Experts

Fellow

Michelle Kholos Brooks

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Forward Defense Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Security & Defense

Fellow

Max Brooks

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Forward Defense Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Crisis Management National Security

Fellow

August Cole

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Forward Defense Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Defense Industry Defense Policy

Fellow

Steven Grundman

Senior Fellow

Forward Defense Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Defense Industry Defense Policy

Fellow

Adam Hammer

Nonresident Fellow

Forward Defense Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Defense Industry Defense Policy

Content

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 […]

Emerging Defense Challenges

Dec 18, 2014

Securing Operations Superiority Through Defense Innovation: A UK Perspective

By Brent Scowcroft Center

On Wednesday December 17, 2014, the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security welcomed Philip Dunne MP, minister for defense, equipment, support and technology, for his speech titled “Securing Operational Superiority through Defense Innovation: A UK Perspective.” This Defense-Industrial Policy Series event, cohosted with the National Defense Industrial Association, was moderated by Steven Grundman, the M.A. […]

Russia

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 […]

United Kingdom

Captains of Industry Series

Dec 16, 2014

Transcript: Playing the Long Game

By Atlantic Council

PLAYING THE LONG GAME MIKE PETTERS, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, HUNTINGTON INGALLS INDUSTRIES, DELIVERS REMARKS AT THE ATLANTIC COUNCIL DECEMBER 10, 2014 MIKE PETTERS, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, HUNTINGTON INGALLS INDUSTRIES STEVEN GRUNDMAN, M.A., MODERATOR MARK BRUNNER, SENIOR ADVISER TO SEN. MARK WARNER

Captains of Industry Series

Dec 15, 2014

Playing the Long Game

By Atlantic Council

On Wednesday, December 10, 2014 the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security hosted Mike Petters, president and CEO of Huntington Ingalls Industries, for a discussion on the need to plan further ahead in defense-industrial issues. The speech, entitled “Playing the Long Game,” is the latest in the Atlantic Council’s Captains of Industry series, […]

Corporate Strategy Forum

Dec 12, 2014

Innovation in Air Force Acquisition

By Atlantic Council

On Thursday, December 11, 2014, the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security welcomed William LaPlante, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, and Ted Harshberger, vice president and director of Project AIR FORCE at the Rand Corporation. The topic of conversation was on “Innovation in Air Force Acquisition.” This was the latest event of […]

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 […]

Iraq Israel

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 […]

Drones Technology & Innovation

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 […]

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