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Can AI Help in Improving U.S. Military Logistics?
November 14, 2024 - The Wall Street Journal recently published an article highlighting what may be one of the biggest challenges that the U.S. military will face in case of a prolonged conflict in faraway regions: grossly inadequate logistics.
November 14, 2024
Finally, a Breakthrough in Battery Technology?
November 11, 2024 - Form Energy, a relatively unknown U.S. firm, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, and now also by many high-profile private sector investors, including Bill Gates, claims that it has created a new type of battery that will –finally– make renewable energy truly cost effective.
November 11, 2024
Will Nuclear Power Fuel AI Centers in America?
November 6, 2024 - AI revolution is gaining momentum in America. NVIDIA, maker of the coveted chips which constitute AI’s key components (85% of global supply), from nowhere reached a market capitalization of about $ 3.4 trillion, becoming overnight the second most valuable company in the world –higher valuation than Microsoft or Saudi Aramco. Having taken notice of the unfolding revolution, all the major tech companies have jumped into the AI space hoping to reap incredible profits.
November 6, 2024
Innovation Ecosystems
October 29, 2024 - What is the magic formula for successful technological innovation? In broad terms, we know. You need a country with a sizable market that can absorb commercially viable innovations, state of the art infrastructure, some great research universities that breed top notch scientists and managers with great new ideas, robust capital markets, availability of risk capital and venture capitalists that can harness it, rule of law and independent courts, zero corruption, enforceable patent laws. We all know that these are the necessary ingredients. However, in practice, nobody really knows what the right mix should be.
October 30, 2024
Army’s Future Tiltrotor Blazes a Trail in Software, Soldier Feedback (From RealClearDefense)
October 28, 2024 - Drones and unmanned systems are a big part of the Army’s future, but so is a revolutionary manned aircraft: FLRAA, the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft.  Read my analysis from Real Clear Defense below and here. In August, acquisition officials signed off on Milestone B, launching FLRAA toward first flight in 2026 and a potential $70 billion program.
October 28, 2024
Solar Electrical Power from Fabrics?
October 7, 2024 - How about a tent that produces the electricity necessary to satisfy the needs of campers or field hospitals? Pvilion, a U.S. company based in Brooklyn, New York, can make them for you, following your specifications in terms of size and preferred material. Is this the new frontier of solar energy applications?
October 7, 2024
Electric Airplanes for Short Flights in America?
October 3, 2024 - Unlike in Europe, Japan or China, in America passenger railways have been neglected. While this may change in the future, at this time there are no fast trains networks. The only exception is the “Eastern Corridor” (Washington, DC – New York City – Boston) that is served by semi-fast trains. For the rest of the large country, to travel from point A to point B Americans have essentially two choices: drive or fly. However, large commercial carriers do not fly to small cities.
October 3, 2024
Poland’s Secret Weapon Goes Beyond Abrams Tanks (From RealClearDefense)
September 30, 2024 - Poland has a secret weapon. No, not just the Abrams main battle tanks, F-35 stealth fighters, Patriot air defenses, Apache helicopters or other top-line equipment purchased by Poland.  Poland’s secret weapon centers on its intense national commitment to security against a resurgent Russia – and the favorable American opinion this inspires.
September 30, 2024
Desalination Technologies are Getting Better and Cheaper
September 19, 2024 - There is a major freshwater crisis affecting many regions of our planet. However, desalination may provide a viable solution. Significant technological progress is making desalination plants that allow to turn salty sea water into drinkable fresh water much more affordable. This is a blessing for an overcrowded world in need of more and more fresh water –for humans, farm animals, agriculture, and industry.
September 19, 2024
China Beats America in STEM Education
September 5, 2024 - Here is the hard truth. China is massively ahead of the U.S. in the number of schools, research centers, scientists and university graduates involved in the STEM disciplines. STEM include Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. This did not happen overnight. This significant China advantage is the tangible outcome of an investment policy ordered years ago by President Xi Jinping.
