2014-11-16 By Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake In mid-October 2014, we had a chance to discuss with Dr. Amatzia Baram, a leading Israeli expert on Iraq about how the ISIL crisis was much broader than simply being an Iraq crisis. With several years of dynamic change in the region, and the…
2014-11-23 By General Deepak Kapoor (Retd) AUGUST AND September had been rather busy for the Indian foreign policy establishment, with a large number of high profile visits taking place to and from the country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Japan and the US, President Parnab Mukherjee’s tour of Vietnam…
2014-11-22 By Kenneth Maxwell The burgeoning crisis at the state-controlled Brazilian oil giant Petrobras, the arrest of leading construction company executives, allegations of embezzlement for personal gain, kickbacks paid for over-invoiced contracts, and the accusation that this involved payoffs to leading Brazilian politicians, including members of congress, governors, ministers, as well as political parties, strikes at…
2014-11-21 Although the F-22 and F-35 have flown together previously, now training to bring together the core competencies of the two systems into a coherent combat force has begun. As the former head of the Air Combat Command put it in an interview with Second Line of Defense: People focus…
2014-11-16 Visiting the HDMS Niels Juel: An Interview with Commander Lars Holbaek Second Line of Defense visited the new Danish frigate, the HDMS Niels Juel, which had just participated in Bold Alligator 2014, and which constituted its first overseas engagement. We interviewed Commander Lars Holbaek about his ship, its capabilities,…
2014-11-11 By Robbin Laird Standing up the Luke AFB Pilot Training Center: A Key Enabler of the F-35 Global Operations The F-35 is a global enterprise in the making. The impact of a global community of F-35 users on coalition operations will be very significant in shaping collaborative concepts of…
2014-11-20 By Robbin Laird Yesterday I had the privilege to visit the European Air Group based at High Wycombe. The EAG flies below the radar but is a key asset for the Air Chiefs of 7 major European Air Forces in shape ways to work more effectively together and to…
2014-11-19 By Risk Intelligence The Black Sea region has in the past 12 months been dominating maritime and political media reporting. [caption id="attachment_72342" align="alignnone" width="300"] Black Sea Ports. Credit: Risk Intelligence [/caption] There have been key political issues in the Ukraine and in Turkey. There has been as well the re-emergence…
