Diligent team co-authored a recent feature article for the Washington Examiner titled Smarter Grid is a Smart Investment.  It is based on a 4-part strategy document we recently completed for the Lexington Institute regarding how to make the U.S. Electrical Grid more resilient, available here: http://www.lexingtoninstitute.org/energy.  

Mike Barrett is part of a panel discussing the recent events in Egypt and how the current regime’s actions mean we should delay transfer of 20 F-16 fighter jets.  A link to the clip on YouTube is available by clicking here.

Diligent’s CEO Mike Barrett discusses the realities of the ongoing conflict in Syria and the reported possible use of chemical weapons.  Discussion includes 3 plausible scenarios regarding those reports, as well as putting the death in Syria in perspective in comparison to Mexico, another war torn nation and one that’s on our border and closer [...]

The U.S. Army would like to move forward in their effort to supply the Afghan military with 21 Russian-manufactured MI-17 helicopters for $375 million which are to be purchased from Russia’s main weapons exporter, Rosoboronexport.  It should be noted, though, that the Afghan military has been using their US taxpayer-funded helicopters to transport illegal drugs [...]

It seems all too rare that a foreign nation implements US foreign policy of its own volition, but that is precisely what has happened in Burma, a country that since 1962 and until very recently has been dominated by oppressive military rule. Indeed, following fraudulent elections in 2010, the Burmese regime has voluntarily initiated a [...]

To:  Respected Comrade Kim Jong-Un, Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army, First Chairman of the National Defense Commission of North Korea, Supreme Leader, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Dear Supreme Commander of North Korea’s so-called military: Just dropping you a quick line because we are a little worried about you.  It has been a [...]

North Korea stands ready to launch a long-range missile amid reports of an impending underground test of their nuclear capabilities.  Should we care? There are always two audiences for North Korea’s actions, internal and external: First, Kim Jong Un, the new leader, has a need to appear strong.  The place is a basket case in [...]

It is perhaps not a surprise that the strategy for conflict management coming from the war-weary US has been trending towards a transfer of responsibility to foreign partners. Indeed, President Obama’s May 2010 National Security Plan outlines four initiatives for ensuring international order: Ensure Strong Allies, Build Cooperation with Other Centers of Influence, Strengthen Institutions, [...]

A Washington Post editorial today (Challenging Egypt’s Generals) describes how one former prisoner and now blogger in Egypt turned out to be right — “In March of last year, just weeks after the revolution, the activist posted an essay on his blog contending that, contrary to the slogan shouted in Cairo’s Tahrir Square during the [...]

Not so long ago, the days of the F-18 seemed numbered. At least on paper, the Navy was committed to the carrier variant of the F-35, and production of the F-18 was ramping down. But aging of the current fleet and F-35 delays have created a very different picture. The two charts below illustrate the [...]

In recent years the label of “Helicopter Parents” has been given to the over-protective and patronizing parents who refuse to let their adult offspring make their own mature choices.  This presenta delimma — no parent wants their child to grow up and enter the world unprepared to face known and unknown challenges, but there is [...]

Over the last few years the Department of Defense has publicly espoused an increasing desire to grow foreign military sales (FMS), and for good reasons – just not the ones generally espoused. Indeed, the deals are often described with benign terms such as “security cooperation” and “international partner assistance,” but in reality they are much [...]

Current and planned DoD budget cuts have set off painstaking turf wars across the Pentagon. As programs get reduced or eliminated, leaders tend to assume a zero-sum game mentality whereby one group’s win is another’s loss. The implication is that the armed forces will become less capable but evenly impacted across the services because the [...]

People are starting to wonder if there is real concern for conflict between Iran and Israel or if this is just political posturing and gamesmanship.  Sadly, it seems likely it is real this time around.  Why, then, is Iran meeting with inspectors? Iran is willing to meet with inspectors simply to play out the clock [...]

The drumbeat for intervention in Syria grows louder as President Bashar al-Assad has taken a page out of his father’s playbook – Hama, 1982 – by shelling the city of Homs for three weeks.  The severe humanitarian crisis continues to grow and Syria is at risk of a Lebanon-esque implosion into civil war.  An internal [...]

The potential for nuclear war in and around Iran seems to be growing day by day.  Perhaps recent news stories about hoe the US and North Korea are entering yet another period of apparent détente regarding the “Hermit Kingdom’s” nuclear program presents an opportune time to take account of the US strategy towards Iran, however. [...]

  The Navy’s High-Tech $50,000 Kitty-cat Removal System   It is almost too easy to mock the six-agency, 18 month, $3 million effort to clear 59 cats off of a Navy-owned island.  The island of San Nicolas hosts a launch platform for short and medium missile testing, and radar observation facilities for missile testing.  At [...]

Diligent’s J. Michael Barrett had an article entitled, “Cutting defense spending responsibly” in todays Congress Blog over in The Hill newspaper.  A link to it at their site is here: http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/homeland-security/209505-j-michael-barrett-principal-diligent-innovations.

As part of the overall effort to significantly reduce defense spending President Obama will soon ask congress to establish a Base Closure and Realignment (BRAC) Commission.  While some analysts are concerned about losing military infrastructure and the ability to quickly reconstitute our forces should war require it, many other military decision makers have acknowledged this [...]

The basic tenets of the 16-page DoD overview released last week (available here) appear relatively sound on the surface.  The devil is in both the details and in the actually doing, not the saying – but a focus on Asia and the Middle East is reasonable, and hopefully the concepts of rapid forward-deployable ‘lily-pads’ will [...]