September 5, 2024
US Nuclear Power Future: Small Reactors
August 7, 2024 - Could it be that the now moribund U.S. civil nuclear power sector will be lifted to new heights by innovative technologies? Maybe so, if the concept of small nuclear reactors gets traction in the U.S. and elsewhere, this way creating a new modality to supply low cost, emission free, electricity.
August 13, 2024
A Tale of Two AI Announcements: Governments Glum, Google Gritty
Jule 24, 2024 - Yesterday there were two notable announcements about the future of Artificial Intelligence that were diametrically at odds in tone and outlook. Governments worldwide are talking down AI and trying to figure out what it is, where it is going, and what they should do about it. U.S. private tech companies are carefully researching and applying the technology, taking big market risks, and helping the public capture the profound benefits.
August 6, 2024
Uber Driverless EVs: The Urban Transportation Revolution
August 1, 2024 - The promise of electric vehicles, EVs, is that they will do away with internal combustion engines powered by oil derived gasoline. The elimination of internal combustion engines will translate into a dramatic reduction of harmful emissions caused by burning gasoline, this way helping mankind to reduce the greenhouse gases that trap the sun’s heat in the atmosphere. As we all know, the greenhouse effect causes higher temperatures, global warming, and down the line climate change.
August 2, 2024
Africa Will Miss the AI Revolution
August 1, 2024 - The Economist recently noted that The Netherlands, with a population of only 18 million, has more data centers than the entire African Continent, population about 1.4 billion. Africa will not have an AI revolution mostly because it lacks the physical infrastructure for AI –fiber networks and data centers– and sufficient electric power generation and distribution to run it. Unless this state of affairs changes —rapidly— the Continent will miss out on the enormous education and economic development opportunities that exist for those who can easily access AI.
U.S. Marine Corps Could Be Left With No Effective Amphibious Warfare Fleet (From 1945)
October 20, 2022 - Issue by by GPI Fellow Daniel Goure. The Department of Defense may be creating a “perfect storm,” a situation in which LSD decommissioning and LPD 17 Flight II production terminations, coupled with increasing costs for the LAW, could leave the Sea Services with inadequate numbers of both large and small amphibs.
October 24, 2022
The Biggest Threat To America’s Global Dominance In Software & Services Isn’t China–It’s Washington (From Forbes)
October 10, 2022 - Issue Brief by GPI Senior Adviser Loren B. Thompson. Over the last 20 years, software and digital services have become the most vibrant sector of the U.S. economy. The pace of innovation is furious, and the impact on global commerce and culture is profound. At a time when America was losing ground in many traditional industries, companies like Amazon and Alphabet have redefined what it means to be competitive. That’s a good thing, because as President Biden’s Interim National Security Strategic Guidance states, “in today’s world, economic security is national security.”
October 11, 2022
Green tech investment could reach $5 trillion by 2025
August 17, 2022 - Issue Brief by GPI Senior Adviser Andrea Zanon. For global markets, investing in sustainable business is the only way forward. Companies that do not participate in decarbonization will lose out. Green and clean technology “unicorns” are becoming the mainstream, disrupting the renewable energy, food, and mobility sectors.
August 21, 2022
Raytheon’s SPY-6 Radar Family Will Revolutionize U.S. Navy Operations (From 1945)
July 15, 2022 - Issue Brief by GPI Fellow Daniel Goure. The U.S. Navy’s new operational approach to winning a high-end fight with a peer competitor is called Distributed Maritime Operations (DMO). The essence of DMO is found in three core tenets: making U.S. forces (particularly naval platforms but also land-based forces) hard to find, hard to kill, and highly lethal.
July 17, 2022
Arbitrary Drugs Expiration Dates Are A Waste Of Money
July 14, 2022 - Issue Brief by Ziv Harish. It has been said that American urine is the most expensive in the world due to the many expensive vitamins and supplements that we consume, but which our bodies do not absorb. The same may be said about American garbage, into which we dump millions of dollars’ worth of unused medications simply because they are past their marked expiration dates.
