Can the F-35 take the place of the A-10?
Retaining the A-10 will help the Air Force to preserve to preserve the Warthog community’s hard won close air support skills and expertise. However, the A-10 […]
Month: January 2019
Analyzing corporate welfare in defense
In a previous post, I argued that corporate welfare is a function of Government restrictions on supply, which raises barriers to entry and lowers the […]
How to think about corporate welfare
You can define corporate welfare in a number of way, but the most common revolves around Government subsidies — and other forms of unearned support […]
Clearing obstacles to defense budget cuts
Several weeks ago I discussed various strategies for cutting $1 trillion from defense spending over ten years. In this post, I want to address the […]
Sunday Links
Confessions Of A U.S. Marine F/A-18 Hornet Maintainer. Boeing says it has successfully completed the first test flight of a prototype for its autonomous passenger […]
Win-win: Liberalism strengthens the military while reducing aggression
A reader emailed be the following question: If the ultimate end-product of the military is death/destruction, is it a good thing to try to make […]
How large is military spending in the US and China?
If you convert Chinese military spending using Market Exchange Rates, then the US is outspending the Chinese on its military by a factor of three. […]
The upside of capture
In a previous post, I described how Luigi Zingales’ framework of regulatory capture also applies to the defense industry. I will here try to describe […]
B-21 stealth bomber update
The B-21 is intended to initially replace the 20 B-2 and 63 B-1 strategic bombers currently in the fleet. B-2s date from the 1990s; B-1s […]
Did fear of competition send lobbyists running to the Hill?
The 2019 budget actually allocates R&D funding for accelerated acquisition of urgently needed technologies of the Navy’s choice, Kilby said, rather than specifying every line […]
How are defense officials captured by industry?
Regulatory capture happens when Government officials bias policies in favor of the firms supposedly being regulated. Usually there is no overt corruption involved in capture. […]
Sunday Links
U.S. Air Force installed first 3D printed part on an operational F-22. “No LCS deployed in 2018… No module exists yet in a useful, effective […]
Packard on workforce training
In most cases, it still is necessary for a project manager to get a decision by making his recommendations through several layers of hierarchy in […]
Richard Whittle on the V-22 development history
Rick Whittle joined me on the Acquisition Talk podcast to discuss his book on the V-22 Osprey program development history. In this episode, we learn […]
To End the Reform Pendulum, Fix the Budget
After a 2009 law increased centralization of defense acquisition decisions, reform began to swing in the other direction starting around 2015. The new emphasis is […]