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Hasikgrah

Defense Industrialist

Sep 8, 2015

If a Weapon Were a Three-Piece Suit

By Steven Grundman

Think of defense contracting in four distinct market types. Several recent headlines— “Senators Call For Oversight On LRS-B Cost Estimates” “Oshkosh Wins JLTV Award” “Kendall ‘Open-Minded’ On Sharing RD-180 Replacement Costs” “Can Secretary Carter win over Silicon Valley?” —got me thinking about menswear and defense acquisition and why they are both so persistently difficult. It’s the […]

Defense Industry Security & Defense

Defense Industrialist

Sep 2, 2015

From Germany, With Love

By Magnus Nordenman

European arms sellers are helping shape Asian security. Washington worries increasingly about developments in the Asia-Pacific region. The Pentagon has done more than publish a maritime strategy for that part of the world—it has begun to shift military assets that way. Yet it is often said that this is a region in which Washington will […]

Defense Industry Indo-Pacific

Defense Industrialist

Sep 1, 2015

Not such a silly fly-off

By James Hasik

An A-10C versus F-35A experiment could be edifying, if designed well. Politico Pro and Bloomberg have been reporting of late that the Pentagon’s Office of Test & Evaluation (OT&E) is planning a series of head-to-head close air support tests between the A-10C and the F-35A. USAF Chief of Staff General Mark Welsh had previously called […]

Defense Industry Security & Defense

Defense Industrialist

Aug 28, 2015

JLTV—Going slow to go fast

By James Hasik

A conversation with John Bryant of Oshkosh Defense  Yesterday morning I had the opportunity to sit down with John Bryant, a senior vice president at Oshkosh Defense, to talk about his company’s big win this week. Before retiring from the Marines, the colonel was an acquisition program manager; afterwards, he taught program management at the […]

Defense Industry Security & Defense

Defense Industrialist

Aug 26, 2015

JLTV

By James Hasik

If it can hold on, Oshkosh’s win may restructure the military truck industry. The US Army and the US Marine Corps have chosen their supplier for Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTVs), their replacement for Humvees, and supplement to MRAP All Terrain Vehicles (M-ATVs). For now, and presumably the next decade, that supplier is Wisconsin’s Oshkosh […]

Defense Industry Security & Defense

Defense Industrialist

Aug 21, 2015

Every citizen a sensor

By James Hasik

NATO needs more tiny technologies for hybrid warfare. Our experience with counterinsurgency is not done, David Petraeus once said, because insurgents are not done. Some of those recently have been state-sponsored and Russian-speaking, but those highly empowered and malevolent insurgents have been wreaking havoc around the world with the tools of “Democratized Destruction.” Two can play that game, but in […]

Defense Industry NATO

Defense Industrialist

Aug 20, 2015

Kasich wants carriers

By James Hasik

A fleet of fifteen Fords is infeasible, but smaller ships could be added fast. On Saturday, Newport News Shipbuilding will hold a keel-laying ceremony for USS John F. Kennedy, the second of the Gerald Ford-class carriers. Ohio Governor John Kasich is running for president, and he wants yet more aircraft carriers. About five more super-carriers, though […]

China Defense Industry

Defense Industrialist

Aug 14, 2015

What if there had never been a JSF? (Part 3)

By James Hasik

With a few more F-22s, the USAF might have aimed earlier for a bomber. The idea hasn’t gotten beyond the Duffel Blog and this column, but what if the USAF had long ago dropped the F-35A? As I noted last month, had the Pentagon foregone developing a wholly new fighter jet, the $100 billion it has spent […]

Defense Industry Security & Defense

Defense Industrialist

Aug 6, 2015

TINA + LPTA beats DARPA + SEAL

By James Hasik

Lowest price is no way to buy IT, Silicon Valley or not. Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work and Under Secretary Frank Kendall have dispatched their team to liaise with the worthies of Silicon Valley. Secretary Carter is soon expected there on a goodwill visit as well, and the Pentagon leadership seems serious. As Defense One reported, the new office at Moffett Field […]

Cybersecurity Defense Industry

Defense Industrialist

Aug 4, 2015

Russians and Robots

By Blake Franko

Financial and sustainment problems are taking the Kremlin’s military modernization drive towards drone warfare. The Russian military has been in full gear for the last several months, trying to prove to NATO and the world that Russia is a great power with a modern, professional military. While the Ukrainians, Poles, Balts, and Nords have taken […]

Drones Technology & Innovation
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