Author Archives: Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D
Lawmakers Charge U.S. Access To Space At Risk Due To Pentagon Inaction (From Forbes) A bipartisan group of congressional lawmakers sent Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter a letter on November 5 complaining that recent developments in the launch industry threaten military access to space. The legislators are particularly concerned Air Force officials are not [Read More...]
Southern California In Uproar Over Weekend Test Of Military’s Top Missile (from Forbes) When the U.S. Navy decided to test its Trident II D-5 ballistic missile off the coast of Southern California late on Saturday afternoon, it probably didn’t expect the social media uproar that followed. The sun had just set, and as [Read More...]
Boeing Protests Bomber Award To Northrop Grumman, Claims Selection Process “Fundamentally Flawed” (From Forbes) The Boeing Company disclosed on November 6 that it will join with team-mate Lockheed Martin in protesting the Air Force’s award of the Long Range Strike Bomber to Northrop Grumman. The companies believe that the government deviated from the process [Read More...]
Retreating Ex-Im Bank Foes Fight Furious Rearguard Action As Defeat Looms (from Forbes) It appears that efforts by right-wing critics to kill the Export-Import Bank have failed. Both the House and the Senate have now voted by decisive margins to renew the charter of America’s only export credit agency. However, Ex-Im’s foes in [Read More...]
If Congress Slows The Army’s Top Comms Upgrade To A Crawl, The Consequences Could Be Fatal (From Forbes) During Operation Desert Storm a quarter-century ago, the Army discovered a problem that grew progressively worse with time: its command network couldn’t keep up with the pace of battle. That was mainly because soldiers in combat needed to stop and [Read More...]
Bomber Award Will Transform The Defense Sector — If Northrop Can Execute (From Forbes) Tuesday’s award of the contract for the Air Force’s next bomber to Northrop Grumman was a stunning upset. If the decision is sustained, Northrop will return to the first tier of combat aircraft integrators while Boeing will see its military [Read More...]
Next-Gen GPS: Success Hinges On Sticking With Troubled Ground Control Program (From Forbes) The Global Positioning System is a valued military asset and part of the nation’s critical infrastructure. Without it, our smart bombs wouldn’t work, our smart phones would be less useful, and we’d get lost in strange neighborhoods. But there are [Read More...]
Ten Valuable Things America Will Lose If The Export-Import Bank Dies (From Forbes) On October 23, I testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s subcommittee on terrorism, non-proliferation and trade about the consequences of not reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank, America’s sole export-credit agency. I told the members that there was nothing to be [Read More...]
Why America Can’t Beat China Without A New Bomber (From Forbes) China has embarked on a strategy to dominate East Asia, which will require displacing America from its leading military role in the region. If that leads to war, the U.S. will need a much more capable heavy bomber fleet than [Read More...]
Air Force Can’t Rescue Many At-Risk Warriors Without More CV-22B Ospreys (From Forbes) The U.S. Air Force maintains an elite community of warriors whose job it is to rescue at-risk combatants and civilians. Sometimes they are downed pilots, sometimes they are troops trapped behind enemy lines, sometimes they are non-combatants who could be [Read More...]