By Robbin Laird The first week of Weapons and Tactics Instructor Course 2-26 began not with aircraft, but with aluminum matting and a post driver. On March 14, 2026 — the opening phase of the seven-week course — Marines with Marine Wing Support Squadron 373, Marine Aircraft Group 11, 3rd…
By Robbin Laird My 2026 framework Mastering Chaos begins from a premise that most leadership literature still refuses to accept: traditional crisis management is not merely inadequate. It is actively dangerous. It was designed for a world of isolated, slow-moving systems with slack built into every layer. That world no…
U.S. Marine Corps MV-22B Osprey’s and KC-130J’s work hand-in hand with U.S. Air Force Pararescuemen, or PJ’s, assigned to the Personnel Recovery Task Force at Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa to tackle the long operational distances faced when conducting rescue operations. Wherever forces are deployed, they stand…
By Robbin Laird and Kenneth Maxwell Brexit was sold, in significant part, as a restoration of sovereign control over Britain’s borders. By leaving the European Union, the United Kingdom would regain the ability to regulate migration flows, end free movement, and reassert national authority over who enters the country. Yet…
By Robbin Laird At the heart of Marine aviation’s drive for combat excellence lies a semi-annual event that most outsiders have never heard of, yet which one senior MAWTS-1 Commanding Officer described in unambiguous terms: WTI is where the United States Marine Corps comes together every year to train for…
U.S. Marines assigned to Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 211, 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, conduct a simulated expeditionary airstrike during Realistic Urban Training at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona, May 29, 2026. RUT is a critical pre-deployment exercise that enables the 13th MEU to integrate its command, aviation, ground…
By Robbin Laird In the fall of 2010, I was at Marine Corps Air Station New River talking to a group of Marines who had been flying the MV-22 Osprey for several years. One of them told me a story about a group of Marines who simply would not get…
By Robbin Laird When Admiral Samuel Paparo told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Bitcoin is “a reality” and “a valuable computer science tool, as a power projection,” he did more than offer an off‑the‑cuff comment on a fashionable technology. He signaled that at least one major combatant commander now…
