2014-07-31 By Robbin Laird During my latest visit to Second Marine Air Wing, I focused upon the USMC evolution of its use of the KC-130J. I spent a morning in the KC-130J simulator watching Marine pilots hone their skills and did so from the tanker seat in the aircraft. [caption…
2014-07-28 by Robbin Laird In a recent article published by Leatherneck magazine, I have reviewed the nature of the distributed laydown mandated by the National Command Authority and the challenge of ensuring that a distributed force can work effectively organically, with the joint force and with allies. The full article…
2014-07-23 By Robbin Laird During my latest visit to Second Marine Air Wing, I focused upon the USMC evolution of its use of the KC-130J. The Osprey has been a dramatic addition to the USMC and has made it the only tiltrotar assault enabled force in the world. What can…
2014-07-30 By Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake During our time at MAWTS-1, we had a chance to talk with Captain Justin “Lumbergh” Sing who represents the new generation of Osprey operators who have not transitioned from other platforms. I have not flown any other fleet aircraft. I went through the…
2014-07-30 By Oscar Nkala French defense minister Yves Le Drian says his country will in early August deploy more than 3 000 soldiers to start military operations under its broadened trans-Sahel counter-terrorism initiative which is set to operate from a string of bases in Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger, Mali and…
2014-07-22 By Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake Rather than looking into Putin’s soul and figuring out our next step in the Ukrainian crisis, it would be better to look carefully at the emergence of the next phase of 21st century warfare. War is always with us; but it mutates over…
2014-07-28 By Robbin Laird During my visit to 2nd Marine Air Wing in June 2014, I had a chance to meet with several of the members of the VMGR-252 squadron. [caption id="attachment_67857" align="alignnone" width="232"] Major Montgomery. Credit Photo: Second Line of Defense[/caption] In this interview, Major Mark Montgomery, a KC-130J…
2014-07-28 In a piece published in Stars and Stripes on July 27, 2014, Brigadier General "Stick" Rudder provides his perspective on the MV-22 in the Pacific. The MV-22B Osprey, a tilt-rotor aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter, has operated in the Asia-Pacific theater for nearly two years,…
