Author Archives: Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D
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Shrinking Army Fights National Guard For Vital Combat Helicopters (From Forbes)
June 30, 2014- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D With budget walls closing in, the Army has been forced to forgo upgrading its aging Kiowa scout helicopters or developing a replacement. However, the armed reconnaissance mission that Kiowa performs is still crucial to warfighting plans, so service leaders have [Read More...] -
Iraq Opportunity Costs: What America Could Have Had If It Never Invaded (From Forbes)
June 27, 2014- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D With policymakers contemplating whether to re-inject U.S. forces into Iraq, now is a good time to contemplate the opportunity costs America incurred the last time it intervened there. Costsofwar.org calculates that the U.S. has spent $1.7 trillion on the military [Read More...] -
SpaceX Launch Delay Raises Reliability Concerns
June 26, 2014- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D On June 22, Spaceflight Insider posted a devastating commentary concerning the latest failure of Space Exploration Technologies Corporation — SpaceX — to launch a satellite on schedule. The commentary, written by Jason Rhian, raised important questions about the reliability of [Read More...] -
Deathwish 2014: House GOP Leaders Attack Ex-Im Bank — And Hardworking Voters
June 24, 2014- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D As the domino effect of Eric Cantor’s primary defeat ripples through the Republican hierarchy in the House of Representatives, incoming leaders are scrambling to build bridges to the GOP’s restive right wing. Apparently their strategy includes sacrificing the jobs of [Read More...] -
Sunday’s Missile Defense Test Could Prove More Important Than What We Do In Iraq
June 23, 2014- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D On Sunday the Missile Defense Agency conducted a successful test of the latest Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) built by Raytheon for the National Missile Defense system. It’s an arcane program that few people understand outside the missile-defense community, but one [Read More...] -
War Without End: Why Iraq Can Never Be A Stable Democracy (From Forbes)
June 20, 2014- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D President Obama’s reluctance to recommit U.S. military forces in Iraq is driven in part by a recognition that the country lacks the basic building blocks of a stable democracy. First, its borders do not coincide with the loyalties of ethnic [Read More...] -
Air Force Is Right: Kill C-130 AMP, Buy A Cheaper Bridge To The Future For Tactical Airlifters
June 19, 2014- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D The C-130 transport may be the most successful military aircraft in history. It has been in continuous production for 60 years, and just keeps getting better as new technologies are added to a proven design. Originally conceived as a tactical [Read More...] -
Air Defense: Study Blames Bureaucratic Conflicts Of Interest For MEADS Demise
June 17, 2014- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D The Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) was conceived in 1996 as a tri-nation program to provide the U.S. Army and its counterparts in Germany and Italy with mobile next-generation air defenses. After 15 years of research and development, the [Read More...] -
Iraq Crisis: Six Reasons Why America’s Military Should Not Re-Engage (From Forbes)
June 16, 2014- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D The rapid advance and gross brutality of Sunni extremists in northwestern Iraq has convinced many that Washington should take military action to save the government in Baghdad. However, there are compelling reasons for not re-engaging. First, the military situation is [Read More...] -
As Military Tensions Rise, House Leadership Turns Away From Defense (From Forbes)
June 13, 2014- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D Political analysts are probably overstating the significance of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s primary defeat this week, but it is genuinely portentous for the Pentagon. Cantor is the only strong voice of support for military spending in the House GOP [Read More...]