Defense
Four Congressional Defense Committees Press Air Force To Speed Replacement Of JSTARS Radar Planes (From Forbes)
It isn't often that every congressional committee involved in budgeting for the defense department tells a military service it is on the wrong track, but that is what has happened with Air Force plans to recapitalize the Joint Surveillance and Target A ...
Pentagon Weapons Spending Claims Only 1% of GDP (From Forbes)
The non-stop debate on Capitol Hill about acquisition reform is fueled by two widely-held beliefs: that the Pentagon spends a huge amount of money on weapons, and that it spends a lot more than it needs to. Both beliefs are wrong. With regard to scal ...
JIDA Is Teaching DoD How To Do Rapid, Innovative Acquisition
The Department of Defense badly wants to become a more agile, innovative organization. The Pentagon's leaders look with envy and a little bewilderment at the speed with which private companies, particularly those in the IT space, are able to introduce ...
The Evolution Of Jet Fighters Takes A Giant Leap With “Fifth Generation” Planes (From Forbes)
The most advanced tactical aircraft in the world today are called "fifth-generation" fighters, although few people seem to know in any detail what that phrase means. Among other things it signifies advanced stealth, fused sensors, networked operations ...
The Pentagon’s Biggest Non-Issue Of The Year
Without question this is already a busy year for Defense Secretary Carter and his department. In terms of external challenges, there is the ever-expanding fight against ISIS, now about to include the deployment of U.S. forces to Libya. Then there is th ...
McCain Panel Makes Ambitious Attempt To Streamline Balkanized Military Chain Of Command (from Forbes)
The Senate Armed Services Committee completed work on a 1,666-page defense authorization bill before departing for the Memorial Day recess that will occupy center stage on the Senate floor come June 6. The most important initiative in this year's bill ...
Navy Morphing LCS From Ugly Duckling Into Fighting Bantam
Lost, or at least overlooked, in all the hubbub created by Defense Secretary Ashton Carter’s decision to radically restructure the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program and ongoing sniping from some ill-informed individuals about performance and cost issu ...
Arming Vietnam: Ideology Takes A Backseat To Pragmatism in Obama’s Foreign Policy (From Forbes)
Critics of the Obama Administration's foreign policy complain that it spends too much time promoting American values and too little time addressing concrete concerns like trade and security. However, that is not the picture coming out of Vietnam this ...
Capitol Hill Event: Defense Acquisition Reform – 6.3.16
The Lexington Institute is organizing a Capitol Hill forum on Friday, June 3rd to discuss defense acquisition reform opportunities. We hope you will be able to attend. Speakers to date include: Mr. Peter B. Bechtel, Director, Capabilities Integr ...
Banning Russian Rocket Engines Will Increase Costs And Risks (From Forbes)
The Senate this week is debating whether to ban use of Russian rocket engines on U.S. government space launches. That might make sense when better domestic propulsion options are available, but doing it anytime soon could actually hurt the U.S. in sev ...