Content

Defense Industrialist

May 5, 2015

Spartans Need Strike Fighters

By James Hasik

The Emirates will bring to Camp David a strong case for buying F-35s. For their support for a treaty to put the Iranian nuclear program on ice, the Gulf Cooperation Council governments are coming to Camp David with shopping lists. Specifically, the GCC states have signaled in advance that they will want advanced weapons, including F-35 […]

Iran Israel

Defense Industrialist

May 4, 2015

The Pentagon’s Offset Strategy Needs A Big Idea

By Steven Grundman

The reflex to gain military leverage from yet another technological revolution is misguided. It seems clear what is foremost for Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work these days. At the Pentagon’s April 9 press conference endorsing “Better Buying Power 3.0,” Work said the impetus for his new “offset strategy” is an urgent concern about “a steady erosion of our […]

Defense Industry Security & Defense

Defense Industrialist

Apr 30, 2015

Marketing Matters.

By James Hasik

If people matter, then selling military culture merits the same attention as the money. My recent essay “Bomber Command” (noticed as far off as Taiwan) elicited commentary from a friend in the Navy Department, an organization that knows something about visual details and marketing:      “Bomber Command” is similar. “Bomber” itself is kind of blubbery and round, and it takes a little bit of thinking about […]

Defense Industrialist

Apr 29, 2015

Skip a generation of strike fighters? Maybe, Ray.

By James Hasik

Whatever happens with the F-18E or F-35C, the US Navy needs a carrier-based drone now. Earlier this year, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jonathan Greenert said that he believed that the F/A-XX, the Navy’s planned eventual follow-on to the F-35C, would be “optionally manned“. On 15 April at the Sea-Air-Space conference, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus leaned further […]

China Defense Industry

Defense Industrialist

Apr 24, 2015

The Global Arms Trade: “Hyundaisation” Threat from New Suppliers?

By Richard Bitzinger

The concern is overblown, and traditional arms exporters in the US and Europe will continue to dominate the global arms trade for some time. A RECENT article in the Wall Street Journal (“The ‘Hyundaization’ of the Global Arms Industry,” April 5, 2015) puts forth a provocative argument, namely that “new defence exporters are joining the […]

Defense Industry Israel

Defense Industrialist

Apr 22, 2015

Bomber Command

By James Hasik

The USAF’s consolidation of heavy bombers in one formation may spur productive intra-service rivalry, and new roles for long-range aircraft. The US Air Force announced this week that it will be consolidating all its heavy bombers in its Global Strike Command. This realignment will be culturally significant, as it will provide a single organizational home to all big bomber crews, including […]

China Defense Industry

Defense Industrialist

Apr 14, 2015

Shield of Poland, Shield from Poland

By James Hasik

Liberalized technology sharing and globalized supply chains are needed for controlling the cost of defense. I spent last Wednesday in Warsaw at the Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM), for a conference on Balancing Strategy and Economic Imperatives: the Future of US-Polish Defense-Industrial Cooperation. My task was moderating a panel discussion on “The Industry’s View,” amongst Marek Dras, […]

Korea Missile Defense

Corporate Strategy Forum

Apr 3, 2015

Rafales, Not Rules

By James Hasik

While Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon and the White House make policy, the Élysée Palace makes sales. King Abdullah wants drones, and 23 US congressmen want to loan Jordan some American Predators for the duration of the war. The Emirates want drones, and my colleague Bilal Saab told the Beirut Daily Star that industry there is getting quite capable making […]

Defense Industry France

Defense Industrialist

Apr 1, 2015

What Does Shay Assad Mean by “Fair Price”?

By James Hasik

Pentagon pricing policy should aim for long-term value, not an economically intractable concept. Shay Assad, the Pentagon’s director of pricing policy, has had over his tenure a tense relationship with industry. At a private meeting at the Aerospace Industries Association last week, and in an interview with Reuters this week, Assad insisted that his accountants haven’t been always and everywhere […]

Defense Industry Security & Defense

Defense Industrialist

Mar 31, 2015

Force Structure That’s Too Big to Fail?

By James Hasik

Against more challenging adversaries, temper enthusiasm for returns to scale. Ever since I was a midshipman—way back under a Navy Secretary named Lehman—pundits, analysts, and strategists have been wondering whether the US Navy’s supercarriers are too big. And so again in 2015. The new Ford-class ships are a few billion more expensive than their Nimitz predecessors, and Senate […]

Drones National Security
Load More