COO Chris Calio Says Raytheon Technologies Is Proving The Value Of The Merger (From Forbes)
July 1, 2022 - Issue Brief by GPI Senior Adviser Loren B. Thompson. When Raytheon and United Technologies disclosed their intention to merge three years ago, they laid out a vision of a consolidated enterprise that would be nearly unstoppable in aerospace and defense. It did not take long for that vision to be tested: the new company had to integrate operations in the midst of a global pandemic. But as time goes by and the pandemic recedes, the business thesis behind the merger is still intact.
July 4, 2022
GSA’s Power Grab Over DFTS Puts Critical Defense Transportation Contracts At Risk (From 19FortyFive)
June 28, 2022 Issue Brief by GPI Fellow Daniel Goure For more than a decade, the Department of Defense (DoD) struggled to find the right contracting mechanism that would allow it to take advantage of the enormous logistics capabilities resident in the private sector. Third-party logistics providers have the experience, tools, databases, and procedures to support a network of transportation providers while minimizing both the cost and time involved in moving goods and materials.
Navy’s Latest Shipbuilding Plan Is Not Good News For The Industrial Base (From Forbes)
May 13, 2022 - Issue Brief by GPI Senior Advisor Loren B. Thompson. The number of warships in the U.S. naval fleet has not managed to get above 300 for two decades. Meanwhile, the country the Chief of Naval Operations describes as “our pacing threat,” China, is headed for 400 warships in its own fleet at mid-decade. The disparity is even worse than it seems, because Chinese forces are concentrated close to home, where Beijing also sustains a growing arsenal of long-range, antiship weapons.
May 22, 2022
Russian Aggression Highlights Need To Bolster P-8 Poseidon Maritime Patrol Force (From Forbes)
May 5, 2022 - Issue Brief by GPI Senior Adviser Loren B. Thompson. Most of the war coverage from Ukraine is about what’s happening on the ground, but eventually NATO will have to rethink other facets of its military preparations in light of Russia’s aggression. One area that needs a close look with regard to both Russia and China is whether America and its allies have an adequate fleet of maritime patrol aircraft–particularly for finding and defeating hostile submarines.
May 9, 2022
Air Force Confirms It Plans To Slash F-35 Buy In 2023–But Can’t Explain Why (From Forbes)
March 28th, 2022 - Issue Brief by GPI Senior Adviser Loren B. Thompson. The Air Force publicly confirmed on March 28 that it intends to buy a much smaller number of F-35 fighters in 2023 than previously planned. It says it still intends to eventually buy 1,763 of the stealthy fighters, but at the proposed rate for next year, that would take half a century. Congress will have something to say about all this. Here are five questions Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall should be ready to answer when budget hearings are held:
April 3, 2022
The Reckless Push For Electric Vehicles At The U.S. Postal Service (From RealClearEnergy)
December 28th, 2021 - Issue Brief by GPI Fellow Paul Steidler. As Democrats regroup and forge ahead with plans to implement components of the Build Back Better legislation killed by Senator Joe Manchin, calls for the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to be given billions of taxpayers’ dollars to electrify its fleet are likely to soon reach a fever pitch. Progressives pulled out all the stops to provide USPS with electric vehicle funding in 2021 and will likely double down in 2022.
December 29, 2021
The Limits of Green Energy Technologies
December 27th, 2021 - Issue Brief by GPI President Paolo von Schirach. WASHINGTON — Here is our problem. We really want to stop global warming. But we lack the adequate green energy technology tools to do the job. We know that the traditional fossil fuels energy sources –coal, oil products and natural gas– produce unwanted side effects. Burning these fuels generates massive amounts of greenhouse gases that are trapped in the atmosphere. This is what causes global warming.
