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Defense Industrialist

Dec 30, 2014

Organizing that Coastal Artillery

By James Hasik

Comparative military organization shows how organizational culture and bureaucratic politics affect defense planning.   The host of essays in recent months speculating about a rebuilt Coastal Artillery for the US Army requires some followup. The argument for coastal defenses clearly has some merit. If it’s reasonable to field ground-based anti-aircraft batteries, while still relying substantially on […]

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Defense Industrialist

Dec 26, 2014

David Berteau Wants to Actually Plan for Sustainment

By James Hasik

  An incoming assistant secretary’s focus will be essential for holding down spending in the long run.   It’s a shame that Ashton Carter keeps getting all the attention. In more than a crosstown nod to a think-taking colleague, I’d like to highlight another incoming Pentagon appointee, David Berteau, who is entering office with an ambitious idea. As reported […]

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Defense Industrialist

Dec 19, 2014

One Robot To Rule Them All

By Philip Thorell, James Hasik

By standardizing too soon, the US Army risks missing the next new thing.   Citing budgetary restraints and interoperability challenges, the US Army last month announced plans to scale back its robotics program, and transition to a single type of ground robot sometime after 2020. Today’s “mixed fleet of systems”, the Army says, has led […]

Defense Industrialist

Dec 18, 2014

Devolving the Excesses of Jointness

By James Hasik

  Should the US follow the UK’s lead by seeking smaller scale in defense? On Wednesday afternoon the Atlantic Council hosted a talk by Philip Dunne, the British Minister for Defence Equipment, Support, and Technology—the MinDEST. As he himself noted, Dunne is Whitehall’s equivalent of the Pentagon’s Frank Kendall, the Under Secretary of Defense for […]

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Defense Industrialist

Dec 9, 2014

The Unintended Consequences of Saving Lives

By James Hasik

Experiences with cruise missiles, MRAPs, and Iron Dome provide a warning about the F-35.    When and why do defense officials choose to procure equipment specifically to reduce wartime casualties? As recounted at a recent Cato Institute conference that I attended, there are competing answers attempting to explain why voters offer or withhold their support. Officials sometimes act […]

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Defense Industrialist

Dec 9, 2014

The Customer Is Not Always Right

By James Hasik

At a point, customer closeness becomes “the worst thing possible” for a 21st-century defense business.   At what point does acting and thinking like your customer pass the point of marginal value in defense contracting? Hiring those bobble-head retired flag officers as marketing representatives is clearly a widely valued strategy. In recent essay on “Assimilating Disruption, or Offboarding Innovation,” I […]

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Defense Industrialist

Dec 5, 2014

Defense Contractors Are Not From Lake Wobegon.

By James Hasik

  Northrop Grumman will spend its cash buying back shares.   The board of Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC), the Wall Street Journal reports, has just authorized the company’s management to buy back $3 billion of shares next year. That means that the company will return $3 billion to its shareholders, rather than investing it in its own […]

Defense Industrialist

Dec 3, 2014

Crowdsourcing the New New Thing?

By James Hasik

DARPA’s Adaptive Vehicle Make program shows the measured promise of innovative approaches for engineering innovative armaments.   Anyone up for designing a new swimming tank? For counterattacks against possible Chinese landings in that first island chain, the Japanese Army wants to buy 52 amphibious assault vehicles. The most likely candidate, according to Stars & Stripes this […]

Captains of Industry Series

Dec 2, 2014

Are Lockheed, Raytheon, and L-3 “Ripe for a Spinoff”?

By James Hasik

The largest defense contractors are conglomerates, and excessive conglomeration may not be helping the customers.   Last month I argued that the rumored spinoff of Oshkosh’s military trucks business wouldn’t be good for either the company or its customers. But anti-mergers are in the air, as evidenced by the Wall Street Journal’s almost simultaneous article “Smucker, […]

Defense Industrialist

Nov 27, 2014

Advice to the Next SecDef

By James Hasik

Step one: eliminate whole echelons of headquarters.   On Thanksgiving Day here in the US, I would like to thank for their service troops all around the world, but particularly this week outgoing Defense Secretary Hagel for his. Like his two predecessors, he has had a tough time working with this White House. Each of […]

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