MARCOM’s Support at Sea: An Interview with Deputy Chief of Staff Ops

01/27/2015
2015-01-27 By Murielle Delaporte Editor's Note: Murielle Delaporte is embedded at sea with the NATO counter mine force discussed in this article.   This interview was conducted prior to departure. NATO Allied Maritime Command’s Deputy Chief of Staff Operations, Commodore Arian Minderhoud, an overview on the evolving role of MARCOM, notably…

Obama’s State-of-The-Union Speech Misses Opportunity to Address Defense Challenges

01/26/2015
2015-01-26 By Richard Weitz and Robbin Laird In his January 20 State-of-the-Union address, which focused overwhelmingly on domestic politics, President Barack Obama made a number of claims about the success of his foreign and defense policies. Among those policies cited were the following: Halting the advances of the Islamic State…

A Challenge for Informed Public Debate: The Impact of Asserted Facts Journalism

01/25/2015
2015-01-25 By Ed Timperlake Former CO VMFA-321 Recently I attended an Air Force association news briefing by Maj. Gen. Garrett Harencak, the AF general who oversees the service’s nuclear weapons delivery systems, and during this briefing he expressed his frustration with asserted facts journalism. “There are publications out there that…

An Update on the F-35 Final Assembly Line

01/24/2015
2015-01-24 We have published several articles over the years, which have highlighted the approach and challenges of 21st century defense manufacturing, including several on the F-35 production approach. Recently, Steve Trimble of Flight International has visited the final assembly line for the F-35 in Fort Worth ( and one should…