Todd Harrison
Senior Fellow, Defense Budget Studies
Areas of Expertise
Defense Budgets, Military Compensation, Portfolio Management, Systems Engineering, Military Space Systems, Defense Acquisitions and Defense Industrial Base
Biography
Todd Harrison is the Senior Fellow for Defense Budget Studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
Mr. Harrison joined CSBA in 2009 from Booz Allen Hamilton, where he supported clients across the Department of Defense, assessing challenges to modernization initiatives and evaluating the performance of acquisition programs. He previously worked in the aerospace industry developing advanced space systems and technologies and served as a captain in the U.S. Air Force Reserves.
Since joining CSBA, Mr. Harrison has authored a number of publications on trends in the overall defense budget, modernization initiatives, the defense industrial base, military personnel costs, and the cost of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. He frequently contributes to print and broadcast media and has appeared on CNBC, CNN, NPR, Al Jazeera English, and Fox News. He has been a guest lecturer for a number of organizations, including Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, the U.S. Army's School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS), and the National Defense University.
He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with both a B.S. and an M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics. Mr. Harrison combines his budgetary, programmatic and engineering experience with a strong background in systems analysis to lead the Budget Studies program for CSBA. He is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Author Bibliography for Todd Harrison
Defense Cuts Conundrum: Weighing the Hard Choices Ahead
September 29, 2013 • By Todd Harrison • Analysis
Defense strategy is ultimately about making choices, which in peacetime often manifest themselves as decisions about the defense budget. As the budget gets squeezed, these choices become more difficult, and…
Trends and Uncertainty in the Defense Budget
September 25, 2013 • By Todd Harrison • Analysis
Slides from September 17, 2013 presentation made by Todd Harrison at the AFA Air and Space 2013 Conference. >download
A Blockbuster Quarter for Defense Companies
July 25, 2013 • By Todd Harrison • Analysis
Center for Strategic and Budget Assessments Senior Fellow Todd Harrison discusses defense company earnings and the impact of the sequester with Scarlet Fu on Bloomberg Television’s “Market Makers.”
The Future of MILSATCOM
July 24, 2013 • By Todd Harrison • Studies
Space is no longer a sanctuary for the United States military. An implicit assumption in the space domain has been that deterrence would hold and space systems would not be attacked in conventional conflicts.
Open Letter to Congress: Defense Reform Consensus
June 3, 2013 • By Todd Harrison, Andrew F. Krepinevich, Jim Thomas, Eric Edelman, and Mark Gunzinger • Analysis
A striking bipartisan consensus exists today across the think tank community on the need for Pentagon and Congressional leaders to address the growing imbalances within the defense budget that threaten the health and long-term viability of America’s volunteer military.