Author Archives: Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D
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Five Fast-Track Options For Blunting North Korea’s Missile Threat To America (From Forbes)
August 4, 2017- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D Diplomacy is getting U.S. leaders nowhere in slowing the North Korean missile program, so now Washington will need to consider its military options. Beefing up missile defense of the homeland is much less dangerous than taking offensive action against North [Read More...] -
OA-X: An Air Force Program Warfighters And Taxpayers Can Do Without (From Forbes)
July 31, 2017- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D After studying the concept for over a decade, the Air Force this summer will host a flight demonstration to determine whether off-the-shelf light attack aircraft have anything useful to offer in the way of future capabilities. Officials are thinking mainly [Read More...] -
BWXT Becomes The Nuclear Industry’s Civil-Military-Commercial Growth Company (From Forbes)
July 25, 2017- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D Lynchburg, Virginia-based BWXT has emerged as the domestic nuclear industry’s most outstanding growth story, thanks to its cradle-to-grave dominance of addressed markets. In addition to being the sole source of naval reactors for aircraft carriers and submarines, it is the [Read More...] -
Why The F-35 Fighter Will Be The U.S. Army’s Best Friend In A Future European War (From Forbes)
July 21, 2017- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D U.S. Army leaders are worried about war in Europe. Russia’s military has been modernizing while America was fighting in Southwest Asia over the last 16 years, and Moscow enjoys tactical advantages from operating close to home. So the U.S. Army [Read More...] -
Navy’s Hypervelocity Railgun Could Be A Gamechanger — If Congress Funds It (From Forbes)
July 19, 2017- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D The U.S. Navy is pursuing several programs aimed at developing next-generation approaches to shipboard defense and naval fires. Two of them — an electromagnetic railgun and hypervelocity projectile — could make a big difference in future naval engagements. The range [Read More...] -
Pratt & Whitney Surges U.S. Hiring As Bet On Geared Turbofan Pays Off (From Forbes)
July 17, 2017- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D Pratt & Whitney, the aircraft engine unit of United Technologies, is hiring 25,000 new workers through 2025 as it ramps up production of the breakthrough Geared Turbofan (GTF) engine. GTF technology delivers major reductions in fuel consumption, carbon emissions and [Read More...] -
Fixing the U.S. Army’s Looming Heavy Armor Crisis (From RealClearDefense)
July 13, 2017- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D The U.S. Army and its European NATO counterparts are falling behind Russia in fielding modern tanks, with potentially fatal consequences for their performance in future conflicts. The latest Russian main battle tank, dubbed Armata, is equipped with active protection systems [Read More...] -
Why Can’t U.S. Army Tanks Tell When They Are Being Targeted? (From Forbes)
July 10, 2017- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D The U.S. Army is the only major ground force in the world that does not equip its combat vehicles with laser warning systems. That will be a big problem in future conflicts, because potential adversaries like Russia and Iran have [Read More...] -
The Only Answer To North Korea’s Missiles That Won’t Make War More Likely (From Forbes)
July 6, 2017- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D North Korea’s successful test of a long-range ballistic missile on July 4th signals that Washington is running out of time to deal with the danger. While Pyongyang does not yet have a nuclear warhead compact enough to deliver by missile, [Read More...] -
Missile Defense Of U.S. Homeland Headed For Huge Management Mis-Step (From Forbes)
June 29, 2017- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D The new head of the Missile Defense Agency, Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves, has inherited a flawed management strategy from the Obama years. It calls for breaking up the end-to-end contract that a Boeing team has for integrating the Ground-based Midcourse [Read More...]