By Robbin Laird A colleague recently recommended that I listen to and read through a CSIS discussion between two senior Army officials, the Honorable Michael Obadal, Under Secretary of the Army, and the Honorable Ryan McCarthy, former Secretary of the Army, moderated by Jerry McGinn of CSIS’s Center for the…
By Robbin Laird As we mark the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, it is worth pausing on one of history’s more consequential ironies: the survival of the American republic was purchased in no small part by the treasury, the diplomacy, and the officer corps of an absolute monarchy that…
By Robbin Laird A series of photographs taken on April 6, 2026 in the early weeks of Weapons and Tactics Instructor Course 2-26 documents an Osprey assault support tactics evolution in the desert near Yuma, Arizona. Taken together, the images tell a complete operational story: departure from the flight line,…
By Robbin Laird In a modern defense and industrial ecosystem, the journey from raw material to a flight critical component is often invisible to strategists, policymakers, and even operators who depend on these parts every day. Yet it is precisely in places like this machine shop, captured in the photos…
By Robbin Laird There is a seductive fallacy embedded in how we talk about military technology. Every generation produces its own version of it. The airplane will make armies obsolete. Precision strike will end the fog of war. Network-centric warfare will lift the battlefield veil permanently. Each claim, when it…
By Robbin Laird A photograph taken at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma on April 13, 2026, shows a Marine avionics technician from VMFA-251 connected to an F-35B cockpit via the aircraft’s Internal Communication System cable, a 600-inch tether that is, in many ways, a window into how the Marine Corps…
By George Galdorisi The conflict in the Middle East has reminded nations and navies of the importance of naval forces in ensuring that the global commons is relatively free of strife and that nations can trade freely and energize the global economy. The role of navies in ensuring the security…
By Robbin Laird A new special report brings together three strands of analysis on the MV-75 Cheyenne into a single argument about the future of trans-Atlantic defense. Over the past several weeks, I have written a series of pieces tracing how the U.S. Army’s MV-75 Cheyenne tiltrotor can help reshape…