Army’s Future Vertical Lift Will Reshape The Rotorcraft Industry–And Companies Know It (From Forbes)
December 17th, 2021 - Issue Brief by GPI Senior Adviser Loren B. Thompson. The U.S. Army has not developed an all-new combat rotorcraft since the Reagan years, but now it is developing two in a program called Future Vertical Lift (FVL). FVL is expected to generate demand for nearly 100 aircraft per year, making it by far the biggest source of demand for the domestic rotorcraft industry. That means leading companies must secure a berth on either the new recon aircraft or the new assault aircraft
December 19, 2021
How To Counter The Chinese Missile Threat: More Missile Defense? (From 1945)
December 13th, 2021 - Issue Brief by GPI fellow Daniel Goure. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is rapidly building a world-class military that could dominate the Western Pacific. As part of its near-meteoric rise, the PLA is rapidly becoming a missile superpower, capable of threatening the U.S. homeland as well as U.S. forces and allies in the Indo-Pacific region. In order to deter China and ensure that the People’s Liberation Army cannot use its missile power to conduct a disarming first strike against U.S. forces
Are U.S. Missile Defenses Vulnerable To Cyberattacks? (From 1945)
November 18th, 2021 - Issue Brief by GPI fellow Daniel Goure. The Chinese hypersonic missile threat has made the United States rethink its missile defense approach. U.S. defense officials recognize that America’s missile defense capabilities, while formidable, are designed to track and shoot down traditional ballistic missiles and would struggle with hypersonic systems.
November 29, 2021
Engage Big Oil For Lower Emissions (From RealClearEnergy)
November 12th, 2021 - Issue Brief by GPI Fellow Paul Steidler. These are heady days for bashing U.S. and European multinational oil corporations while also begging OPEC to increase oil production. While the U.S. House of Representatives is excoriating oil company CEOs, the Biden Administration is pleading for more oil from abroad. Talk about bizarre and mixed messages. A better course is to hold Big Oil accountable to its bold promises for cleaner energy production and to track how it is doing.
November 15, 2021
Punishing India For Buying Russian Weapons Would Hurt America And Help China (From Forbes)
October 18th, 2021 - Issue Brief by GPI Senior Adviser Loren B. Thompson. The Biden administration will soon need to decide whether to sanction India for purchasing Russia’s S-400 air defense system. Doing so would be a big mistake. Washington has been working hard to build bridges to India, and now it needs New Delhi to participate closely with Australia and Japan in a quadripartite coalition to contain China’s regional ambitions. Any imposition of sanctions at this point would be counter-productive...
October 25, 2021
Why Nothing Can Replace Large-Deck, Nuclear-Powered Aircraft Carriers In U.S. Strategy (From Forbes)
September 14th, 2021 - Issue Brief by GPI Senior Adviser Loren B. Thompson. The United States is the only nation that operates a fleet of large-deck, nuclear-powered aircraft carriers–eleven in all. They are the signature expression of American military power, and by far the most powerful conventional warfighting system ever conceived. Unfortunately, much of the public never hears the details of why carriers are indispensable in U.S. strategy.
September 20, 2021
Why Raytheon Technologies Could Become America’s Biggest Aerospace & Defense Business In This Decade (From Forbes)
September 02nd, 2021 - Issue Brief by GPI Senior Adviser Loren B. Thompson. When Raytheon and United Technologies merged in 2020 to become Raytheon Technologies, they created an aerospace enterprise with unrivaled market breadth and technical depth. There is a real possibility that by mid-decade, RTX will be the biggest aerospace and defense business in America. At present, Boeing and Lockheed Martin have more sizable sales, but Boeing has suffered significant setbacks in both its commercial and defense units
September 5, 2021
A Cleaner Oil Industry: Driven By Data And Common Sense (From RealClearEnergy)
September 01st, 2021 - Issue Brief by GPI fellow Paul Steidler. The world is going to need 50 percent more energy by 2050, including a large amount of oil. This challenge can be met while also addressing climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Through data analytics, U.S. oil companies are taking many steps to significantly cut their emissions soon. Policymakers should encourage these actions as the U.S. oil industry is large
Why A Nuclear Deterrent Without ICBMs Would Be Dangerous And Destabilizing (From Forbes)
August 13, 2021 - Issue Brief by GPI Senior Adviser Loren B. Thompson. The United States has long maintained a nuclear “triad” of land-based ICBMs, sea-based ballistic missiles, and bombers. Now some members of Congress are proposing that Washington forego replacing its aged ICBMs. That would be dangerous, because the number of targets an enemy would need to take out in a disarming first strike would fall from nearly 500 to barely 20.
