Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Taiwan Harpoon Budget

Taiwan says new Harpoon missiles will help it crush half of Chinese invasion fleet Taiwan says US$2.37 billion worth of Harpoon missiles would enable it to obliterate half of Chinese invasion armada “TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s military on Oct. 27 [2020] stated that the potential sale of US$2.37 billion worth of Harpoon anti-ship missiles […]

Letter to commission on defense spending

This letter via Counterpunch to the Deficit Commission makes a clear statement on broad issues of accountability for the DoD, our contracting system, and the huge drain on our resources. Reading the whole letter points to examples of problems, and how the current system has reached and will reach unsustainable levels of spending. We are […]

Obama Administration Foolishness, Part 2

I took a couple of days to let life interfere with blogging, but none of the standard politics/economics bloggers seems to have highlighted this note from the Lex column of last Wednesday’s (13 October 2010) FT (again, no link; feel free to provide in comments) under the heading “Defence M&A”: Lockheed has two small services […]

Procurement and research are in the ‘gaining’ portion of the budget

Hat tip reader ilsm for this article by Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg News, Bloomberg.com July 6, 2010 U.S. spending on weapons through 2016 likely will grow faster than the overall defense budget, which will have annual increases of only about 1 percent above inflation, according to Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale. “Our goal would be to get […]

Debt, Deficits, and Defense

Debt, Deficits, and Defense…The Sustainable Defense Task Force set in motion by Rep. Barney Frank has comprehensive suggestions. It is more specific than other suggestions I have read. David Ignatius of the Washington Post sees deficits concern as a possible unifying process among right/left thinking. I don’t see it. Bruce Bartlett comments on deficits and […]

DoD and the GAO

CORRESPONDENCEStatus of Selected Aspects of the Coast Guard’s Deepwater Program. GAO-08-270R, March 11 http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-270R LETTER REPORTJoint Strike Fighter: Recent Decisions by DOD Add to Program Risks. GAO-08-388, March 11http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-388Highlights – http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d08388high.pdf TESTIMONYDefense Management: DOD Needs to Reexamine Its Extensive Reliance on Contractors and Continue to Improve Management and Oversight. GAO-08-572T, March 11http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-572THighlights – http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d08572thigh.pdf Joint […]