Author Archives: Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D
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Air Force Can’t Let Budget Woes Abort Search For A Reliable Successor To Russian Rocket Engines
October 3, 2014- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D In the years since the Cold War ended, the federal government has repeatedly put America’s leadership in space at risk by embracing bad ideas. These ideas typically promise to deliver faster, cheaper, more flexible solutions to what historically have been [Read More...] -
Why Defense Has A Secure Future In Boeing’s Business Mix (From Forbes)
October 1, 2014- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D Boeing’s commercial jetliner business is going gangbusters. Its defense business isn’t. Whenever the fortunes of major business lines within a publicly traded company diverge like that, some bright investment analyst poses the question of why the stronger performer isn’t getting [Read More...] -
Bright Idea: Navy Turns To Ohio-Based Energy Focus Inc. For An Illuminating Breakthrough (From Forbes)
September 29, 2014- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D Every once in a while I come across a new technology application in the defense arena that is so elegant I wonder why somebody didn’t think of it sooner. The latest breakthrough is replacement of thousands of fluorescent lights on [Read More...] -
Army Leaders Rethink The Human Elements Of War
September 26, 2014- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D The U.S. Army has been fighting wars non-stop for over a dozen years — the longest period of continuous conflict in the nation’s history. Other services have made their contributions, but soldiers have done most of the hard combat and [Read More...] -
Five Reasons The Pentagon’s Innovation Push Won’t Work (From Forbes)
September 25, 2014- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D Faced with a gradual erosion of America’s edge in warfighting technology, the Obama Administration’s Pentagon team has begun a campaign to bolster military innovation. However, there are reasons to suspect this initiative won’t be any more successful than a similar [Read More...] -
F-22 Raptor Combat Debut Over Syria Underscores Need For Cheaper, More Versatile F-35
September 23, 2014- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D The Air Force’s top-of-the-line F-22 Raptor fighter made its combat debut this week in the skies over Syria, participating in multinational air strikes against terrorist targets. Details are sketchy on precisely what role the F-22 played. Raptor originally was conceived [Read More...] -
The Bezos Effect: ULA Use Of Blue Origin Rocket Engines Would Mean Big Changes (From Forbes)
September 22, 2014- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D The big news in the space business last week wasn’t that Boeing and SpaceX won contracts to develop astronaut capsules for NASA. That was expected. The big (in fact, stunning) news was that United Launch Alliance will team with Blue [Read More...] -
Cyber Alliances: Collective Defense Becomes Central To Securing Networks, Data (From Forbes)
September 19, 2014- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D When the recent NATO summit in Wales concluded, the alliance issued a communique that, among other things, stated “cyber defence is part of NATO’s core task of collective defence.” Judging from recent moves by America’s biggest cybersecurity firms, though, collective [Read More...] -
Is The Defense Downturn Over? (From Forbes)
September 16, 2014- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D Although many defense analysts sound gloomy about the outlook for military demand in the years ahead, a bottom may have been reached in the Obama defense downturn. First, threats are growing at a far faster pace than anticipated — creating [Read More...] -
How To Shoot Down A Drone: Efforts To “Fix” UCLASS Requirements Likely To Hasten Its Demise
September 15, 2014- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D The U.S. Navy has embraced unmanned aircraft (“drones”) as a way of expanding the reconnaissance and strike capabilities of its fleet. Two of these programs — the land-based MQ-4C Triton and the vertical-ascent MQ-8B Fire Scout — look like winners. [Read More...]