CSBA in the News

Jan van Tol of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments discusses how the disaster in Japan could affect the balance of power in Asia.

Western military planners have been worrying for weeks about the unwelcome consequences of military intervention in Libya, including a stalemate that could last for years and a distraction from problems elsewhere/…/ “Gaddafi could get a stalemate and hope that over time the attention of the international community will wane,” says Eric Edelman, undersecretary of defence in George W. Bush’s administration, who supports military action. “In the meantime we have similar problems to what we had in the Balkans. How many ceasefires did we have then? What about paramilitary forces Gaddafi says he can’t control?”

There are various no-fly zone scenarios that could be used in Libya. CNN’s Barbara Starr breaks down the dollar amount with help from CSBA’s Todd Harrison.

Keeping the federal government running with temporary budget resolutions is changing the way business is done/…/ Spending problems are especially acute at the Pentagon. The military got authority to give employees a 1.4 percent pay increase this year — and did so — but has yet to get the extra money.

Retired Navy Capt. Jan van Tol was in Tokyo last week when the earthquake hit, and he emailed to say he’s all right. Van Tol, now with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, was in command of the amphibious assault ship USS Essex when the ship responded to the humanitarian crisis in post-tsunami Indonesia. He says it’ll be the Marines’ CH-53 Super Stallion and CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters, as much as anything else, that make the biggest difference in the U.S. military contribution in Japan.

The Air Force’s decision late last month to award the long-contested, $35 billion aerial refueling tanker program to Boeing ended a competition that had been fraught with controversy. But analysts say the decision may have sent another message to the contracting community: The government isn’t necessarily seeking the most capable or “best value” equipment, but rather good-enough equipment with a lower price tag/…/