Author Archives: Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D
Why The Littoral Combat Ship Has To Be A Success Rumor has it that the Navy is under pressure from Pentagon budgeteers to cut its buy of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) from 52 vessels to as few as 32. With development of modular combat systems for the high-speed warship [Read More...]
Washington Must Do More To Reshape China’s Behavior We probably didn’t need a major academic study to convince most people that China’s epic air pollution problem has consequences beyond its borders, but now we have one. The National Academy of Sciences has published a study by researchers at [Read More...]
Ex-Im Bank Is A Bargain For Taxpayers And A Boon To The Economy In a perfect world, every federal agency would operate like the U.S. Export-Import Bank. The bank sustains hundreds of thousands of domestic jobs, bolsters the competitiveness of manufacturing companies large and small, levels the playing field in trade so that [Read More...]
Raytheon Picks Dr. Thomas A. Kennedy As Next Ceo, Swanson Remains Board Chairman (From Forbes) The nation’s third-largest defense contractor disclosed today that it will be getting a new Chief Executive Officer come March 31. After serving for a decade as Raytheon’s Chairman & CEO, William H. Swanson will be relinquishing the lesser of his [Read More...]
Army Modernization Is Melting Down (From Forbes) The success of the U.S. Army in modern times rests on twin pillars of training and technology. But training has taken a beating recently due to budget uncertainties, and now the service’s edge in warfighting technologies looks to be at [Read More...]
Obama Saw The Middle East More Clearly Than His Military Advisors Did This week’s startling display of disloyalty by Robert Gates towards the commander in chief he formerly served should not be allowed to distract policymakers or pundits from the larger strategic issues in Southwest Asia. The reason Secretary Gates detected ambivalence [Read More...]
BAE Systems Picks Industry Veteran Jerry DeMuro To Run U.S. Business (From Forbes) BAE Systems announced today that defense-industry veteran Gerard (Jerry) DeMuro will succeed Linda Hudson as President & CEO of the company’s $12 billion U.S. business. BAE Systems, Inc., as the unit is called, is one of the Pentagon’s top suppliers [Read More...]
Lasers Could Prove Crucial To Navy Survival In The Western Pacific (From Forbes) The U.S. Pacific Fleet faces a daunting challenge in the East Asian littoral as China gradually expands its military capabilities in pursuit of regional dominance. Because the Chinese military is operating on home turf, it may have a nearly limitless [Read More...]
Lockheed Martin Savior Robert J. Stevens Retires (From Forbes) On the final day of 2013, Lockheed Martin Executive Chairman Robert J. Stevens relinquished the last positions he held at the world’s biggest defense contractor. Stevens, son of a steelworker and a former Marine, came to Lockheed Martin in 1996 [Read More...]
2013 WAS THE YEAR EVERYTHING WENT RIGHT FOR LOCKHEED MARTIN’S F-35 FIGHTER (FROM FORBES) Thirteen is looking like the F-35 fighter’s lucky number. After a dozen years of struggling to match program realities to government expectations, in 2013 prime contractor Lockheed Martin saw everything come together. The flight-testing program is now over 50% complete [Read More...]