Defense
Details Of Army Truck Award Reveal Numerous Errors
On August 28, the U.S. Army's Tank, Automotive & Armaments Command awarded a $4 billion contract to the Oshkosh Corporation to build 23,000 medium-size trucks. The award was an upset win for Oshkosh, . . .
New Global Hawk Undercuts Insurgent Advantages
If you are a paid Taliban operative or an Iraqi insurgent you may think you know how to slip through the mountains or skulk in the desert without U.S. forces noticing. Guess again. There’s a little . . .
Gates Signals F-35 Fighter Will Be Administration Priority
Defense secretary Robert Gates has finally found a weapons system he likes. After canceling or cutting back over a dozen major programs in April -- and setting the stage for additional cuts in the fiscal . . .
Failure To Use Radar Planes Against Taliban Is Foolish
U.S. commanders in Afghanistan are reporting worrisome advances in the battlefield performance of Taliban insurgents. Enemy discipline and morale seem to be improving, encouraged no doubt by the inability . . .
Reversing Industrial Decline: A Role for the Defense Budget
After dominating global industrial activity for a century, the United States is losing its edge in manufacturing to other nations. Over the last 30 years, manufacturing has fallen from a quarter to an . . .
Are Policymakers Too Enchanted With Unmanned Aircraft?
The Pentagon's quadrennial review of strategy and requirements is returning the joint force to a threat-based military posture. After eight years of toying with the idea of a "capabilities-based" posture, . . .
Lexington Launches A Different Kind Of Defense Blog
Greetings from New England. Yes, I too am at the beach. But I'm still working, and the purpose of this brief is to tell you about a new project that the Lexington Institute has launched while you were . . .
STOPPING C-17 NOW WOULD HOBBLE FUTURE WARFIGHTERS
The U.S. Air Force is the only military organization in the world that operates a diverse fleet of airlifters capable of transporting large forces over long distances on short notice. The airlift fleet . . .
Air Force Delay On Radar Plane Fix Hurts Soldiers
Every day, one of the Air Force's 17 Joint Stars radar planes takes off from a base in Southwest Asia to conduct secret intelligence-gathering missions. A multimode radar installed on the plane's belly . . .
There’s No Reason To Cut Funds For C-130 Modernization
The most successful aircraft in the history of military aviation isn't a fighter or a bomber, it's the C-130 Hercules airlifter. Conceived in the early 1950s as a short-hop cargo plane and people mover . . .