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…
Fifteen photographs from April 13, 2026, at the Chocolate Mountain Aerial Gunnery Range in California document the most operationally complex exercise in the WTI 2-26 series: Assault Support Tactics 1. The photographs span the full operational picture from contractor technicians assembling threat-representative UAS at a mountain observation point, through ground…
By Robbin Laird The numbers tell a stark story. In early 2026, the United Kingdom fields a Royal Navy whose surface combatant force has shrunk faster than its modernization programs can backfill, while Iran has assembled a numerically larger and, in some respects, more dynamically evolving regional fleet. This is…
By Robbin Laird Six photographs taken through night vision devices on April 6, 2026, at Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, California, document one of the most operationally consequential integration exercises in WTI 2-26: the nighttime off-load of an M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System from a KC-130J Hercules. The photographs…
Thirteen photographs from April 7, 2026, document a full operational day for the UH-1Y Venom near Yuma, Arizona, as part of Weapons and Tactics Instructor Course 2-26. The day moves from the MCAS Yuma ramp through rappelling operations in the rocky desert mountains, a hot-pad turnaround at a forward site,…
By Pasquale Preziosa In June 2026, the world watched with concern as the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz unfolded. Once again, a stretch of sea just a few dozen kilometers wide proved capable of influencing energy markets, military strategies, and political decisions of powers thousands of kilometers away. During…
By Robbin Laird This article is the convergence point of several analytical projects I have pursued in recent years: the breakdown of the post–Cold War order and the global war in Ukraine, the reconfiguration of power across key middle states such as Australia and Brazil in the shadow of China’s…
