Too secret a secret weapon?

EnergySource Nov 14, 2024

Europe’s new industrial plan faces formidable obstacles

By Andrei Covatariu

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has promised to put forth in her second term a new Clean Industrial Deal to mobilize investment in infrastructure and industry, and reduce dependence on energy imports. But energy supply challenges and geopolitical hurdles risk undermining plans to restore Europe’s industrial competitiveness.
Defense Industry Energy & Environment
Too secret a secret weapon?

New Atlanticist Oct 30, 2024

In defense of Draghi’s defense idea: Three models for a centralized defense procurer for the EU

By Thomas Goldstein

Only a European defense procurer can provide the institutional reform to overcome intra- and intergovernmental paralysis and invest at scale.
Defense Industry Defense Policy
Too secret a secret weapon?

New Atlanticist Oct 28, 2024

The US needs a stronger defense industrial base. Option contracts can help.

By Michael Hogan

The US government would pay a premium on current orders, but it would then have the option to purchase a larger amount within a fixed timeframe.
Defense Industry Defense Policy

Content

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

Defense Industrialist

May 5, 2017

Must go faster

By James Hasik

The Army, Navy, and Air Force Departments all seem to be talking up new ideas for fast-moving weapons. So does the Pentagon need to be putting more money there? Does any other defense ministry? Perhaps, but sometimes necessity is truncated by feasibility. For with hypersonics, the tactical advantages are great, but so are the technical challenges.

Defense Industry Defense Technologies

Defense Industrialist

Apr 28, 2017

Evolution and the occasional über-gizmo

By James Hasik

Thoughts on corporate strategies in the military aircraft industry  Last week, I provided a guest lecture at the Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy, that graduate college of the National Defense University formerly known as the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. The school was founded in 1924 as the Army Industrial College, on a […]

Defense Industry Defense Technologies

Defense Industrialist

Apr 21, 2017

An excess of buying and hiring American

By James Hasik

There are, of course, very valid strategic reasons for the United States to retain some degree of autarky in its armaments production. But if the engineers, logisticians, marketers, and financiers are coming to the United States, to work in the United States on long-term visas, building armaments for the American military, aren’t they then Americans?

Defense Industry Economy & Business

Emerging Defense Challenges

Apr 6, 2017

Grundman in Aviation Week: A Map Of Aerospace Mergers And Acquisitions

By Steven Grundman

Read the full article here.

Defense Industry Security & Defense

In the News

Mar 29, 2017

Braw in the Wall Street Journal: A Single Market That Is Worth Fighting For

By Elisabeth Braw

Read the full article here.

Defense Industry Security & Defense

Defense Industrialist

Mar 27, 2017

Will DARPA get its Cylons back?

By James Hasik

The Pentagon’s concerns over Chinese investment in the US should be considered carefully. In this morning’s Wall Street Journal, Daniel Michaels and his team write of how what’s “Driving U.S. Factories [is] Foreign Robotics.” All the best machine tools, it would seem, are made by the Germans and the Japanese. If that sounds like the 1980s, he asserts […]

China Defense Industry

Defense Industrialist

Mar 22, 2017

On the economics of cyber weapons, part 2

By James Hasik

Some industrial organization in cyber, and the organization of cyber forces We are now seven months past what Nicholas Weaver called the National Security Agency’s “No Good, Very Bad Monday.” We may not know who the Shadow Brokers really are, but as Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai wrote on Motherboard, quoting Thomas Rid (“Cyber War Will Not Take Place”) of King’s College, […]

Cybersecurity Defense Industry

In the News

Mar 19, 2017

Wiley in the National Interest: America’s Nuclear Bombers Are Old—and in Desperate Need of an Upgrade

By Will Wiley

Read the full article here.

Defense Industry Security & Defense
Load More

Experts

Staff

Alexander Young

Project Assistant

Forward Defense Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Defense Industry Europe & Eurasia

Fellow

Jongsun Kim

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Forward Defense Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Defense Industry Defense Policy

Fellow

Hannah Hunt

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Forward Defense Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Defense Industry Defense Technologies

Fellow

Owen J. Daniels

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Forward Defense Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Defense Industry Defense Policy

Fellow

Tom Mancinelli

Nonresident Senior Fellow

GeoStrategy Initiative Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Defense Industry Defense Policy

Staff

Maeve Cuddy

Assistant Director

Forward Defense

Defense Industry Defense Policy
Load More

Events

Public Event Thu, July 24, 2025 • 4:15 pm ET

SAIC CEO Toni Townes-Whitley on mission integration in the defense ecosystem

AN #ACFRONTPAGE EVENT—SAIC CEO Toni Townes-Whitley discusses the role of mission integrators in today's defense industrial base and the future of the US defense ecosystem.

Defense Industry Defense Policy Defense Technologies Security & Defense