Author Archives: Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D
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Trump Defense Team Inherits Bad Ideas About Air Power From The Obama Years (From Forbes)
February 1, 2017- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D After eight years of capped budgets and deferred modernization under President Obama, the Air Force’s vision of the future has become confused. Two items it is pursuing seem especially ill-conceived. First, there is the plan for a “light fighter” that [Read More...] -
Mattis Review Of F-35 Fighter Likely To Yield Lower Price, Faster Production (from Forbes)
January 30, 2017- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D Secretary of Defense James Mattis has directed his deputy to conduct a review of the F-35 fighter program with an eye to reducing costs while keeping requirements intact. This will not be hard to accomplish. If the program simply stays [Read More...] -
The U.S. Navy Is Headed Into Rough Seas With Its Computer Network (From Forbes)
January 27, 2017- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D The U.S. Navy is contemplating a redesign of its highly reliable intranet — the biggest in the world — that could diminish service and security for 700,000 shore-based users. The basic idea is to split an integrated architecture into four [Read More...] -
Better Tanks For The Army Means More Manufacturing Jobs For The Midwest (from Forbes)
January 26, 2017- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D FDR’s “arsenal of democracy” has been withering for two generations, thanks to a combination of predatory trading partners and bad federal management. A case in point is the nation’s last remaining tank plant in Lima, Ohio which is turning out [Read More...] -
A Reagan Moment Arrives For America’s Military (From Forbes)
January 23, 2017- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D Donald Trump’s policy agenda is remarkably similar to Ronald Reagan’s, and that includes a commitment to rebuilding America’s military. During his first four years in office, President Reagan increased the purchasing power of the Pentagon’s budget by 40%, with a [Read More...] -
How Cutting Nuclear Arsenals Can Make World War Three More Likely (From Forbes)
January 17, 2017- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D Nuclear arsenals exist to deter attack. Their size is less important than whether they convince a potential aggressor there is nothing to be gained by launching a surprise attack. So nuclear reductions are not inherently virtuous — cutting the wrong [Read More...] -
U.S. Marine Corps Retools Strategy As Tech Threats Mushroom (From Forbes)
January 13, 2017- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D The Marine Corps has decided that it is not postured for the future. A year-long review of service plans revealed multiple gaps in planned capabilities that could put Marines at a disadvantage in fighting the tech-savvy adversaries of tomorrow. Among [Read More...] -
“Distributed Lethality” Is The Surface Navy’s Strategy For The Trump Era (From Forbes)
January 10, 2017- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D The Navy’s surface warfare community has embraced a new strategy for assuring sea control in the future that focuses on dispersing fleet assets rather than concentrating them. It is called “distributed lethality,” and it is designed to greatly complicate the [Read More...] -
Sales Outlook Brightens For Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet Fighter (From Forbes)
January 6, 2017- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D When President-elect Donald Trump tweeted on December 22 that he had asked Boeing to price-out an alternative to the F-35 fighter based on the company’s F/A-18 Super Hornet, he stunned the defense industry. Most observers had expected Super Hornet production [Read More...] -
How Modernizing The U.S. Army Can Make Nuclear War Less Likely (From Forbes)
January 3, 2017- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D President-elect Trump has frequently cited the need to modernize America’s aging nuclear arsenal. He’s right: the Obama Administration took too long to commence recapitalization of the main bulwark we have against nuclear Armageddon. However, the way nuclear war is most [Read More...]