By MC1 Jeff Troutman Off the Coast of Virginia, USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) and its embarked Carrier Air Wing 8 are conducting the first-ever fully integrated carrier strike group operations for a Ford-class carrier, under the leadership and operational control of Carrier Strike Group 12. The operation also…
By Robbin Laird The day before we flew to the USS Gerald R. Ford, I sat down with Rear Admiral Meier, Commander, Naval Air Force Atlantic, in his Norfolk office, to discuss the way ahead for Naval Air Force, and the next generation large deck carrier. I would call it…
By Robbin Laird I have attended and reported on the last two International Fighter Conferences, both held in Berlin, in 2018 and 2019. Unfortunately, this one was held on a Zoom stage due to the COVID-19 world. This year I was especially looking forward to coming to Berlin, because my…
By Pierre Tran Paris. Thales signed Nov. 17 a contract worth €1.5 billion ($1.8 billion) to supply Dutch shipbuilder Damen with a radar, combat management and fire control systems for the German MKS-180 frigate, Philippe Duhamel, vice president for defense mission systems, said. The deal with Damen was the third…
Recently, the RAAF completed its first round of air-to-air refueling trials. According to an article published by Australian Defence Business Review on October 22, 2020: The tests were conducted over seven flights in designated airspace off the Queensland coast from September 22 to October 1 using the MRTT’s fuselage-mounted boom…
By Robbin Laird On November 17, 2020, a small number of journalists, most from the local Norfolk based media, flew from Norfolk Air Station to the USS Gerald R. Ford at sea, less than 100 miles off of the Virginia cost. We flew on the venerable C-2 Greyhound, but this…
2017-12-18 By Brian Morra The Department of Defense’s acquisition system is a major cause of the erosion of the defense capabilities of the United States. This erosion is visible in high profile, fatal accidents like those the US Navy has experienced in the Western Pacific over the past two years.…
2017-11-16 By Todd Miller Regardless the virtues of the platform, Textron Defense Aviation LLC’s approach to build an aircraft tailored to military operations where no stated requirement exists is rare and risky. However, it is not risk taken in a vacuum, but rather an example of entrepreneurship that was inspired…
