Defense

Defense Advertising and Self-inflicted Injuries

By Erik Schechter on February 8, 2012 - 5:40pm

Do no harm. It’s a cardinal rule for doctors – and it should be the same for advertisers because a poorly executed ad can do as much damage as a surgeon with a shaky hand.

Recently, when flipping through a defense magazine, I came across one of these misguided ads and was shocked by how badly it served the company that had purchased it.

The one-pager was for comms equipment, and it depicted your typical soldier as an operator. But on his camo cap, there was the word “infidel” written in Arabic-style script, a tweak to Islamic extremists.

Boeing Enters Damage Control Mode

By Erik Schechter on January 25, 2012 - 5:13pm

Boeing is swearing up and down that it has not abandoned Kansas. Sure, just a few weeks ago, it ordered the shuttering of its Wichita plant — a move that put 2,160 people out of work and raised hackles across the state.

Defense Spending Begins to Take Center Stage in 2012 Race

By Elliott Suthers on January 18, 2012 - 7:51pm

It’s been a slow build, but 2012’s crop of GOP candidates have finally begun to stake out their positions on the defense budget. And apart from the decidedly confused Ron Paul — who seems to think that the State Department and Pentagon are the same thing — the group seems to be generally pro-military spending, defying the doom and gloom scenarios that many were expecting.

Think 2011 Was Rough? Just Wait for Next Year...

By Elliott Suthers on December 22, 2011 - 12:55pm

Well, what a year 2011 was. A new SecDef and Pentagon leadership, sequestration and budget cuts, the debt ceiling debate, bin Laden finally getting his comeuppance, U.S. forces withdrawing from Iraq, acquisition reform and all the merger/acquisition/spin-off activity that seems to have captivated the industry are all enough to make anyone’s head spin. I get tired just thinking about the past 12 months.

Emotion, Not Logic, Will Sell the F-35

By Erik Schechter on December 9, 2011 - 10:14am

It’s no secret that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is a troubled program. Over the past 10 years, the price of Lockheed Martin’s cutting-edge stealth aircraft has shot up 64 percent, while sales projections have continued to slide. Indeed, foreign countries that once fell over themselves to join the multinational F-35 program are now showing far less enthusiasm for the $120-150 million plane.

Residential, Military Markets Offer Solar Industry Light at the end of the Tunnel

By Benjamin Gorelick on December 6, 2011 - 1:03pm

If you thought the conversation about solar energy in America was full of mixed messages, you'd be right. There are differences over the economic and commercial viability of solar power, and whether the government ought to play a role in encouraging renewable energy investment. These opinions (like so many others) are largely ideologically driven, but it’s starting to look like the divisiveness of the current political environment has begun plaguing the industry itself. Yes: things have gotten even more confusing.

You Can Has Advertising

By Erik Schechter on November 22, 2011 - 1:59pm

One doesn’t usually think of hackers as advertisers. Sure, they boast online about their assorted computer exploits. But they do not sell goods, respect copyright or organize themselves along some corporate hierarchy. The cute logos and viral videos not withstanding, they are anonymous — amorphous — doing what they do for the lulz, not money.

Shareholders, Uncertainty, and the Super Committee

By Elliott Suthers on November 18, 2011 - 2:59pm

On Monday morning, the Congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction — or Super Committee — announced that it had failed dismally to find the $1.2-1.5 trillion in budget cuts it had been charged with implementing. The word in D.C. is that the parties were never even close.

A Few Trends to Watch

By Elliott Suthers on October 20, 2011 - 4:55pm

Tension was in the air at last week’s AUSA meeting. Hanging over the entire conference was an impending sense of doom. Companies wondered where their next sale would come from; program managers worried about meeting their sales goals; and the military just focused on getting in and out without contractors bleeding them dry. It was quite a scene.

Spinning Bulletproof Fiber

By Erik Schechter on October 18, 2011 - 1:17pm

The AUSA conference is like a G.I. Joe cartoon bursting to life.