August 15, 2021
The F-35 Is Going To Be The Free World’s Fighter (From 1945)
August 09th, 2021 - Issue Brief by GPI Fellow Daniel Goure. The recent decision by the Swiss Federal Council (SFC) to acquire the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) as Switzerland’s next-generation air defense aircraft has made it all but official: the F-35 is fast becoming the free world’s dominant fighter. The Swiss conducted a comprehensive technical evaluation which found that the F-35A “has the lowest operating costs of all of the candidates evaluated.”
August 9, 2021
U.S. Shipbuilding Is At Its Lowest Ebb Ever. How Did America Fall So Far? (From Forbes)
July 23rd, 2021 - Issue Brief by GPI Senior Adviser Loren B. Thompson. There was a time within living memory when America was the world’s biggest builder of commercial oceangoing vessels, and its ships carried a third of global trade. Those days are long gone. The U.S. now typically produces less than ten such vessels annually, compared with over a thousand in China. And barely one-percent of U.S. trade is carried on U.S.-registered ships.
July 26, 2021
Why We Know F-35 Support Costs Will Fall In The Future (From Forbes)
July 20th, 2021 - Issue Brief by GPI Senior Adviser Loren B. Thompson. The Government Accountability Office put out a report earlier this month purporting to show that the F-35 fighter costs more to operate and sustain than U.S. military services can afford to pay. Somehow, though, the report failed to mention that F-35 is already more reliable and maintainable than the aircraft it will be replacing–not to mention more effective at executing key missions.
Why The Air Force’s “Bridge Tanker” Will Likely Be A Bridge To Nowhere For Airbus (From Forbes)
July 15th, 2021 - Issue Brief by GPI Senior Adviser Loren B. Thompson. The U.S. Air Force wants to buy 140-160 commercial derivative tankers following completion of the present KC-46 production run in 2029. The effort is called a bridge tanker because it is the transition to a next-generation aerial refueler. Boeing and Airbus are both are likely to bid, in a replay of the competition that Boeing won ten years ago. There isn’t much reason to expect it will go differently this time since they are bidding the same basic airframes.
July 18, 2021
Future Vertical Lift: Army Aviation’s Master Plan To Defeat China and Russia Without Breaking The Budget (From Forbes)
June 11th, 2021 - Issue Brief by GPI Senior Adviser Loren B. Thompson. The U.S. Army is leading a rotorcraft development program called Future Vertical Lift that aims to transform the way it conducts tactical air operations. Its immediate goal is to replace Cold War scout and assault helicopters with aircraft that are twice as fast and can fly twice as far. And that’s just the beginning–they will also deliver 360-degree situational awareness, seamless networking and diverse effects in a sustainable and affordable package.
June 13, 2021
Fixing Our Most Important And Vulnerable Infrastructure–The Electric Grid (From Inside Sources)
May 05th, 2021 - Issue Brief by Paul Steidler. America’s most important infrastructure is also our most vulnerable – the electric grid. It is old and literally on the screens of foreign adversaries (e.g., China, Russia, and Iran) who have been attacking it and will continue to do so. For years numerous government agencies have warned about the many dangers to the electric grid. There are important roles for the private sector, the federal government, and state government to take in strengthening and protecting the electric grid.
