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Why Prime Minister Albanese Must be Careful About NATO Commitments

06/27/2022By Paul Dibb Prime Minister Albanese is attending the NATO Summit in Madrid on 28 June, along with the leaders of Japan and South Korea and representatives from Sweden and Finland. President Zelensky has also invited him to visit Ukraine after the NATO leader’s summit. There will clearly be expectations in both meetings of additional Australian support. Australia should, of… Read more »

Cross-Decking and Distributed Maritime Operations

06/27/2022According to a story published by 3rd Marine Air Wing on August 20, 2021, VMFA-211 conducted the first cross-deck aviation mission in modern naval history. Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 211 conducted a first-of-its-kind operation which saw F-35B aircraft launched from HMS Queen Elizabeth land on the amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6) to load ordnance, refuel, and strike… Read more »

Preparing for Kill Web Concepts of Operations: Squaring the Testing-Training Circle

06/25/2022By Robbin Laird For the Australians, it is called fifth generation warfare. For the British, it is called the integrated operating concept. For DARPA, it is called mosaic warfare. For me, it is kill web concepts of operations. But what is entailed is building a distributed force that is integratable throughout an extended battlespace, in which the force is able… Read more »

The 40th Anniversary of the Falklands War: ‘Global’ Britain and Reality

06/22/2022By Kenneth Maxwell On 14 June 2022, the UK remembered the 40 year anniversary of the Falklands War. Looking back provides insights as well with regard to the state of "global" Britain. In the age of the Brexiters self-proclaimed “global Britain’ two very distinguished British historians, the late Michael Howard and Max Hastings, disagree about the relevance and the meaning… Read more »

China’s Informal Empire in Latin America: The Challenge for the Biden Administration

06/18/2022China has focused under the regime of President Xi on building out its global informal empire. By trade and investment, China has become a key player in Africa and Latin America. Its practices in doing so have a number of questionable dimensions, but instead of highlighting the reality of Chinese informal empire practices, Western states have largely ignored the opportunity… Read more »

The Shaping of Amphibious Task Forces Within a Wider Maritime Kill Web Force

06/17/2022By Robbin Laird The evolution of the amphibious force and shaping amphibious task forces can contribute significantly to expanded capabilities for maneuver warfare at sea. By leveraging the new air capabilities, adding new defensive and offensive systems on the fleet, and expanding the C2 and ISR capabilities of the fleet, the contribution of the amphibious task force can be reimagined,… Read more »

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Shaping a Way Ahead for the Integrated Distributed Force

05/09/2022On March 24, 2022, the Williams Foundation held its first of two seminars to be held this year. The seminar was the latest in a series of seminars which started in 2014, and have been focused on the evolution of the ADF to deal with the evolving threats and challenges facing Australia, and its core… Download PDF Now »

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Australia and France: New Governments and Next Steps

06/14/2022By Pierre Tran Paris – Australia seeks to calm troubled waters by paying shipbuilder Naval Group (NG) €555 million (US $581 million) for sinking a large French submarine deal, with… Read more »

Unmanned Integration at Sea: A Perspective on Task Force 59

06/13/2022By Robbin Laird We are working on a longer term effort examining how autonomous systems can be integrated into fleet operations. Most analysis of the way ahead with regard to… Read more »

From the Amphibious Force to Expeditionary Seabasing: Supporting Mobile Basing as a Strategic Capability

06/12/2022By Robbin Laird I have argued that under the impact of the Osprey and the F-35B, the ARG-MEU is evolving into something more akin to a modular amphibious task force.… Read more »

The Lost Decade for Europe’s Next Generation Fighter?

06/10/2022By Pierre Tran Paris – The European partner nations France, Germany and Spain looked like they were losing a decade due to a delay in launching a prototype for a… Read more »

Spain and the June 2022 NATO Summit

06/09/2022By Kenneth Maxwell This year marks 40 years since Spain joined NATO. Eastern and Central Europe in 1982 were firmly under the control of the Soviet Union. The Berlin Wall… Read more »

An Update on the Upcoming Eurosatory Exhibition in Paris: The Impact of the War in Ukraine

05/31/2022By Pierre Tran Paris – Ukraine will be among the exhibitors at the Eurosatory trade show for land weapons, with the east European nation showing its capability to build and… Read more »

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Ramstein Legacy 22

06/27/2022NATO and partner nations are taking part in exercise Ramstein Legacy 22, NATO large-scale live-fire air defence exercise. Seventeen Allied and partner countries are exercising in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and… Read more »

The Australian Army and UASs

06/20/20229th Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery assembled UAS operators at Murray Bridge Training Area for qualification, competency and currency training. UAS operators were able to employ the three systems available to… Read more »

Raid Force Training at WTI-2-22

06/17/2022U.S. Marines assigned to 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, conduct a night raid as part of Assault Support Tactics 4 (AST-4), during Weapons and Tactics Instructor (WTI) course 2-22, at Range 210, Marine Corps… Read more »

Venom Gun Support Training at WTI-2-22

06/15/2022A U.S. Marine Corps UH-1Y Venom assigned to Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron One (MAWTS-1), conducts day and night gun tactics during Assault Support Tactics 4 (AST-4), Weapons and… Read more »

Exercise Sea Explorer 2022

06/13/2022Exercise SEA EXPLORER is the second of three training activities in the annual SEA SERIES to hone and certify Australia’s Amphibious Force. The first exercise, SEA HORIZON, was a planning… Read more »

2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team

06/13/20222nd Brigade Combat Team “BLACKJACK”, 1st Cavalry Division deployed Troopers, vehicles and equipment from Fort Hood, Texas to the National Training Center to test the brigade’s war fighting skills during… Read more »

USNS William Mclean Works Ammo Support at Sea

06/10/2022The dry cargo ship USNS William Mclean (T-AKE 12) transits the Atlantic Ocean with the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) during an ammunition onload, April 16, 2022.… Read more »

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The Second Line of Defense team provides high quality publications with regard to key global strategic developments. You can purchase these here or on a number of booksellers as well, such as Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

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The AH-1Z Viper Attack Helicopter

05/17/2022The AH-1Z Viper is the Marine Corps’ primary rotor-wing ground attack aircraft. The AH-1Z attack helicopter provides rotary wing close air support, anti-armor, armed escort, armed visual reconnaissance and fire… Read more »