: Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

October 8, 2002Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Reducing Raptor: This Is Transformation? Issue Brief The Pentagon’s senior civilian leadership is leaning toward cutting the department’s commitment to the F/A-22 Raptor multirole fighter. It’s a little hard to know what the emerging plan means, because there would be only minimal changes to the [Read More...]

October 1, 2002Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Military Transformation: Ahead of the Curve, or Behind? Issue Brief Last week the U.S. Army and five other organizations sponsored a conference concerning how to cope with the new security environment. The Eisenhower Conference was an ecumenical affair, as reflected in the fact that the Office of Net [Read More...]

September 23, 2002Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Transformation, or Ideology? Bush Administration Needs Reality Check Article published in Defense News On August 21, as President Bush’s summer vacation was winding down, senior Defense Department officials traveled to Crawford, Texas to brief the chief executive on military spending plans. In a dozen densely-packed charts, the Pentagon’s [Read More...]

September 11, 2002Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Raptor’s New Designation is Long Overdue Issue Brief Who says the Air Force isn’t agile? Next week it will finally get around to fixing the misleading name of its next-generation fighter, and it only took a decade of deliberations to decide. The Raptor stopped being just [Read More...]

June 13, 2002Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

The Bush Doctrine Op Ed published in The Wall Street Journal During its first year in office, the Bush administration seemed to be struggling to find a strategic concept that would distinguish its security posture from what had come before. Aside from its [Read More...]

June 10, 2002Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Navy Strategy for Buying New Sub Wastes $Millions Issue Brief Here’s a quick quiz to test how much you know about the Navy’s role in the war on terrorism. Which category of warship — aircraft carriers, destroyers or submarines — has seen the greatest surge in operational requirements [Read More...]

May 16, 2002Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

The Nuclear Posture Review: A Necessary Evolution in National Strategy Testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, thank you for inviting me to offer my views on the administration’s Nuclear Posture Review. I’d like to spend a few minutes this morning explaining why [Read More...]

April 9, 2002Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Two Cheers for Transformation – And Some Words of Caution Testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, thank you for inviting me to offer an assessment of military transformation. “Transformation” is a tricky term. The current popularity of the word within the Pentagon [Read More...]

March 13, 2002Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

How to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb Article published in The Wall Street Journal Someone tuned in to the breathless media coverage of the Bush administration’s nuclear report last week could be excused for assuming that Dr. Strangelove had taken control of the Pentagon. According to the [Read More...]

March 1, 2002Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D

Killing Al Quaeda : The Navy’s Role Research Study The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 confirmed expectations that future adversaries would favor “asymmetric” strategies in challenging American interests. The goal of the Al Qaeda terrorist organization and the Taliban government that sheltered it in Afghanistan was [Read More...]