Category: Emerging Defense Challenges

Why that Long Range Strike Bomber Wouldn’t Be Cheap

By James Hasik

Undeterred by a declining spending, the leadership of the US Air Force has made investment in a new bomber—the Long-Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B)—a top priority. Much of the argument rests on the alleged inadequacy of equipping the current but ancient fleets of B-52Hs and B-1Bs with new cruise missiles, to extend their relevance against presumably […]

A Series of One-Third Problems

By James Hasik

Why Better Buying Power Isn’t Enough At an Atlantic Council event earlier this month, a colleague expressed his opinion that the Pentagon’s buying power will drop by half in the next five years. I was uncertain about that, so I decided to run some numbers. I will note how outgoing Deputy Defense Secretary Ash Carter says that the […]

Military Base Locations and Congressional Deadlock

By James Hasik

Here at the University of Texas this week (I’m a doctoral fellow when not at the Council), I attended a talk by Christopher Preble of the Cato Institute on “Creative Destruction: What Happens When the Military Leaves”. Chris is an historian with an eye for economics, and he has been working to make more tangible […]

The US Land Systems Industry has Lost its Edge

By James Hasik

But Does that Matter? This week at the Atlantic Council we hosted Linda Hudson, CEO of BAE Systems in the US, as the second speaker in our ‘Captains of Industry’ series. In the press so far, her talk has mostly been covered as an address on the state of human capital in the defense industry, and specifically […]

Ensuring America’s Defense-Industrial Base for National Security

The president and CEO of BAE Systems, Inc., Linda P. Hudson, spoke at the Atlantic Council on November 19th as part of the Atlantic Council Captains of Industry Series. Her address, entitled “Ensuring America’s Defense Industrial Base Can Support Our Future National Security Needs,” made the case about the need to preserve and cultivate world-class […]

Ensuring America’s Defense Industrial Base Can Support Our Future National Security Needs

By Linda P. Hudson

On November 19, 2013 Linda P. Hudson, president and CEO of BAE Systems, spoke at the Atlantic Council as part of the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security’s Captain’s of Industry Series.

Hellfire and Brimstone

By James Hasik

More on the Perils of Joint and Domestic Development The other day I cited the head of C2 at Air Combat Command as saying that the USAF’s goal with its next fighter is “to avoid another ‘joint’ acquisition.”  While the history of joint developments has been troubled, one might criticize my argument by making virtue of […]

All of Us are Trying to Avoid Another ‘Joint Acquisition.’

By James Hasik

That title was the quote earlier this month by Stan Newberry, head of C2 integration at US Air Combat Command, in Sandra Erwin’s article “Air Force Weapon Buyers Brace for Lean Times.” Newberry acknowledged that the Air Force’s plans for the ‘F-X’—the thing that is supposed to follow the F-35A—does involve cooperating with the Navy […]

England Without a Shipyard?

By James Hasik

What the Scottish Threat Reveals About the Cost of Domestic Shipbuilding England, it seems, will soon be without a naval construction yard. Defense News reported this week that BAE Systems will shortly be closing its yard in Portsmouth, for lack of work from the Royal Navy, and consolidating all its British shipbuilding on the Clyde in Scotland. […]

Corporate Strategy that Befits Industrial Policy

By James Hasik

AeroVironment’s Possible Alliance with Eurocopter Market contractions are frequently time for industrial restructuring, yet merger activity in defense is at a ten-year low. To start, a handful of strong signals from the US and German governments have discouraged even speculation about mergers between the largest firms. Moreover, with so much uncertainty over customers’ spending plans, valuations are hard […]