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NATO’s Tactical Leadership Programme 18-4: Amendola Air Base, Italy and Italian F-35s Shape a Way Ahead

12/09/2018By Robbin Laird Normally, the TLP is held in Spain at Albacete Airbase. We visited Albacete Airbase in 2016 and talked with Spanish Air Force pilots concerning their Eurofighter operations at the base. As we noted at the time: “Albacete flies a regular Quick Reaction Alert force to provide for Spanish security in the Mediterranean. "The engagement in the Baltics… Read more »

The F-35 Global Enterprise and Australia: The Opportunity for Allies to Learn How to Conduct Sustained Engagement Crisis Operations

12/08/2018By Robbin Laird The RAAF F-35s on on their way to Williamtown and thereby opening the F-35 Aussie fleet operations in-country. As the Aussies work out their sustainment approach on the various airbases where the F-35s will operate in normal times as well as crisis times, the F-35 partners of Australia have a significant strategic opportunity -- namely, to learn… Read more »

The “Month of Living Dangerously”: French Unrest and Its Impact

12/07/2018By Murielle Delaporte With the fiftieth anniversary of "May ’68" this year, many activist groups in France tried last spring to recreate it. It did not happen then, but a new effort has been launched in the past couple of months to make it happen, although the motivations, conditions and state of the country are rather different today than it… Read more »

Exercise Point Blank 2018-3: Working 21st Century Air Combat Teaming

12/05/2018Recently, the RAF hosted the latest iteration of the Point Blank exercises. The French joined the exercise held in the UK for the first time this year. 26 fighter juets plus combat support units participated in the exercise held November 26, 2018 over the North Sea. Two UK F-35Bs, four Typhoons, four Rafales and 16 F-15 Eagles took part in… Read more »

The Chief of the French Air Force Focuses on the Way Ahead

12/05/2018By Pierre Tran, Paris A planned F4 upgrade of the Rafale fighter jet will serve as technology demonstrator for network capability of the Future Combat Air System, said the Air Chief of staff, Gen. Philippe Lavigne. “Studies are fine but we need a demonstrator to see if the technology works,” Lavigne told Dec. 4 the Defense Journalists Association. “What’s important in… Read more »

A Conversation with Naval Aviator and a True Superman: The Emerson Carr Story

12/04/2018By Ed Timperlake USNA 69 As we approach the Army-Navy game this coming Saturday, we want to honor an earlier Naval football star who has gone on to life an incredible life. And this week, we are honoring as well another heroic naval aviator, President George H.W. Bush. William Faulkner in his Nobel Prize in Literature Acceptance Speech in 1949 underscored… Read more »

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Report from the International Fighter Conference 2018: Perspectives on the Way Ahead with Airpower Modernization

11/28/2018This year’s International Fighter Conference held in Berlin provided a chance for the participants and the attendees to focus on the role of fighters in what we have been calling the strategic shift, namely, the shift from the land wars to operating in higher intensity operations against peer competitors. It is clear that combat capabilities… Download PDF Now »