News

Austal Pushes Big Missiles For Small Ships: LCS & VLS

April 7, 2017 Navy Times

“For the Independence-class LCS, the trimaran design is probably better able to accommodate adding weight in the form of missile launchers higher in the ship,” said Bryan Clark, a retired Navy officer, who’s argued for VLS-equipped LCS in the past.

Inside a B-2 Mission: How to Bomb Just About Anywhere From Missouri

April 6, 2017 Kansas City Star

“No other nation has that capability … to send bombers from our homeland to any place on the globe,” said Mark Gunzinger, a former Air Force colonel and B-52 pilot now working as a senior fellow at the Center for Budgetary and Strategic Assessments. “Using that force projection in Libya serves as a deterrent to rivals elsewhere.”

Critical Assumptions and American Grand Strategy

April 5, 2017 RealClearDefense

RealClearDefense talks to Dr. Hal Brands of SAIS and the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments regarding American Grand Strategy in the lastest report from the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

Countering Beijing’s Manoeuvres in the South China Sea

April 3, 2017 The Strategist, Australian Strategic Policy Institute

Last month it appeared that the Chinese were again on the move in the South China Sea.

The provincial administrator of Beijing’s land claims in the region told Chinese state media that work would soon begin on an ‘environmental monitoring station’ on Scarborough Shoal, a large reef system just 140 nautical miles west of Subic Bay, well within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.

Studies

Living Within One’s Means: Revisiting Defense Acquisition and Affordability

October 4, 2021 Chris Bassler, Travis Sharp, Josh Chang

Future Vertical Lift (FVL) is a force structure recapitalization effort to design and procure a family of rotary-wing platforms capable of operations in future highly contested environments. The Army’s FVL is the leading edge of an effort that has identified the need for a rotary-wing Family of Systems that can deliver five capability sets for joint use across the Services. Due to budgetary limitations and force modernization priorities, the Army is currently pursuing only two of these capability sets, but they still represent a significant effort for the Army, as they are the first new helicopters designed since the mid-1980s.

Briefs

Arms Control: Can Its Future Be Found in Its Past?

September 21, 2021 Eric Edelman

In the wake of the Trump Administration’s withdrawal from the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) of 1988 and the Open Skies Treaty of 1992 there was a great deal of fear that the New START Treaty which one scholar has called “the key bilateral arms control agreement” would expire. Now that the keystone of the arms control enterprise remains in place it is worth examining why so many arms control experts and advocates have been warning about “the end,” “the death” or the “deep crisis” of arms control. As one leading Russian scholar of arms control has argued, “legacy Cold War-era arms control is collapsing and an uncontrolled nuclear arms race is threatening to return.”

Briefs

Aligning South Korea’s Defense Strategy and Capabilities

September 7, 2021 Evan B. Montgomery, Jack Bianchi, Josh Chang, Madison Creery, Regan Copple

Changing security dynamics on the Korean Peninsula are prompting the Republic of Korea (ROK) to reexamine its defense strategy and adjust its military capabilities and investment priorities. North Korea’s growing missile arsenal and asymmetric defense strategy, along with China’s rapid military modernization, present unique challenges to South Korean and American efforts to maintain stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the broader region.

Studies

Mind the Power Gap: The American Energy Arsenal and Chinese Insecurity

August 25, 2021 Chris Bassler, Ben Noon

The shale revolution has upended nearly a half-century of American energy insecurity. The United States is now the most energy-secure it has been since the 1970s and has returned to its position as the world’s leading energy producer.

Studies

Slow and Steady: Analysis of the 2022 Defense Budget Request

July 30, 2021 Travis Sharp

In May 2021, the Pentagon presented its first budget request to the Biden Administration, proposing a $715 billion topline for Fiscal Year 2022, representing a 0.2 percent real decrease relative to the previous fiscal year. In a shift from previous budgets, the request also included contingency operations costs within DoD's base budget, eliminating the separate Other Contingency Operations (OCO) account that has supplemented the Defense Department's budget for two decades.

Studies

Implementing Deterrence by Detection: Innovative Capabilities, Processes, and Organizations for Situational Awareness in the Indo-Pacific Region

July 14, 2021 Thomas G. Mahnken, Travis Sharp, Chris Bassler, Bryan W. Durkee

One of the essential hallmarks of deterrence is the ability to effectively detect – and therefore prepare for – a potential adversary’s hostile action in a timely fashion. Just as the threat of effective retaliation must be credible, deterrence also depends on a robust ability to identify and assess aggressive acts, including acts of coercion that fall below the threshold of kinetic conflict. Recent Chinese actions toward Taiwan, for example, have heightened the conviction among U.S. and allied defense planners that effective, interoperable intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) systems are essential for the security of the entire Indo-Pacific theater.

Living Within One’s Means: Revisiting Defense Acquisition and Affordability

Mind the Power Gap: The American Energy Arsenal and Chinese Insecurity

Slow and Steady: Analysis of the 2022 Defense Budget Request

Implementing Deterrence by Detection: Innovative Capabilities, Processes, and Organizations for Situational Awareness in the Indo-Pacific Region

Delivering Advanced Unmanned Autonomous Systems and Artificial Intelligence for Naval Superiority

Featured Event

Report Release Webinar—Living Within One’s Means: Revisiting Defense Acquisition and Affordability

Laser Weapons Edge Toward Use in US Military

Austal Pushes Big Missiles For Small Ships: LCS & VLS

Inside a B-2 Mission: How to Bomb Just About Anywhere From Missouri

Critical Assumptions and American Grand Strategy

Navigating Great Power Rivalry in The 21st Century

Countering Beijing’s Manoeuvres in the South China Sea

Latest Publications

Living Within One’s Means: Revisiting Defense Acquisition and Affordability

Arms Control: Can Its Future Be Found in Its Past?

Aligning South Korea’s Defense Strategy and Capabilities

Mind the Power Gap: The American Energy Arsenal and Chinese Insecurity

Slow and Steady: Analysis of the 2022 Defense Budget Request

Implementing Deterrence by Detection: Innovative Capabilities, Processes, and Organizations for Situational Awareness in the Indo-Pacific Region