May 19, 2021
Army Leaders Endorse Upgrades Of Chinook Helicopter, Cite Industrial Base Concerns (From Forbes)
May 06th, 2021 - Issue Brief by Loren B. Thompson. The U.S. Army’s objections to Block II upgrades of the Chinook helicopter seem to be softening. On Wednesday of this week, Army Chief of Staff James McConville told the House defense appropriations subcommittee that his service needs the additional lift provided by the upgrades, and is mindful of the industrial base impacts if the upgrades do not go forward. The industrial fallout really would be significant, potentially shutting the main production line at the biggest industrial complex in southeastern Pennsylvania and destroying thousands of skilled jobs across a vast supply chain.
May 6, 2021
Great Power Competition Demands Revitalization Of America’s Military Sealift (From the National Interest)
May 03rd, 2021 - Issue Brief by Daniel Goure. In an era of great power competition, the U.S. military has had to relearn a number of strategic facts. Perhaps the most important of these is the central role that sealift has played in the United States’ ability to project power abroad. During the Cold War, the U.S. was able to not only deploy large forces overseas but move and sustain entire armies around the world. Today, 90 percent of U.S. forces are based on CONUS. They will have to get to the fight. Over the past three decades, the US sealift fleet has been allowed to decline precipitously.
Big Oil Is Cutting Emissions. With Big Data It Will Do It Quicker. (From RealClearEnergy)
April 1st, 2021 - Issue Brief by Paul Steidler. The world’s largest oil and natural gas companies are sprinting to cut greenhouse gas emissions and making significant progress. By reengineering many operations through digital technology and cloud storage – Big Data – emissions will be cut sooner, and without unnecessary, drastic steps that will drive up the price of oil and gasoline, thereby imposing a de facto, regressive tax. While the oil and natural gas industries have been slow to adopt data analytics, cloud computing, and related practices, there are compelling reasons to do so now. Lexington Institute’s Paul Steidler discusses these matters
April 5, 2021
No Way Out: Why Nuclear Modernization Is Necessary (From Forbes)
February 24th, 2021. Issue Brief by GPI Senior Adviser Loren B. Thompson. Last week I participated in an online panel about nuclear modernization. My presentation focused on six slides that summarize why the U.S. has no choice but to modernize its triad of nuclear weapons. The argument comes down to this: (1) There is no effective defense against a large-scale nuclear attack; (2) The U.S. therefore deters attack by threatening unacceptable retaliation, but all the weapons in our triad must soon retire; (3) Maintaining an effective deterrent does not preclude nuclear reductions and costs a small fraction of the defense budget; (4) The Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine will host most U.S. warheads in the future because it cannot be destroyed in a surprise attack when at sea; (5) Land-based ballistic missiles need to be modernized because they greatly complicate the challenge of disarming the U.S. in an attack; and (6) Bombers provide flexibility in a crisis, but their cruise missiles are becoming unreliable and must be replaced to successfully penetrate enemy defenses.
March 8, 2021
Pentagon Report Paints Grim Picture Of America’s Industrial Decline (From Forbes)
January 13th, 2021 - Issue Brief by GPI Senior Adviser Loren B. Thompson. On January 12 the Department of Defense released its 2020 assessment of U.S. industrial capabilities. It is alarming compendium of decay that signals FDR’s arsenal of democracy is on its last legs. From shipbuilding to machine tools to semiconductors, the sinews of American economic and military strength are gradually draining away to other nations, particularly those in East Asia. The notion that America could surge military production in response to an emergency today the way it did in World War Two is a fantasy: too many skills have been lost, too many offshore dependencies have accumulated. It seems that President Trump was right to put industrial policy back on the national agenda, and that President Biden will need to do the same thing.
January 20, 2021
Beware Of Politicians Trying To Rescue You From Technology Companies (From RealClearMarkets)
December 17th, 2020. Issue Brief by Paul Steidler. During the pandemic America’s large technology companies have been critical to the economy while providing significant health and safety benefits. If America did not have the services of our large technology companies, we would hear calls for the government to invest tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to invent them. Instead, there are now aggressive antitrust actions against these companies by elected officials and central bureaucrats that pose major risks to the engine of our economy and our health and safety.
December 27, 2020