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I am a political economist studying innovation, industry, and international security. Since September 2001, I have been advising industries and ministries on their issues of strategy, planning, and policy. My work aims to inform investors, industrialists, technologists, and policy-makers on how to effect, economically, a secure future.

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22 January 2014

Swapping Apaches for Blackhawks in the National Guard—an update

Either someone has been reading my last column, or more likely, just had the same idea. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the Army Department is now proposing not merely to remove 72 Apache attack helicopters from the National Guard, and another 48 from the Army Reserve; rather, it is now offering to replace the Guard’s Apaches with 111 Black Hawk transport helicopters. (See Julian E. Barnes, “Budget Turbulence Hits Military Choppers,” 21 January 2014.) This may not be the favored outcome of the National Guard Bureau, or of gunship-flying units in Texas, Utah, and North Carolina. But as I wrote two days ago, it’s a reasonable proposal that puts aircraft that governors can far more frequently use in the hands of state forces.

Posted at 11:04 |

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