By Robbin Laird Colonel Kate Fleeger took the helm of PMA-261, the Naval Air Systems Command program office responsible for the Marine Corps’ heavy lift portfolio, in 2022. She arrived at a pivotal moment: the CH-53K King Stallion was moving out of its developmental phase and into full rate production,…
Sailors signal to a CH-53K King Stallion helicopter, assigned to Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron (HMH) 461, during flight operations aboard San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship USS Arlington (LPD 24) June 11, 2026. Arlington is underway conducting Type Commander’s Amphibious Training, a military exercise designed to enhance mobility and integration…
By Pierre Tran Paris. KNDS, a Franco-German builder of land weapons, said July 1 it has suspended its announced flotation in Paris and Frankfurt, citing “market volatility” in the arms sector on European stock markets. The company told investors it was switching tracks just a week after launching a long-awaited…
By Robbin Laird On April 17–18, 2026, the high desert terrain around Twentynine Palms, California became the operational environment for Assault Support Tactics 3, one of the defining field evolutions of Weapons and Tactics Instructor Course 2-26. The photographs from those two days capture what WTI is at its best:…
By Robbin Laird In the early 2000s, a billion-dollar Predator drone circled over a combat zone, its high-definition cameras capturing perfect imagery of enemy positions below. On the ground, a Special Forces operator, weighted down with 80 pounds of gear and under enemy fire, was effectively blind. He knew the…
By Robbin Laird When visiting Bahrain some years ago, I made a point of seeing the Portuguese fort. Standing inside those ancient walls, looking at the stonework — Arab foundations overlaid with Portuguese military engineering — I was struck by a simple but powerful thought: the strategic logic that drove…
By Robbin Laird In the clear desert night over Arizona, a CH-53K King Stallion slid into position behind the tanker, its rotors biting into thin air as the crew prepared to take the hose once more. Below, the Sonoran Desert stretched away in darkness. Above and around, the aircraft was…
When I worked on German reunification in the 1980s, one of the core concerns was not simply whether the two German states could be brought together institutionally, but whether the deep historical and cultural gap between East and West Germany could be bridged in any meaningful way. The question was…
