Brother, Can You Spare a Billion? Or How to Sell a THAAD in the Land of Bureaucratic Politics

Abstract

Pundits of doom are gust waiting for THAAD (Theater High Altitude Area Defense) to be canceled. THAAD's enemies are quick to ensure that everyone has seen the microscopic analysis of the "latest failure, noting that THAAD is a VERY expensive program, and maybe the Department of Defense could better spend its scarce dollars elsewhere. Oh, by the way, each of the other services has at least one or two "elsewhere's" that could readily accept Theater Missile Defense funding. This paper will examine THAAD in light of previous Air Defense acquisition failures, and in the context of today's bureaucratic politics. I will then attempt to "operationalize" the findings into practical application that could be used by today's decision makers as they continue to fight for the THAAD program.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 14, 1998
Accession Number
ADA442378

Entities

People

  • Michael P. Locke

Organizations

  • National War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Human Systems
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Air Defense
  • Air Force
  • Aircrafts
  • Area Defense
  • Ballistic Missiles
  • Battle Management
  • Command And Control
  • Control Systems
  • Defense Systems
  • Department Of Defense
  • Helicopters
  • High Altitude
  • Information Operations
  • Jet Aircraft
  • Military Acquisition
  • Procurement

Readers

  • Economics
  • Missile Defense Systems.
  • Strategic Security Studies