Alyssa Schonhaut

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Articles

Don't let 'efficiency' result in looser standards for defense contractors

1 month ago | breakingdefense.com | Julia Gledhill |Alyssa Schonhaut

Christopher Kubasik — CEO of L3Harris Technologies, Inc. and Chairman of the Aerospace Industries Association — recently published an open letter to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), recommending the elimination of Cost Accounting Standards (CAS) in the name of efficiency. It’s a clever attempt to position a traditional defense contractor as an ally of new thinking, but it comes with a big caveat: Eradicating these standards would only promote more Pentagon waste.
President Trump must use every tool to speed up arms for Israel

1 month ago | breakingdefense.com | Blaise Misztal |Ari Cicurel |Alyssa Schonhaut

A shipment of 1,800 MK-84 2,000-pound bombs arrived in Israel on Feb. 16, several weeks after President Donald Trump announced the end of a months-long freeze of critical US weapons deliveries to Israel. But there are still more weapons that Israel needs stuck in US bureaucratic processes. To fulfill his promise that these weapons “are now on their way,” Trump should use his emergency authority to push past remaining roadblocks.
What America’s Iron Dome effort should learn from Israel’s air defense systems

2 months ago | breakingdefense.com | Seth J. Frantzman |Alyssa Schonhaut

On Jan. 27 President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at creating “a next-generation missile defense shield for the United States against ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other next-generation aerial attacks,” something he dubbed an “Iron Dome for America.”That term references the well-known short range Israeli air defense system that has been effective in countering thousands of rocket, and other types of aerial attacks on Israel.
Twin political paths President Trump can take to ensure nuclear deterrence

2 months ago | breakingdefense.com | Kyle Balzer |Alyssa Schonhaut

President Donald Trump enters office at a possible inflection point in the ongoing nuclear competition with China and Russia. Though it is a moment of great peril for the US nuclear modernization program, it is also one of great opportunity — should Trump choose to seize it. Both China and Russia have exploited America’s glacial effort to modernize its aging nuclear arsenal and atrophied defense-industrial base by rapidly expanding their own.
On Lebanese border, Israel’s Plasan kept rolling out armored vehicles as war raged

2 months ago | breakingdefense.com | Seth J. Frantzman |Alyssa Schonhaut

SASA, Israel — The Israeli defense company Plasan makes armored solutions for military platforms, such as producing complex armored plates for vehicles. But the company had to think about a different kind of protection in 2024 — how it keep its facilities and staff safe as the war expanded into Lebanon. The company is located in the northern Israeli community of Sasa, around a mile from the Lebanese border, right along the front line of Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah.
The secret to delivering Trump’s Iron Dome program

2 months ago | breakingdefense.com | Charles Beames |Alyssa Schonhaut

There is no leadership principle more universally recognized and validated than this: “You get what you reward.” Whether training service dogs at New Skete Monastery or deploying an “Iron Dome” missile defense system in orbit, the key to success is the same: Incentivize the right behaviors and, just as crucially, refuse to reward the wrong ones. Yet, when it comes to urgent national security needs, Washington’s default response follows an all-too-familiar script.
Israel’s Chief of Staff Halevi resigns over Oct. 7 failure

Jan 22, 2025 | breakingdefense.com | Seth J. Frantzman |Alyssa Schonhaut

JEURSALEM — Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi announced his resignation in a Tuesday letter to Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz. Halevi will be leaving his role on March 6, meaning he will leave his command after the first phase of the recent hostage and ceasefire deal with Hamas, which began Sunday and is expected to last 40 days.
Allvin: It’s make or break time. America needs more Air Force.

Jan 17, 2025 | breakingdefense.com | Alyssa Schonhaut

Last month, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) released videos of not just one, but two new sixth-generation aircraft. And while the US Air Force was not surprised by this development, it is my sincere hope that this got America’s attention and serves as a wakeup call, because we need the nation’s assistance advancing the Air Force with the sense of strategic urgency this moment requires.
To project power in the Pacific, invest in Guam's protection

Jan 9, 2025 | breakingdefense.com | Randall Schriver |Alyssa Schonhaut

The United States is a Pacific power, yet we are mostly resident in the Eastern Pacific and lack significant presence in the Western Pacific. This geographic conundrum carries heavy implications for everything from supply chains to trade, but from a national security perspective our competitors and adversaries — that axis of China, Russia and North Korea — all are advantaged by their physical proximity to the areas we seek to safeguard.
Sweden bolsters defense with 44 new Leopard 2A8 battle tanks, upgrades to CV90s

Jan 9, 2025 | breakingdefense.com | Jonas Olsson |Alyssa Schonhaut

STOCKHOLM — Sweden today announced a $1.97 billion deal for new and upgraded Leopard 2 A8 tanks, as well as upgrades to its fleet of CV90 infantry fighting vehicles. The historic tank deal, which covers 44 new Leopards and upgrades for 66 older Leopard 2 tanks, was brokered by the Defense Materiel Administration (FMV) with the German-French defense contractor KNDS.