2013-03-19 By Ed Timperlake and Robbin Laird When the Senate Armed Services Committee was grilling the new nominee for Secretary of Defense, more time was spent on his views on the surge in Iraq than the focal point of his first test: North Korea. In fact, the subject did not…
2013-03-18 by Robbin Laird The Western powers are facing the end game in Afghanistan. Whether what they do in the next few months is a transition or an exit remains up in the air. I mean this quite literally. If the Afghans as a nation are going to work together…
2013-03-18 What follows are several videos which highlight the path in Afghan pilot training since 2008. In the first video, the Armed Forces Network Afghanistan highlights the inauguration ceremony for the start of the first Afghan Air Force flight school class of seven students was highlighted on 12/10/11. They are…
2013-03-15 By Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake In a wide ranging discussion with Dr. Mark Lewis about hypersonic cruise missiles, former Chief Scientist of the USAF and now head of IDA’s Science and Technology Policy Institute, Dr. Lewis simply stopped and said: “Why are we putting 3rd and 4th generation…
2013-03-15 By Harald Malmgren ECB President Mario Draghi dramatically declared last year “the ECB would do whatever it takes” to stabilize Eurozone bond markets. It would purchase sovereign debt of troubled Euro member governments on condition that such governments would permit a European Union or Eurozone body to oversee and…
2013-03-10 by Robbin Laird I was spending my Sunday working on the last chapter of our book on shaping a 21st century Pacific strategy. The F-35 among other systems figures prominently in how to build a 21st strategy, not simply funding a 20th century residue. We have interviewed many of…
2013-03-10 By Col Bradley Weisz, Deputy Commander ESG 2, Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek, VA The ARG-MEU is a very flexible instrument. But as the demand side remains high, and the strategic environment evolves in the 21st century, some changes in operational art are both possible and necessary. The purpose…
2013-03-05 by Robbin Laird and Murielle Delaporte This past Saturday, we attended the christening of the latest US Navy ship at General Dynamics’s NASSCO shipyard in San Diego. Fully loaded, the new ship will displace more than 80,000 tons – yet it isn’t an aircraft carrier. Instead, the USNS Montford…
