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Defense Industrialist

Nov 19, 2015

The Mistral will follow you

By James Hasik

Egypt’s procurement of helicopter carriers is truly strategic. As I wrote the other day, the Al-Baghdadi Gang has truly found tragic ways to combine brutality with stupidity. Attacking Russia and France in the same month, as Robert Pape of the University of Chicago wrote in the Boston Globe, is clearly an indication of desperation. Dealing with […]

Defense Policy France

Defense Industrialist

Nov 17, 2015

More bombs on Al-Baghdadi

By James Hasik

The GCC air forces need, deserve, and can handle outside support. The tragedy of Paris this past weekend may eventually prove to have been the beginning of the end for the Al-Baghdadi Gang in Al-Raqqah. Wantonly attacking the citizens of two UN Security Council members in a week wasn’t just heinous, it was stupid. So […]

Defense Industry Saudi Arabia

Defense Industrialist

Nov 13, 2015

The LRS-B and nukes

By James Hasik and Rachel Rizzo

Does the Long-Range Strike Bomber need nuclear capability, and does nuclear capability need the LRS-B? Recapitalizing the air-breathing segment of the American nuclear triad has generally not been the US Air Force’s first argument for developing its new Long-Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B). Sustaining a global capacity for massive, repeated, marginally economical surgical strikes has long been the […]

Defense Policy Drones

Art of Future Warfare

Nov 12, 2015

The Art of a New Offset Strategy

By Steven Grundman

Our new anthology of fiction describes the wonders and worries of the Pentagon’s plans for human-machine collaboration. Today, the Atlantic Council is publishing an anthology of short fiction and graphic art it curated over the first year in its Art of Future Warfare Project. Entitled War Stories From the Future, the collection makes good on the […]

Defense Industrialist

Nov 9, 2015

Of DEF and RNDF

By James Hasik

Starkly different defense conferences discussed why military procurement is still so broken. The Lund Initiative at the Atlantic Council was busy with conferences this weekend. Two of us spent our time at the 2015 Defense Entrepreneurs Forum (DEF) at the University of Chicago, and another spent it at the Reagan National Defense Forum (RNDF) at the Presidential Library […]

Defense Industrialist

Nov 7, 2015

LRS-B, the protest edition

By James Hasik

The inherent unknowables in this highly classified development effort render questionable the value of an appeals process. So Boeing, on behalf of its teaming arrangement with Lockheed Martin, has protested. Late last month, the US Air Force chose Northrop Grumman to develop and build its hoped-for Long-Range Strike-Bomber (LRS-B), and the losing bidder is naturally […]

Defense Industry Security & Defense

Defense Industrialist

Nov 4, 2015

Mystery plane, challenging mission

By James Hasik and Rachel Rizzo

Is the bomber’s target set feasible, or even advisable? What’s the most important role for the USAF’s planned Long-Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B)? What could it do that fighter-bombers, cruise missiles, and drones couldn’t? Arguably, a big manned bomber offers a unique combination of massive, repeatable, human-on-scene air power at a distance, which is valuable when […]

China Defense Industry

Defense Industrialist

Oct 30, 2015

Is the development plan for the LRS-B realistic?

By James Hasik and Rachel Rizzo

Historical experience with incentives and concurrency provides cause for cautious optimism. Is Northrop Grumman’s plan for developing the US Air Force’s new Long-Range Strike Bomber realistic? That’s another known unknown in this mystery plane program. We do know that the development contract will be cost-plus-reimbursable-incentive, meaning that a percentage will be added to the direct […]

Defense Industry Security & Defense

Defense Industrialist

Oct 29, 2015

Mystery plane, part 2

By James Hasik and Rachel Rizzo

Is the price tag for the LRS-B feasible? As Lara Seligman wrote in Defense News overnight, there’s a lot “we still don’t know” about the LRS-B, and as  development moves forward, there’s a lot we still won’t know. Northrop’s just-up website features not even the shrouded plane of its Super Bowl advertisement, but just a zoomie with a buzzcut and aviator sunglasses. On his earnings […]

Defense Industry Security & Defense

Defense Industrialist

Oct 28, 2015

Mystery plane

By James Hasik and Rachel Rizzo

The secrecy around the USAF’s LRS-B brings military value, but some ill-understood costs. Yesterday, Northrop Grumman won the contract from the US Air Force to develop and build its new Long-Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B). For advocates of the big planes, the announcement came none too soon. The USAF’s bomber fleet today consists of 158 aircraft, […]

Defense Industry Security & Defense
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