Cost of Ownership →

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An article on DoD Buzz about the Air Force's next-generation aircraft states:

Meantime, the operational costs of the F-35 are unlikely to affect how many of the aircraft the service intends to buy, Donley said.

The cost of flying the F-35 “will be slightly higher than the F-16, there’s no doubt about that in my mind,” he said. “I don’t think there’s a link there between projected operational costs and how many we’re going to buy.”

How can there not be a link between what an aircraft costs to operate and the quantity that the Air Force will purchase? Isn't the cost of ownership a key component of fleet composition and size?

Is Kim Jong-un rational? →

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One of the central assumptions in basic economic theory is that agents are rational. However, behavioral economists question this assumption.

Recently, some have questioned whether the leader of North Korea is rational. However, do we need Kim Jong-un to be rational or just predictably irrational?

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CNAS commentary on DoD FY14 Budget →

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CNAS has posted a critique of the President's 2014 Defense Budget:​

The U.S. defense establishment today faces severe credibility challenges. Internationally, American defense budget cuts have shaken confidence in the U.S. military’s ability to achieve the nation’s security goals. The dysfunctional manner in which the U.S. government imposed the cuts has sapped faith in the ability of the American political system to provide steady, long-term support for U.S. security objectives. Domestically, the Department of Defense (DOD) has failed to accomplish its top political goal, averting sequestration, and has struggled to mobilize political support for its preferred strategy, the Defense Strategic Guidance. It is now being led by a defense secretary who suffered through a contentious nomination process and was confirmed by the smallest vote margin in the history of the job.

All of the think tanks are uniting in their displeasure with DoD's handling of its resource allocation under sequestration.