Category: Defense Industrialist

Spin On, Not Off

By James Hasik

Spinning off Oshkosh Defense would be bad for the Department of Defense.   Last summer, as Sandra Erwin of National Defense reported, the US Army consciously warned American truck manufacturers of an impending slowdown in its purchasing. The industry is now so deep in that slowdown that speculation about restructuring has become old hat. But today’s Wall […]

BBP + DII = Destruction or Creation?

By James Hasik

  The Pentagon is yet to explain how its twin defense-industrial strategies will interact.    The Pentagon’s Better Buying Power (BBP) initiative, launched four years ago and recently in its third version, is meant to unlock the government’s monopsony power in its relations with industry. BBP speaks considerably of improving productivity, but the details of […]

Third Offset Strategy, Second Adversary

By James Hasik, Alex Ward

  What worked on the Soviets may not work on the Chinese.   Chuck Hagel’s speech at the Reagan National Defense Forum this past weekend may have been one of the most important by an American defense secretary in recent years. His new ‘Defense Innovation Initiative’ seems neither a DARPA program writ large nor a […]

From Overreaction to Finesse

By James Hasik

Better Buying Power may depend on human capital the Pentagon yet lacks.   Frank Kendall, the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer, said this week that his staff has “overreacted” at times to his guidance on improving outcomes and affordability. As Defense Industry Daily put it, this has caused some “tension with the defense industry amid the onset […]

Minimum Sustainment Acquisition

By James Hasik, Dave Foster

The Pentagon needs a lighter touch with low-volume vendors.   Last week, in an essay on how software costs are eating the war effort, we wrote about a “bold industrial strategy” proposed by Atlantic Council advisor Harlan Ullman. As he wrote,        one solution is to shift conceptually and practically from a defense industrial base […]

An Appeal for BRAC to the GOP Majority

By James Hasik

It’s time to look tough on the deficit and tough on defense.   With the mid-term elections behind us, but Halloween in fresh memory, it’s time to ask again about BRAC—the Base Closure and Realignment process (boo!). The Army Department clearly wants another round to balance its books. For years, think-tankers and defense officials have […]

Lunch with the Minutemen of Cyber

Is Internet conflict NATO’s next defense-industrial agenda, or just a matter for industry?   “Where [was] the industrial agenda for the NATO Summit?” Hugo Rosemount of Defense One asked after Wales. Successful industrial engagement has not traditionally been NATO’s long suit, but after the talks had concluded, we had our answer: cyber was priority one. That might seem […]

Open for Innovation

By James Hasik

 The pursuit of intellectual property rights in weapons buying cannot focus solely on today’s price.   About a year ago, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Al Shaffer offered some views about the department’s view on open architectures for information systems. As reported by Inside Defense (13 & 14 November 2013), he had three comments, […]

A Phalanx of Pashto-Speaking Armed Intellectuals

By James Hasik

 What makes us think our militaries have the human and organizational capital for counterinsurgency?   “Counterinsurgency,” John Nagl commented the other day, “can’t be dead as long as insurgency is alive and well — and it is, and is likely to be for some time.” Indeed we may find ourselves, as former Chief of the Australian Army Peter […]

Software is Eating the War

By James Hasik

Economically Unsustainable Spending Requires a Thorough Rethinking of Defense-Industrial Strategy   Software, Josh Marcuse told us, is eating the war. An advisor on innovation to the under secretary of defense for policy, Marcuse was speaking at the 2014 Defense Entrepreneurs Forum (DEF), held from 24 to 26 October at the University of Chicago. Echoing Marc Andreessen’s 2011 essay in the Wall […]