By Robbin Laird I have just returned from Berlin. I attended the International Fighter Conference 2019 and visited Checkpoint Charlie and shared thoughts with German friends of the thirty-year anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Both events had much in common – the Cold War is over but…
On October 15th and 16th, the JMSDF conducted bilateral exercise KAEDEX 2019-2 with the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) in waters and airspace south of Kanto region. The exercise aims to enhancing the JMSDF’s tactical skills and strengthening relations with the RCN. In the exercise, two JMSDF destroyers, JS Shimakaze and JS Chokai, and…
We have argued that the liberal democracies are facing the challenge of full spectrum crisis management in dealing with the 21st century authoritarian powers. The Nordics certainly get the point. No one more so than the Finns. A recent article on the Finnish Ministry of Defence website highlights a new…
In October, 2019, all the three components of the Japan Ground, Maritime, and Air Self-Defense Forces (JGSDF, JMSDF and JASDF) made appearances in the South Pacific and were engaged in several activities to strengthen relations with the Pacific Island countries. From October 8th to 11th, JS Kashima and Inazuma of the JMSDF Training Squadron…
By Yaakov Lappin Israel completed its fourth international air exercise in southern Israel, Blue Flag 2019, earlier this month – a drill that planners have described as being the most advanced of its kind to date. Towards the end of the exercise, held from Nov. 3 to Nov. 14 at…
The Minister of Defense of Japan, Mr. Kono Taro, and Australian Minister for Defence, Senator Linda Reynolds, committed to driving bilateral defence cooperation forward during Minister Reynolds’ first official visit to Tokyo on 20 November 2019. They emphasized that as Indo-Pacific security dynamics became more challenging, the strategic logic underpinning…
Pacific Reach is a triennial Asia-Pacific submarine rescue exercise designed to promote regional cooperation on submarine rescue. The exercise this year is the fourth in the series and is being hosted by Australia between 26 November and 7 December 2007. Pacific Reach 07 is a significant exercise involving six ships,…
By Robbin Laird At last year’s International Fighter Conference, the Future Combat Air System or FCAS was introduced as a new Franco-German Initiative. At this year’s IFC, an update on the program was provided by the French Air Force, the German Ministry of Defence and Airbus Space and Defence. A…
