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Defense Industrialist

Oct 2, 2013

Chinese Anti-Aircraft Missiles for Turkey? Some Implications for Security and Industry

By James Hasik

On Friday, the Turkish government announced that China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corporation (CPMIEC) had won the country’s T-LORAMIDS program for a new, long-range, high-altitude air defense system. The company’s FD-2000, the export version of its HQ-9, appears to have beaten Raytheon’s Patriot, Almaz-Antey’s S-400, and Eurosam’s SAMP-T (with land-based Aster 30 Block 1s) […]

China Turkey

Defense Industrialist

Sep 30, 2013

What Do Steve Ballmer and Ray Odierno Have in Common?

By James Hasik

I mentioned Apple and Microsoft the other day, in the context of innovation, and writing that reminded me of another useful comparison in defense.  Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced his pending retirement back in August, and in the week thereafter, a slew of periodicals wrote about how his departure couldn’t possibly be bad for the company. Perhaps […]

Defense Industrialist

Sep 27, 2013

What to Do with All That Cash? Assuredly, Something with an Incentive Behind It

By James Hasik

For several years now, we’ve been hearing a chorus of laments about how military contractors have been deploying their excess cash. Heck, we’ve probably contributed to that noise on occasion. For some time now, seemingly the reflexive choices have been dividends, special dividends, and share buybacks—all means of returning that cash to shareholders. While this attention […]

Defense Industrialist

Sep 25, 2013

Returns to Scale? A Cautionary Note on the Value of Smallness in the Defense Industry

By James Hasik

In our inaugural comment, we noted that since the 1990s, we’ve been hearing about the need for rationalization and integration in the defense industry. The reason, whether supported by hard analysis or just common narrative, is that all those companies in Europe and North America simply have too much capacity chasing too few programs. That capacity […]

Defense Industrialist

Sep 23, 2013

Our Introduction to the Defense Industrialist

By James Hasik

If you work in or around the business of defense—whether in industry or in government procurement—you’ve likely heard many times that yours is a unique market. Your study of Econ 101 had to be followed by Defense 102: monopsonists, oligopolists, complex technologies, and fundamentally unquantifiable risks. Your grasp of business has required reinforcement with hefty […]