2013-06-20 by Richard Weitz The end of the Cold War confrontation between Moscow and the West simultaneously created an environment favorable for improved Russian-Western relations and established conditions that made conflict likely. On the one hand, the July 1991 dissolution of the integrated Warsaw Pact, held together by the Soviet…
2013-06-19 By Brett Davis Although they are far from being the focus, unmanned aircraft continue to be a running feature of the Paris Air Show, ranging in size from the AR.Drone Parrot to the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Predator. France’s AR.Drone has upgraded its “dancing drones” exhibit to an outdoor…
2013-06-19 By Sgt. James Mecure AT SEA - The U.S. Marines made their first landing with an MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor helicopter aboard a Japanese Ship, June 14, 2013. The landing is significant because it provides another avenue of approach during any future humanitarian and disaster relief operations in the region.…
06/18/2013: By Robbin Laird In these photos provided by the 33rd Fighter Wing, F-35As are being tanked by a KC-135. The photos were shot from the tanker during the tanking operation. Earlier this year, I wrote a piece in the Canadian journal Front Line Defence on the F-35 and tanking,…
2013-06-18 Colonel “Turbo” Tomassetti is retiring after a distinguished 30-year career as a USMC aviator. To both honor and to learn from “Turbo,” Second Line of Defense travelled to the 33rd Fighter Wing, where “Turbo” retired as Vice Commander. We are going to publish three articles based on the interview…
2013-06-17 By Robbin Laird At the recent Trade Media Briefing 2013, journalists who attended were given the opportunity to fly the aircraft for more than an hour. Francis Tusa, the well-known British journalist and hardly a Euro hugger, underscored what we all felt: The lack of noise within the aircraft was…
2013-06-15 by Richard Weitz Why is the People’s Republic of China not a member of the Group of Eight (G-8) industrial countries, who are holding their 39th annual heads-of-state summit in Northern Ireland on June 17? China has the world’s largest population and second-largest national economy. The PRC belongs to…
[slidepress gallery='usmc-special-purpose-magtf'] Recently, we had a chance to speak with Brigadier General James S. O'Meara currently serves as commander, U.S. Marine Forces Europe, and deputy commander, U.S. Marine Forces Africa about the newly formed Special Purpose or SP MAGTF. https://slsp.manpower.usmc.mil/gosa/biographies/rptBiography.asp?PERSON_ID=3335&PERSON_TYPE=General To give a sense of what the SP MAGTF is…
