Author Archives: Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D
Ten Design Features That Will Shape The Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance Program (From Forbes) The Air Force is soliciting proposals for its Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program, which will develop a successor to the twin-engine F-22 fighter. Almost everything about the program is secret, but you don’t need to be an aerospace engineer [Read More...]
Much Ado About Nothing: Lockheed And RTX Are Not At Loggerheads Over F-35 Engine Upgrades (From Forbes) Last week’s Paris Air Show was punctuated by unusual statements from F-35 airframe maker Lockheed Martin and engine maker Pratt & Whitney. The statements seemed to indicate a disagreement over how necessary upgrades to the F-35 engine should be implemented. [Read More...]
European Overreach In Tech Regulation Is Becoming A Problem For US National Security (From Forbes) Last week the European Parliament endorsed sweeping restrictions on artificial intelligence while the EU’s chief regulator proposed a partial breakup of Google. This is becoming a pattern for Europe, assailing US tech companies in ways that hobble their ability to [Read More...]
Five Pillars Of Boeing’s Strategy For Staying Ahead In National-Security Space (From Forbes) Boeing operates the nation’s most diversified space enterprise, much of which is focused on defense and intelligence programs. At the moment, that segment of the marketplace is in ferment as contractors adjust to changing customer expectations. Under VP & General [Read More...]
Aerojet’s Merger With L3Harris Is Crucial To Preserving Competition In Large Solid Rocket Motors (From Forbes) Northrop Grumman dominates the domestic market for large solid rocket motors. It is anybody’s guess whether Aerojet can hang on indefinitely with a narrow slice of the market, or whether Northrop Grumman will end up owning a monopoly. Against that [Read More...]
Microsoft’s Big Footprint In China Is Out Of Step With U.S. Security Concerns (From Forbes) As attitudes toward China harden in Washington, Microsoft increasingly finds itself on the wrong side of the national security debate. The company has an extensive market presence in the People’s Republic, offering over 70 products and employing thousands of software [Read More...]
As Army Chief McConville Prepares To Depart, His Service Is In Its Best Shape In Decades (From Forbes) The U.S. Army is in great shape today–well-trained, ready for combat, and increasingly equipped with the best weapons in the world. A lot of the credit for this goes to General James McConville, who served first as the Army’s Vice [Read More...]
Defense Industry Dodges A Bullet In Debt Compromise (From Forbes) The debt-ceiling compromise that the House of Representatives passed this week is good news for the defense industry. Not only is the Pentagon being funded at the level President Biden requested for 2024, but there is a good chance that [Read More...]
E-7 Wedgetail Successor To AWACS Is A Must-Have For The Joint Force, The Sooner The Better (From Forbes) The Air Force’s fleet of 31 E-3 AWACS radar planes is rapidly descending into obsolescence. The service should have begun a replacement program decades ago, but we are where we are: a successor based on Australia’s Wedgetail was announced in [Read More...]
Urgent Military Need For ‘Affordable Mass’ Can’t Wait For A New Generation Of Smart Munitions (From Forbes) The U.S. military owns the most capable weapons in the world. However, there is a downside to being so capable. Advanced weapons are costly, so it is very expensive to accumulate large stocks. That presents a dilemma for military planners, [Read More...]