Content

Defense Industrialist

Aug 2, 2015

Why don’t defense contractors do cyber?

By James Hasik

For all but Raytheon, a whole new realm of conflict seems disinteresting to industry. Going on eight years now, Raytheon has been mounting a strategic campaign in cyber security. This past April, the company spent $1.7 billion on Austin-based Websense, the 13th cyber business it has purchased since October 2007 (Defense Mergers & Acquisitions Daily, 20 […]

Cybersecurity Defense Industry

Defense Industrialist

Jul 29, 2015

What if there had never been a JSF? (Part 2)

By James Hasik

The USMC has always had a backup plan. It’s called ‘Super Hornet’. The US Marine Corps is definitely putting a brave, can-do face on its first unit—Squadron 121—of Joint Strike Fighters (JSFs), aiming shortly for a formal declaration of “initial operating capability.” But Michael Gilmore, the Pentagon’s chief weapons tester, recently penned a dimmer account […]

Defense Industrialist

Jul 24, 2015

What if there had never been a Joint Strike Fighter? (Part 1)

By James Hasik

The US Navy could have spent mad money on drones. This month, the US Marine Corps declared that its first squadron of F-35Bs had reached “initial operating capability”. That’s 21 years after the program first began as the Joint Advanced Strike Technology (JAST) program, 18 years after the first Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) design contracts […]

Defense Industry Missile Defense

Defense Industrialist

Jul 22, 2015

What’s your face-punched plan?

By James Hasik

Recovery from battlefield surprise requires more than fingers-crossed strategy. Last month, the Pentagon released the 2015 version of its National Military Strategy. As a real Pentagon strategist reminded me, the Pentagon doesn’t really post its real strategy on the Web as a PDF. But even this public relations exercise was disconcerting in its telegraphed inflexibility. The document waxes on about […]

Defense Industry Missile Defense

Defense Industrialist

Jul 17, 2015

Like Cars, Like Cargo Ships

By James Hasik

North Americans are really uneconomical shipbuilders, and their navies should demand better. Ford announced this week that the company will stop building small cars in Michigan, or anywhere in the States, as price pressure precludes paying workers what’s worth their while. Ford will build its new Lincoln Continental in Michigan, but that’s because the profit […]

Defense Industry Korea

Defense Industrialist

Jul 14, 2015

Innovation? Yes—but sorry, I don’t have a requirement.

By Martin Neill

Pushing for innovation against existing challenges is unlikely to yield dramatic change. We need innovation! We need to look to non-traditional defense suppliers! How often have we heard that refrain? I did again in April, when US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter insisted in Palo Alto that “we need the creativity and innovation that comes from […]

Defense Industry Security & Defense

Defense Industrialist

Jul 10, 2015

Selling Sikorsky—updated

By James Hasik

A Bell-Sikorsky combination could be too big for the Pentagon to handle. Bidding for Sikorsky, Reuters reports, rests now with Lockheed Martin and Textron. As noted here a few weeks ago, the tax implications remain daunting for United Technologies, particularly now that Textron’s proposed Reverse Morris Trust has elicited no interest. Spinoff does remain in […]

Defense Industry Security & Defense

Defense Industrialist

Jun 30, 2015

How M&A is Remaking Aerospace & Defense

By Steven Grundman

The emerging wave of consolidation is yielding more diverse competitive dynamics than emerged from the post-Cold-War restructuring. Five years beyond the inflection marked by the Great Recession’s bottom and Iraq War’s end, the market for mergers and acquisitions in aerospace and defense is finally heating up and taking shape. At this halfway point through 2015, […]

Defense Industry Security & Defense

Defense Industrialist

Jun 29, 2015

Cases, Cables, and Kernels

By James Hasik

A role is emerging for small firms that connect defense to commercial technologies. On his recent pilgrimage to Silicon Valley, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter tried hard to stoke enthusiasm amongst commercial software firms for working with the Pentagon. So far, they’re not buying the pitch. To start, they’re just not interested in ten percent […]

Defense Industry Security & Defense

Defense Industrialist

Jun 24, 2015

Selling Sikorsky

By James Hasik

Should structure or conduct drive the Pentagon’s supply strategy? The bids for Sikorsky are in. For United Technologies CEO Greg Hayes, they’re “at least as good as what we had hoped to see.” By the rumors, they’re from Blackstone, Lockheed Martin, Textron, and Airbus. With such a heterogenous set of bidders, a range of strategic and financial considerations are driving the offers. The tax implications are […]

Defense Industry Security & Defense
Load More