What is the Trusted Capital Marketplace really about?
This post will speculate on the intent behind the DOD’s new Trusted Capital Marketplace, and what will be expected of its managers. Background. The Statement […]
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Interpreting the Navy’s FY 2020 shipbuilding plan
Overall inventory will reach 314 ships by FY2024 and 355 ships in FY2034. The DDG 51 class-wide extension was the principal driver of the 20-year […]
Thorny questions about Air Force’s pronounced 100 years of savings
The U.S. Air Force has stripped 100 years out of the schedules of its acquisition programs, the service’s top civilian announced Thursday. “The Air […]
Why DOD’s management fails in the 21st century
Back in the industrial era, the production process was described by interchangeable workers and capital assets measured by plant, equipment, and inventory. Those days have […]
Why the zero-based budget is not effective
Following in the steps of the Army, which did a “night court” deep-dive look at its budget to identify about $25 billion in savings to apply towards […]
Rumbles on the Columbia-class submarine
Current Navy plans call for construction on the first of 12 Columbia-class nuclear-armed submarines to begin in 2021, with an overall price tag of $128 billion. But […]
Implications of the Space Development Agency
Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan on Tuesday [March 12, 2019] officially established the Space Development Agency as a separate organization within the Department of Defense […]
Where should DARPA focus its innovation?
DARPA has no doubt stimulated many important innovations over the past 60 plus years, from the internet and GPS to drones and autonomous vehicles. But […]
Improving system resilience through falsification
In a previous post, I discussed system resilience and its relationship to risk. Here, I want to provide a way of building systems that are […]
Spoon-feeding the military: how industry wins contracts
Here are some good quotes about how defense firms marketed programs to the DOD in the 1960s: For, as one representative remarked, “… the day […]
Did the JLTV do sufficient Operational Evaluation?
Soldiers with the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart in Georgia received the first of its 500 JLTVs on Jan. 14. A […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]