Skip to content
Second Line of Defense
  • What's New
  • In Briefs
  • Issues & Trends
    • The Integrated Distributed Combat Force
    • Con Ops & Operations
    • Policy Dynamics
    • Manufacturability
    • Logs & Sustainment
    • Strategy
    • Video
    • Slideshow
  • About us
    • Who we are
    • Global Partners
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms & Conditions
    • Send us feedback
  • SLD Bookshop
  • Home
  • What’s New
  • In Briefs
  • ISSUES & TRENDS
    • Con Ops
    • Manufacturability
    • Logs & Sustainment
    • Strategy
    • Cybersecurity
    • Slideshow
  • About us
    • Who we are
    • Privacy Policy
    • Global Partners
    • Terms & Conditions
    • Send us feedback
  • SLD Bookshop
Newsletter Signup

In an effort to be in compliance with GDPR we are providing you with the latest documentation about how we collect, use, share and secure your information, we want to make you aware of our updated privacy policy here

Enter your name and email address below to receive our newsletter.
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
ISSUES & TRENDS

Designed In, Not Bolted On: Barrett’s Third Lesson for the Autonomous Systems Age

Posted on September 2, 2026 | by Robbin Laird
09/02/2026
By Robbin Laird When I sat down with then Chief of the Australian Navy, Vice Admiral Tim Barrett, in 2017, one of the quieter points he made has aged into one of the more prescient ones. Amid the launch of the largest Royal Australian Navy recapitalization since the Second World…
Posted in Featured Article, Manufacturability

From AIS to Intelligence Authority: Windward and the Challenge of Maritime Domain Awareness in an Age of Chaos

Posted on September 1, 2026 | by Robbin Laird
09/01/2026
By Robbin Laird When I spoke recently with Ami Daniel, the CEO and co-founder of Windward, I came away convinced that his company has been building toward something that most of the defense and intelligence establishment has been too slow to grasp: that in an era when no single navy…
Posted in Featured Article, Strategy

MUMS-14 and the Impact Force: Closing the Gap Steel Knight Exposed

Posted on August 31, 2026 | by Robbin Laird
08/31/2026
By Robbin Laird On June 16, 2026, under a covered pavilion at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, the Marine Corps activated Marine Unmanned Maintenance Squadron 14 — MUMS-14 — as a subordinate command of Marine Aircraft Group 14, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing. Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey F. Carben took command;…
Posted in Featured Article, Logs & Sustainment

The Return of Harry and Meghan: The Continuing Saga

Posted on August 29, 2026 | by Robbin Laird
08/29/2026
By Robbin Laird In the United States, the news cycle belongs almost entirely to Donald Trump. In the Mother Country, it belongs, once again, to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. After six years in Montecito, Harry and Meghan are heading back to Britain, settling this fall in the Cotswolds…
Posted in Policy Dynamics, What's New

Exports, Alliances, and Ukraine: The Politics Behind France’s Arms Sales

Posted on August 28, 2026 | by Robbin Laird
08/28/2026
Paris – France won €21.2 billion ($24.7 billion) of export orders for weapons in 2025, helped by India’s contract for 26 Rafale fighter jets and related armaments, the annual report of the armed forces ministry to parliament said. That 2025 value fell slightly from foreign arms orders of €21.6 billion…
Posted in Featured Article, Policy Dynamics

South Korea as a Middle Power: Shaping a Global Arms Strategy

Posted on August 25, 2026 | by Robbin Laird
08/25/2026
By Robbin Laird South Korea has spent the past four years converting itself from a net importer of weapons into one of the ten largest arms exporters on Earth, and it has done so with a speed that has unsettled established Western suppliers and delighted frontline states looking for equipment…
Posted in Featured Article, Strategy

MUMS-14 and the Long Arc of 2nd MAW: Closing a Gap First Identified Twelve Years Ago

Posted on August 24, 2026 | by Robbin Laird
08/24/2026
By Robbin Laird A light rain fell over the parade field at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point on the morning of June 16, 2026, but it did nothing to slow the proceedings. Under a covered pavilion ringed with the stadium-style red seats that mark official functions on the station,…
Posted in Logs & Sustainment, What's New

What the Camera Reveals: Reading WTI 2-26 Through Its Photographic Record

Posted on August 19, 2026 | by Robbin Laird
08/19/2026
By Robbin Laird The official photographic record of Weapons and Tactics Instructor Course 2-26, running from March through late April 2026 at MCAS Yuma and across a range of training sites in the American Southwest, is more than a set of public affairs images. Examined systematically, it constitutes a documentary…
Posted in Con Ops, What's New
Page 1 of 72912345Next ›Last »
  • Video of the month
  • SLD Bookshop
  • The Integrated Distributed Combat Force
SLD BOOKSHOP
View All »

The Second Line of Defense team provides high quality publications with regard to key global strategic developments. You can purchase these on a number of booksellers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Kobo.

Video of the Month
View All »

Building the Impact Force: Marine Corps Transformation in an Age of Chaos

08/27/2026 Building the Impact Force contends that the United States Marine Corps is in the midst of a decisive shift from a traditional, crisis‑response organization toward an “impact force” designed to… Read more »
Our Partners
  • Home
  • Contact
  • Feedback
  • Privacy Policy
  • SLD Forum
  • Defense.info
  • Operationnels.com
"If everyone is thinking alike, someone isn’t thinking."
— General George Patton Jr.
© 2026 SLDinfo.com All rights reserved. Terms & Conditions.