Every so often government agencies will release documents that provide candid insights into their thinking, and how they would unleash monumental change if unconstrained by law and financial resources.  A case in point is the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Justice’s July 19 issuance of Merger Guidelines, the fifth time since 1982 for such pronouncements.  The guidelines are overly broad and restrictive, omit discussion of the benefits that mergers often have to the U.S. economy, and do not [ Read More…]

The twin blows of a global pandemic and war in Ukraine have alerted US policymakers to extensive vulnerabilities in the U.S. industrial economy. Pentagon planners are worried about the economy’s ability to sustain a war effort, and rightly so. Meanwhile, antitrust regulators are launching lawsuits against the nation’s most innovative enterprises–enterprises that will play a pivotal role in enabling both economic and military success in the years ahead. Thus, different agencies seem to be pursuing contradictory policies. I have written [ Read More…]

The U.S. is still the arsenal of democracy, providing well over $150 billion in security cooperation assistance to some 58 countries in 2021. One of the main avenues for providing friends and allies with needed military capabilities is the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) process. Unfortunately, this process is overregulated and under-resourced, resulting in significant delays in the delivery of vital defense items. Recognizing that such delays are unacceptable given growing near-term threats, the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) has stepped in [ Read More…]

The Air Force’s fleet of E-3 AWACS radar planes is on its last legs. The most decrepit aircraft will start heading to the boneyard this year, and finding spare parts for the remaining planes is becoming difficult. After all, the Boeing 707 jetliner on which the E-3 is based was designed in the 1950s and retired by airlines decades ago. Fortunately, a successor is waiting in the wings: a more capable surveillance and battle management aircraft called the E-7 Wedgetail [ Read More…]

Read the full study as a PDF here. In recent years, there has been immense public frustration with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), mail delivery times, and overall service performance. Much of this is within USPS’s control, though some of it is not. The drivers for the public’s frustration include: slower delivery standards; a historic period of mail disruption during Christmas 2020; numerous regional service crises; the rise in postal crime; and rising postal costs. While USPS is issuing regular [ Read More…]

Read the full study as a PDF here. In recent years, there has been immense public frustration with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), mail delivery times, and overall service performance. Much of this is within USPS’s control, though some is not. The drivers for the public’s frustration include: Slower delivery standards. In October 2021, for the second time in less than adecade, USPS slowed target mail delivery times, giving itself an extra day todeliver 40 percent of first-class mail. COVID [ Read More…]

Recent twenty-first-century wars suggest that the outcomes of future conflicts could be determined by the contest between unmanned aerial systems (UASs), also known as drones, and the means deployed to counter UASs (C-UASs). More than 30 nations have either fielded armed drones or are developing them. The U.S. made extensive use of drones in Southwest Asia and in its global campaign against violent extremism. It is currently developing an array of advanced drones of various sizes and degrees of complexity. [ Read More…]

The US Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance program is critical to assuring air superiority through mid-century. The crewed fighter at the center of NGAD is optimized for securing command of the air in heavily contested areas–like in and around China. It also has the range and other features necessary to operate in the vast distances of the Western Pacific. It’s too soon to say who will win the down-selects to integrate the NGAD airframe or engine, but it is [ Read More…]

The biggest lesson coming out of fighting in Ukraine isn’t about drones or artillery, it’s about electronic warfare. Both sides are straining to control and exploit the electromagnetic spectrum, at a level of intensity not seen in previous conflicts. Ukraine probably is a harbinger of things to come, because virtually every tool of modern warfare requires access to the spectrum to function. I have written a commentary for Forbes here.

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is facing formidable challenges these days and there are plenty of bad ideas on how to fix it. At the top of the list is H.R. 3721, legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives that would allow USPS to deliver beer, wine, and spirits to people’s homes. This new “service” will do nothing to fix USPS’s finances and instead will result in a host of liabilities and added costs. To its credit, it is unclear [ Read More…]