Author Archives: Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D
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Jettisoning Russia: A Four-Part Plan That Assures U.S. Access To Space (From Forbes)
May 19, 2014- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D With Russia’s deputy prime minister threatening to cut off U.S. access to his country’s space-launch technology, it is obvious that Washington will have to change its approach to space. In particular, it needs to expeditiously fund development of a new [Read More...] -
Congress Wastes More Money On Unneeded Military Bases Than Belgium, Sweden Or Switzerland Spend On Defense (From Forbes)
May 16, 2014- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D The Obama Administration’s bid for another round of base closures appears to be falling on deaf ears in Congress — despite the fact that Pentagon officials estimate the domestic basing network has 20% excess capacity. That’s too bad, because the [Read More...] -
Radio Wars: Lobbyists Are Misusing Competition To Deny Warfighters Life-Saving Radios
May 14, 2014- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D InsideDefense.com reported last week that commercial-radio vendor Harris Corporation is urging Congress not to spend $300 million appropriated for low-rate production of new Army radios as legislators intended. The radios are supposed to give soldiers on the front line much [Read More...] -
Ukraine Dilemma: U.S. Can’t Prevent Russian Expansion Without Better Missile Defenses (From Forbes)
May 12, 2014- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D Vladimir Putin has called Washington’s bluff, and as a result the U.S. is headed for a major loss of influence in Europe. Putin has correctly concluded that the Obama Administration will not act decisively to halt Russian pressure on former [Read More...] -
Fog Of War: How Political Pressure Has Unraveled Army Radio Plans, Putting Soldiers At Risk (From Forbes)
May 9, 2014- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D Ten years ago, the Army awarded a contract for development of handheld and manpack radios that would greatly enhance the situational awareness of soldiers at war. The “software-reconfigurable” radios would link troops to the full resources of the joint force, [Read More...] -
Ex-Im Bank Critics Don’t Seem To Know Much About U.S. History — Or Global Trade
May 7, 2014- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D Politico reports today that the main trade association of the aerospace industry has begun running ads in Capitol Hill newspapers featuring words of praise from Ronald Reagan for the Export-Import Bank. Right-wing critics are trying to block the bank’s reauthorization [Read More...] -
Five Reasons Virginia-Class Subs Are The Face Of Future Warfare (From Forbes)
May 6, 2014- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D On May 1, team-mates General Dynamics and Huntington Ingalls Industries began construction of the first vessel in a five-year, ten-boat contract to build Virginia-class fast attack submarines. The Virginia program has been the Navy’s only active submarine construction program for [Read More...] -
Congress Presses Pentagon For Details On Future Of Nuclear “Doomsday Plane” (From Forbes)
May 2, 2014- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D As the House Armed Services Committee prepared its fiscal 2015 defense authorization bill this week, one of its subcommittees flagged an issue emblematic of a far broader problem in the nation’s nuclear forces. The Subcommittee on Strategic Forces complained that [Read More...] -
ATK-Orbital Deal May Signal Direction Of Defense Sector Consolidation (From Forbes)
April 30, 2014- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D On Tuesday of this week, Alliant Techsystems (ATK) and Orbital Sciences (ORB) disclosed they plan to merge in a marriage of equals following spinoff of Alliant’s fast-growing Sporting Group. The transaction will create a broadly diversified, $4.5 billion enterprise focused [Read More...] -
Rite Of Spring: Pentagon Bashes The Best Fighter Engine Ever Built (From Forbes)
April 28, 2014- Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D As the daffodils return to D.C., the Pentagon has kicked off its annual engine-bashing event in preparation for contract negotiations with Pratt & Whitney, the United Technologies unit that makes the powerplant of the F-35 fighter. F-35 program executive officer [Read More...]