David Packard on the benefits of prototyping
The continuation of prototyping programs will clearly be helpful in preserving and strengthening industrial design teams which I am convinced can develop a great deal […]
Month: July 2020
Lessons on competition for defense policy-makers
Nathan Rosenberg: The historical outcome of this long-term freedom to conduct experiments which, as I have argued, has been the central feature of western capitalism, […]
Nassim Taleb says prepare for the worst-case in fat-tailed events like pandemics and war
Russ Roberts: Another way to say it–and, again, to put it into folksy terms that I also got from you–is that you care about–you don’t […]
Views on US-China tensions, preparedness, and the great decoupling
Tech companies with operations in both China and the United States are increasingly struggling to comply with values and laws that are systemically in conflict. […]
China’s tech is about speed and scale, and other differences with the US
For all intents and purposes, China plus the US is essentially the entire tech market. From a value perspective, the two countries have 90 percent […]
Acquisition headlines
Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university that would rival Stanford and MIT and funnel tech workers into government work. “The National […]
Zumwalt’s advanced gun system woes
The LRLAPs [Long Range Land-Attack Projectiles] were to have been coordinate-attack weapons, guided by GPS satellite signals and inertial navigation systems to specific points ashore. […]
Is there really a Silicon Valley/Military divide?
We performed an in-depth analysis of all public US federal (sub)contracting data over the last four and a half years to estimate the rankings of tech companies, […]
The demise of the Pentagon’s Chief Management Officer?
The reality of the last 20 years where the Department has tried to have an independent third-silo be that Chief Management Officer and whatever it […]
Difference between operations research and systems analysis — one is much harder!
Since operations research deals with optimization problems in which criteria, alternatives, and other parameters are given, in a sense, the solution to the problem lies […]
Major defense programs are getting older and more expensive
The current portfolio is smaller yet more expensive that last year’s portfolio. This is the third time in 10 years that a decrease in the […]
Analyzing data on the defense industrial base with Amanda Bresler and Alex Bresler
The sibling team that is Amanda Bresler and Alex Bresler joined me on the Acquisition Talk podcast to discuss their recent analysis on defense contracts, […]
Acquisition headlines (7/19/2020)
Congress skeptical of Navy’s unmanned vessels plans. Navy wants $464 million for unmanned surface vessels, Congress is unimpressed. HASC agreed to just $270 million. SASC […]
Government should prepare domestic industry for black swan events
Covid-19 proved the United States was industrially unprepared for an emergency. Pre-pandemic N95 mask production stood at just 4 percent the peak requirement of 100 […]
How to accelerate artificial intelligence in the Defense Department
… the Defense Department needs a common platform for AI development and application. A development platform will bring data, AI developers, and the military into […]