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Defense Industrialist

Aug 17, 2017

Can defense industrialists work with Trump?

By James Hasik

Whatever opprobrium the president is owed, his administration’s more important initiatives deserve attention. Donald Trump’s twin business advisory panels have collapsed. Members of both the Manufacturing Council and the Strategy & Policy Forum had been resigning quickly, and according to today’s Wall Street Journal—“CEOs Scrap Trump Panels”—they voted yesterday just to disband. At first, the president […]

Defense Industry Economy & Business

Defense Industrialist

Aug 4, 2017

How to be like Ike

By Steven Grundman

Project Solarium as a model for assessing defense-industrial policy It is hard not to read a pretext for protectionism into the Executive Order President Trump signed last month under the ponderous title, “Assessing and Strengthening the Manufacturing and Defense Industrial Base and Supply Chain Resiliency of the United States.” And yet, the Administration also has gone […]

Defense Industry Economy & Business

Defense Industrialist

Jul 31, 2017

Maybe not so rare after all

By James Hasik

As the long term prognosis for the rare-earths business shows, the administration should move carefully in “strengthening supply chain resiliency.” On 21 July, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on “assessing and strengthening the manufacturing and defense industrial base and supply chain resiliency of the United States.” Within 270 days, the departments of defense, commerce, […]

China Defense Industry

Defense Industrialist

Jul 24, 2017

“The whole network needs to mesh in wartime”

By James Hasik

Avoiding despair about military radio communications is the first step towards robust solutions. The US Army may be taking a knee in its pursuit of modernizing its battlefield radio communications. After fifteen years of pursuing its Warfighter Information Network Tactical (WIN-T) program, the service seems to be reconsidering the specifics of its path towards robust, on-the-move […]

Defense Industry Security & Defense

Defense Industrialist

Jun 21, 2017

No, Senator, it’s not 90 percent.

By James Hasik

Senator John McCain of Arizona was rather tough on the administration’s nominee to be deputy defense secretary. The senator is simply incorrect about the concentration of supplier power in defense in the United States. The Pentagon’s five biggest supply accounts were awarded 27.8 percent of the gross value of its new contracts in 2014. None of these figures approach 90 percent.

Defense Industry Security & Defense

Defense Industrialist

Jun 15, 2017

Is imported aluminum a threat to American national security?

By James Hasik

Indeed, price is the point. Whether by Chinese mercantilism or Canadian hydropower, the price of raw aluminum in the US has dropped about 20 percent in the past four years, benefiting American producers of automobiles, aircraft, and those trendy-again beer cans. So how is that not good?

Defense Industry Economy & Business

Defense Industrialist

Jun 7, 2017

What’s the real effect of America First on the arms trade?

By James Hasik

Volvo’s sale of Renault Trucks Defense won’t be a test of anything. The report in Defense News this week on how “Three bidders emerge in battle to buy Renault Trucks Defense” contains a prediction of just who won’t win that auction. For some time, Volvo has been aiming to sell RTD, and bids are now in from […]

Defense Industry Economy & Business

Defense Industrialist

May 27, 2017

Exports and end-use

By James Hasik

We can ask the US Army to arm, advise, and assist its allies in the Iraqi Army, or we can ask the Army to consolidate its spreadsheets. For Iraqis, this fight is existential, and I’d rather they simply crushed ISIS. Wars may be audits themselves, but wars this hot may be no time for audits.

Arms Control Defense Industry

Defense Industrialist

May 19, 2017

Too secret a secret weapon?

By James Hasik

The secrecy around the USAF’s B-21 brings military value, but some ill-understood costs. The Defense Department’s Inspector General (DoD IG) has opened an investigation, at the behest of the Congress into whether the Air Force has imposed excessive secrecy. At this point, we should hope for a methodologically broad inquiry. For if the DoD IG focuses just on whether regulations were broken, then the government will not get the answers it needs.

Defense Industry Security & Defense

Defense Industrialist

May 10, 2017

Is imported steel a threat to American national security?

By James Hasik

It hasn’t been, it isn’t now, and it probably won’t be in the future. Last month, President Donald Trump promulgated a memorandum on “Steel Imports and Threats to National Security,” directing Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to consider whether “steel is being imported into the United States in such quantities or under such circumstances as to […]

Defense Industry Economy & Business

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