06/03/2011: Second Line of Defense Backgrounder Sudan's northern-based government in Khartoum has forcefully seized control of the disputed Abyei region, risking renewed flare-up of the civil war just when the South Sudan is about to become an independent country on July 9. Northern President Omar al-Bashir had warned that his…
05/27/2011 by Robbin Laird While one of the Second Line of Defense team members was in Russia getting updates on the Russian military, another member of the team was in Tel Aviv getting an update on Israeli perspectives on the strategic situation as seen from Israel. The occasion was the…
06/02/2011 By Robbin Laird When the UK government issued its amazingly “un-strategic” strategic defense review, the main casualties were air and naval power. In probably the most rapid invalidation of a government strategy on record, the Libyan events underscored that everything the Cameron government wished to get rid of, it…
A Conversation with Pravin Sawhney [caption id="attachment_19419" align="alignleft" width="180" caption="(Credit: SLD)"][/caption] 06/02/2011 - In Mid-May, Second Line of Defense sat down with Pravin Sawhney, editor of Force Magazine, the highly regard Indian monthly on national security and defense. Sawheny provided his interpretation of the decision to downselect European aircraft and…
06/01/2011: The Shifting Strategic Environment: A New Approach to Airlift and Tanking The United States has inherited and chosen to pursue the specialized aircraft route to airlift and tanking; Airbus Military has chosen a multi-mission path to providing for airlift and tanking capabilities for its customers. When the DOD chose the…
06/01/2011 by Richard Weitz With the appointments announced on Memorial Day, President Barack Obama has almost completed the transformation of his defense team from the senior leaders he initially inherited from President George W. Bush to a group of men that he selected. The new team looks well-prepared to deal…
The Weather Piece 05/27/2011 - First Lieutenant Adam Bennett led the discussion at the Tanker Airlift Control Center (TACC) of how weather planning figures into both the planning and execution of the TACC missions. Working the Weather Issues in the TACC Command Center Credit: TACC SLD: What do the weather planners…
05/27/2011 By Richard Weitz The second day of the Russia site visit began with a tour of the DON-2N multifunctional radar station at Sofrino, about 90 minutes outside Moscow. The facility is one of Russia’s most important aerospace facilities. It is a major component of Moscow’s missile defense system, which…
