Content

Corporate Strategy Forum

Jan 30, 2015

Getting Faster at Revolutionary

By James Hasik

The bureaucratic and technological challenges in speeding up weapons development  Pentagon procurement czar Frank Kendall told the House Armed Services Committee yesterday that his department, as the headline went, “Needs to Get Faster at Developing Revolutionary Weapon Systems”. He also noted that the Air Force, in conjunction with DARPA and the Navy, would soon begin […]

Defense Industrialist

Jan 23, 2015

Disaggregating Space, Business, and Politics

By James Hasik

Smaller satellites in bigger constellations could accelerate the restructuring of both the space industry and international security relationships.   Amy Butler of Aviation Week reports today that the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency is crafting a strategy to leverage what Director Robert Cardillo calls a pending “explosion” of commercially-available imagery. As Patrick Tucker writes this morning on Defense One, a great deal of the […]

Space Technology & Innovation

Defense Industrialist

Jan 20, 2015

Arming the Anti-Terror Armies

By James Hasik

Middle Eastern armed forces need practical kit and service from Middle Eastern industry.   As Congressman Mack Thornberry pointed out with a letter in the Washington Post earlier this month, hashtags and placards don’t kill terrorists. People with guns and aircraft do. But what kind of guns and aircraft are best for fighting them is another matter—and who delivers them can matter […]

Afghanistan Iraq

Defense Industrialist

Jan 17, 2015

Distributing Lethality via V-22

By James Hasik

The US Navy deserves credit for taking a risk in procurement.   Secretary Ray Mabus has now all but confirmed that the US Navy will buy 12 HV-22 Ospreys from 2018 through 2020 to replace some of its aging C-2 Greyhound shore-to-ship cargo and passenger aircraft. Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute promptly called the decision “a breakthrough” for […]

Defense Industrialist

Jan 15, 2015

If It Flies, It Should Fight.

By James Hasik

Can the Air Force follow a naval lead in bending its cost curve?   Here at the Atlantic Council last night, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James delivered an address on how her department wants to “bend the cost curve” in armaments. To review the reference, the cost curve is the concept in  economics which relates unit […]

Defense Industrialist

Jan 13, 2015

Customers’ problems should inform defense contractors’ strategies.

By James Hasik

Customers’ problems should inform defense contractors’ strategies. Last week, Paul McLeary of Defense News aired the views of some seasoned observers of our business regarding the future of strategy and structure. Our industry, as the title went, is “Running out of Time; Mergers Loom.” Many of the larger contractors have been focusing on cutting costs, […]

Defense Industry Security & Defense

Defense Industrialist

Jan 9, 2015

Unmanned Manning Problems

By James Hasik

Is the USAF trying hard enough to find drone pilots?   The US Air Force is looking for a few good drone operators. The hours are long. The work environment is substantially contained within conex boxes rigged as command centers. The business can get grim, at least on the other end of that video feed. As the squadron commander says […]

Drones Technology & Innovation

Defense Industrialist

Jan 8, 2015

Damocles’ Depth Charge

By James Hasik

The US Navy may be putting its money into undersea automation.   The Chinese threat, Assistant Navy Secretary Sean Stackley told our audience at the Council yesterday, is “not countable”. Their land-based anti-ship missiles are legion, and they’re building submarines faster than he can buy his own Virginia-class boats, even at the congratulatory rate of two per year. The […]

China

Defense Industrialist

Jan 2, 2015

Andy Marshall’s Fight Club

By James Hasik

Eight Rules to Guide the Search for the Next Director of Net Assessment   Andy Marshall, the first, long-serving, and so-far-only director of the Office of Net Assessment (ONA), the Pentagon’s internal think tank, is retiring today. “The Future of Net Assessment,” Defense News has opined, is very important. The choice of Marshall’s successor—and even whether to […]

Defense Industrialist

Dec 31, 2014

Setting Up for Innovative Success

By Alex Haber, Jeff Jeffress

Defense can apply a set of flexible parameters to keep the practice of innovation relevant and meaningful.   In just under 60 pages, the 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review uses some form of the word innovation 33 times. That’s more than you’ll find the terms soldier, Air Force, coordination, direction, and policy—combined. Colleagues across defense agree […]

NATO Security & Defense
Load More