Author Archives: Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D
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Five Reasons James Taiclet Is An Ideal Successor To Lockheed Martin’s Marillyn Hewson (From Forbes)
June 16, 2020- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D This is the week that Marillyn Hewson relinquished the helm of Lockheed Martin to her handpicked successor, James Taiclet. As President & CEO of the world’s leading military contractor, Taiclet will have some big shoes to fill, because Hewson is [Read More...] -
ManTech ‘Space Range’ Simulates Cyberattacks On Satellites & Ground Stations To Bolster Defenses (From Forbes)
June 12, 2020- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D Senior defense officials are increasingly concerned about the vulnerability of U.S. space assets, and it isn’t hard to see what the most immediate danger is. It’s cyberattacks. Now ManTech has come up with a novel solution. On May 4 it [Read More...] -
Claims Of Aircraft Carrier Vulnerability Are False, But The Versatility Is Real (From Forbes)
June 9, 2020- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D There has been a persistent drumbeat of concern since the Cold War ended about the supposed vulnerability of the U.S. Navy’s nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. The nature of the threat and the likely perpetrators change over time, but somehow the danger [Read More...] -
Fog Of War: How Clever Technology Enables Military Pilots To See Through Smoke, Dust, Mist & Smog (From Forbes)
June 5, 2020- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D “Fog of war” isn’t just a metaphor for warfighters. It’s a real problem when battlefields are covered with smoke, dust, mist, smog and other obscurants. The Pentagon says most of the helicopters it lost in Afghanistan and Iraq suffered mishaps [Read More...] -
Five Reasons The Air Force’s B-52 Bomber Will Be The First Jet Ever To Stay In Service For 100 Years (From Forbes)
June 2, 2020- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D June 5 is the anniversary of the day in 1946 when Boeing won the competition to develop what would become the B-52 bomber. The design went through many iterations, but in the end it became the most iconic military aircraft [Read More...] -
The Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency Has A Bold New Plan For Protecting America. What’s ‘Plan B’ If It Doesn’t Work? (From Forbes)
May 28, 2020- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D The Pentagon’s lead agency for missile defense has embarked on a plan to keep up with the evolving North Korean nuclear threat by developing a Next Generation Interceptor. Nothing wrong with that, except for this: most missile defense ideas don’t [Read More...] -
Army Fears If ‘Future Vertical Lift’ Falters, Serious Fallout For Industry Might Follow (From Forbes)
May 26, 2020- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D The U.S. Army is leading what may prove to be the biggest rotorcraft program in history. Called Future Vertical Lift (FVL), it will replace over a dozen different helicopters in the joint fleet with thousands of new aircraft that have [Read More...] -
Air Force ‘Digital Century Series’ Fighters: Technologically Exciting, Operationally Unworkable (From Forbes)
May 15, 2020- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D The Air Force has a vision of future fighter development that involves buying many different aircraft with limited service lives in small lots. Called the Digital Century Series, it is an attempt to leverage developments like digital engineering to stay [Read More...] -
Think You Know Where Defense Spending Is Headed After Coronavirus? Guess Again. (From Forbes)
May 12, 2020- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D There’s a lot of speculation about where defense spending is headed in the aftermath of the worst pandemic in a century, most of it negative. But the truth of the matter is that we have no idea where military outlays [Read More...] -
Raytheon Technologies Is Posturing To Be The Pentagon’s Top Cyber Supplier–Both Offensive And Defensive (From Forbes)
May 8, 2020- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D Raytheon Technologies, the merged aerospace and defense operations of Raytheon and United Technologies, is a very big enterprise. So big, in fact, that it will take analysts a while to sort out all of the company’s diverse competencies. When they [Read More...]