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Emerging Defense Challenges

May 15, 2015

Incentives and Processes Need Change to Make DOD’s Silicon Valley Outreach Work, Say Experts

By Brent Scowcroft Center

On April 23, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter gave a speech at Stanford University where he claimed a greater link between Silicon Valley and the Department of Defense (DOD) would help “defend our country and help make a better world.” His speech—and subsequent events—showed that Secretary Carter is serious about incubating many of the ideas […]

Emerging Defense Challenges

May 14, 2015

Strategy Session with Robert Scher, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy, Plans, and Capabilities

By Brent Scowcroft Center

The Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security hosted a strategy session for Robert Scher, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy, Plans, and Capabilities, on Thursday, May 14, 2015. This session brought together noted strategists and security and defense experts to discuss the most pressing strategic priorities for the Department of Defense.

Defense Industrialist

May 13, 2015

Ray Mabus Knows Naval Human Capital

By James Hasik

The Navy Secretary’s speech on managing talent was founded on sound economic principles. In his speech at the Naval Academy this morning, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced that he intends to profoundly reform the way his department manages people—the human capital that drive the physical capital of its ships and aircraft. He admits that progress […]

Defense Industrialist

May 8, 2015

Strengthening and Defending Ukraine

By Blake Franko

How reforming an arms industry can save a country Ukraine currently finds itself struggling against separatists in the East, but the solution to this problem might not rest in foreign aid and weapons. The Ukrainian military industrial complex has been a significant player in the country’s economy and can help to supply Kiev’s own defensive […]

Defense Industry Saudi Arabia

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