Author Archives: Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D
How Boeing Defense Will Overcome Its Bomber Defeat (From Forbes) Losing the Air Force’s bomber competition last year was a heavy blow for Boeing’s defense unit. However, the company has plenty of room to maneuver, given its $432 billion backlog of orders for jetliners. Equally important, the recently installed head [Read More...]
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 [Read More...]
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 [Read More...]
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, and optimized performance [Read More...]
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 [Read More...]
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 week, [Read More...]
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. [Read More...]
What’s In It For America? How Trump Would Change Our Global Posture If He Wins The Presidency (From Forbes) Contrary to what his critics claim, Donald Trump’s views on how Washington should change its foreign policy are coherent and consistent. First, he thinks economic globalization has been bad for America, so he would rethink free trade and the notion [Read More...]
Five Reasons Defense Companies Need To Be Really Big To Survive (From Forbes) Recent Pentagon complaints that the defense industry has become too concentrated are misguided. Bigness is a prerequisite for surviving in a business where the threats that drive demand are unpredictable and the monopsony customer can’t be counted on to stick [Read More...]
GM’s Technology Revolution: Why The Pentagon Should Put Its Next Innovation Center In Detroit (From Forbes) The Pentagon is pressing hard to foster greater commercial-military collaboration in innovating, but it needs to look beyond the narrow confines of Silicon Valley and Boston. One place worth visiting is General Motors headquarters in Detroit, where America’s biggest auto [Read More...]