2013-09-18 By Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake The current Chief of Staff of the USAF has prioritized an IOC for the F-35 and the acquisition of the F-35. In Japan, he noted that: “The F-35 is flying, it is a real thing, and progress is real,” he said. Several countries, including…
2013-09-18 by Lt Gen David A. Deptula USAF (Ret) and Dean, The Mitchell Institute for Airpower Studies We face a number of significant challenges in shaping our future. Among those challengers are: The growing complexity of our security environment; The declining share of resources available for defense; And our changing strategy to…
2013-09-17 by Oscar Nkala and Kim Helfrich DefenceWeb US Army Africa Command (Africom) wants private contractors to move military equipment and supplies from the US to Egypt and 55 other countries within its Area of Responsibility (AOR) starting this month. This comes hard on the heels of a transport contract…
2013-09-16 By Richard Weitz The Republic of Azerbaijan is a close U.S. ally since Azerbaijanis regained their independence following the Soviet Union’s collapse. It has become a prominent role model for Muslim-majority nations seeking to manage religious and ethnic differences in a harmonious and productive manner. Thanks to its secular…
2013-09-15 In a twist of the South Korean procurement dynamic, the MOD procurement officials are excluding two of the three competitors for the next cycle of acquisition of combat aircraft for the South Korean Air Force. The Eurofighter and the F-35 are being excluded from consideration because of procedural issues…
2013-09-15 By Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake Next month, Georgetown University is to host event honoring the memory of the late Vaclav Havel. Georgetown was one of the first places that Havel visited after coming to the U.S. in 1990, following the revolution that brought freedom to the nation. “I…
2013-09-13 by Robbin Laird The current Syrian crisis reminds one of the importance of understanding the neighborhood. A crisis is always contextual; and the neighbors are part of what happens next and the shape of geopolitics to come. Too often the public could not find countries within which crises are…
2013-09-12 by Robbin Laird In the days when there was a Soviet Union, no one would look at a Middle East crisis without looking at what the Soviets were prepared to do or how they might try to play out their interests. As the Soviet Union faced the end game,…
