Defense
Tanker Deadline Arrives With Key Concern Unresolved Sometime in the next two weeks, the Boeing Company and European aerospace giant EADS must submit their proposals for the next round of competition in the Air Force tanker solicitation. The deadline is . . .
Changing Defense Budget Environment Drives Shift In Company Strategies The defense business isn't like other sectors of the U.S. economy. There is only one customer that matters -- the federal government -- and that customer's behavior often diverges from what we would . . .
Pentagon Insourcing Undercuts Search For Savings Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates has delivered a series of speeches this year stressing the need to eliminate unnecessary military spending. Gates claims to have slashed future weapons spending by . . .
White House Export Goals Require More Weapons Sales On March 11, President Obama signed an executive order establishing a "national export initiative." The order implements his commitment in the State of the Union address to double U.S. exports over the . . .
Boeing 737 Emerging As Centerpiece Of Future Joint Fleet The U.S. Navy is conducting a highly successful effort to replace its aging fleet of maritime patrol planes with a military version of the Boeing 737 passenger jet. The planes will perform anti-surface . . .
Buying Second Engine For F-35 Wastes Money, Hurts Military The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is being developed to replace most of the Cold War tactical aircraft operated by three U.S. military services and nine allies. The success of the program depends on holding . . .
Why Defense Demand Will Weaken — And How Military Contractors Can Cope Price Waterhouse Coopers has asked me to speak for the next hour about the defense outlook, which I have interpreted to mean the business outlook for U.S. military contractors over the next few years. . .
Back To The Future — The Perils Of Insourcing Faced with the need to control the costs and improve the performance of its logistics and sustainment system, the Department of Defense has pursued a deliberate strategy of . . .
Austerity Week Ends At The Pentagon The only people celebrating at the Pentagon last week were the Mexicans working on renovating the building. Wednesday was Cinco de Mayo, a holiday for honoring Mexican history and culture. But our notoriously . . .
Gates Signals Tough Budget Season For Sea Services It says a lot about the parlous state of federal finances that defense secretary Robert Gates thinks the Navy can't afford to keep buying the kinds of warships that currently populate its fleet. The . . .