News

Boeing’s loss of bomber contract could mean jobs for Puget Sound region

October 30, 2015 Puget Sound Business Journal

Boeing just lost the contract to build the Air Force’s next bomber, but the Puget Sound area could still win big chunks of bomber work. There’s ample precedent, because Boeing workers in the Seattle area built wing and fuselage structures for the current B-2 bomber and the F-22 fighter. In recognition the fourth operational B-2 was named Spirit of Washington.

This is why the US is spending $80 billion on a new long-range stealth bomber

October 28, 2015 Quartz

A key component of US military power is to get a major upgrade. Pentagon officials said Tuesday that Northrop Grumman will build up to 100 new long-range stealth bombers for the Air Force, at a cost of $79 billion. It’s arguably the most important US military initiative in years.

Experts split on likely Long-Range Strike Bomber winner

October 27, 2015 Flightglobal

The US Air Force is poised to deliver the decision of the decade, with reports that the Long-Range Strike Bomber contract award could be announced as early as 27 October. Two key steps must take place, and Bloomberg reports that the first has already taken place.

Obama Vetoes Defense Budget — Now It’s Time for a Showdown with Congress

October 23, 2015 Vice News

On Thursday, President Barack Obama vetoed the $612 billion National Defense Authorization Act, the law that funds the Pentagon for the 2016 fiscal year. Nestled among the long list of defense and foreign policy projects funded by the bill is the European Reassurance Initiative, which — as its name suggests — signals the United States' renewed commitment to reassure NATO members that Washington will help preserve their territorial integrity, especially in Central and Eastern Europe, where fears of Russian aggressiveness run high.

Defense Analysts Explain Real Cost of Nuclear Forces

October 22, 2015 The Daily Signal

The United States is facing an increasingly constrained fiscal environment, with the 2011 Budget Control Act (BCA) placing mandatory limits on spending. At the same time, all three legs of the U.S. nuclear triad—land-based, sea-based, and airborne—are due for extensive modernization.

Briefs

Understanding NATO’s Concept for Deterrence and Defense of the Euro-Atlantic Area

May 20, 2024 Katherine Kjellström Elgin, Sean Monaghan, Sara Bjerg Moller

NATO, the largest and most powerful military alliance in history, turned seventy-five in April. In July, the leaders of NATO will return to the city where its founding document, the Washington Treaty, was signed in 1949. Most people have heard of NATO. Fewer know its most important document is the Strategic Concept, which is updated every decade or so, and sets the Alliance’s strategy. An even smaller group know about NATO’s “Concept for Deterrence and Defence of the Euro-Atlantic Area.”

Studies

More of the Same? The Future of the Russian Military And Its Ability to Change

March 18, 2024 Katherine Kjellström Elgin

Assessing the type of threat that Russia is likely to pose in the aftermath of the war in Ukraine is a critical challenge for the United States and its allies. What will the Russian military look like in the future? Some argue that the Russian military will remain a significant threat – and perhaps become a very different and even more serious one. This argument holds that the Russian military will reconstitute in a relatively short time frame and may reform according to lessons learned during the war in Ukraine. Others argue that the Russian military will pose a far less formidable conventional threat going forward. Not only has the war against Ukraine exposed fundamental weaknesses in the Russian military, the argument goes, but Moscow’s ability to address those weaknesses will be limited by available manpower, sanctions, and export controls.

Briefs

2023 Annual Report

January 30, 2024

For nearly three decades, CSBA has provided consistent, high-quality, and innovative research on defense strategy, budgets, and the security environment.

Briefs

An Ongoing and Necessary Renaissance: NATO’s Nuclear Posture

January 25, 2024 Eric Edelman, Franklin C. Miller

President Putin’s nuclear saber-rattling while the war in Ukraine has raged, along with lurid nuclear threats by Russian officials and propagandists, have once again focused attention on NATO’s nuclear mission. As the alliance approaches a summit in Washington later this summer, it is an appropriate time to review its nuclear posture.

Studies

Strengthening the Phalanx: Layered, Comprehensive, and Distributed Air and Missile Defense in the Indo-Pacific

January 17, 2024 Carl Rehberg, Herbert Kemp

One of the most critical operational challenges the United States is likely to confront in a future conflict, particularly in the Indo-Pacific theater, is the threat of massed precision-guided air and missile attacks on overseas ports, bases, and other vital facilities. DoD has invested significant resources to defend against ballistic missile attacks on the United States, as well as its forward bases and forward-operating forces. However, it cannot still defeat large numbers of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and unmanned aerial systems.

Studies

Inconsistent Congress: Analysis of the 2024 Defense Budget Request

October 17, 2023 Travis Sharp

After increasing the Department of Defense (DoD) budget in real terms during seven of the past eight fiscal years, Congress has now pivoted toward restraining spending by passing the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023. Approved in early June as part of the debt ceiling deal, the law imposes a liberating limit on defense. It unshackles defense spending from parity with nondefense spending but still caps military budgets at or near current spending levels for the next two fiscal years while brandishing the threat of a lowered defense cap and potential sequestration if Congress delays in passing full-year appropriations for any budget account.

More of the Same? The Future of the Russian Military And Its Ability to Change

Strengthening the Phalanx: Layered, Comprehensive, and Distributed Air and Missile Defense in the Indo-Pacific

Inconsistent Congress: Analysis of the 2024 Defense Budget Request

Evaluate Like We Operate: Why DOD Should Evaluate Weapons Systems as Networked Force Packages, Not Individual Platforms

Extending Deterrence by Detection: The Case for Integrating Unmanned Aircraft Systems Into the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness

Beyond Precision: Maintaining America’s Strike Advantage in Great Power Conflict

The Decisive Decade: United States–China Competition in Defense Innovation and Defense Industrial Policy in and Beyond the 2020s

Speeding Toward Instability? Hypersonic Weapons and the Risks of Nuclear Use

Air Power Metamorphosis: Rethinking Air Force Combat Force Modernization

Innovating for Great Power Competition: An Examination of Service and Joint Innovation Efforts

2023 Annual Report

Featured Event

Report Release Webinar: Strengthening the Phalanx: Layered, Comprehensive, and Distributed Air and Missile Defense in the Indo-Pacific

Boeing’s loss of bomber contract could mean jobs for Puget Sound region

This is why the US is spending $80 billion on a new long-range stealth bomber

Experts split on likely Long-Range Strike Bomber winner

The Price of Delay: US Navy To Challenge Chinese Claims

Obama Vetoes Defense Budget — Now It’s Time for a Showdown with Congress

Defense Analysts Explain Real Cost of Nuclear Forces

Latest Publications

Understanding NATO’s Concept for Deterrence and Defense of the Euro-Atlantic Area

More of the Same? The Future of the Russian Military And Its Ability to Change

2023 Annual Report

An Ongoing and Necessary Renaissance: NATO’s Nuclear Posture

Strengthening the Phalanx: Layered, Comprehensive, and Distributed Air and Missile Defense in the Indo-Pacific

Inconsistent Congress: Analysis of the 2024 Defense Budget Request