By Robbin Laird The Italian Air Force leadership saw early on that the F-35 was more than a next generation aircraft – it was a whole different way to look at airpower in the digital age and enabling multi-domain airpower. They committed to the aircraft and have built a fifth-generation…
I had the privilege of visiting Norfolk in the recent past and discussing the coming of the USS Gerald R. Ford with the first commander of Ford and then the commander of Naval Air Force Atlantic, Rear Admiral “Oscar” Meier. Last month, I had the chance to visit Norfolk once…
By Robbin Laird On 11 November 2024, I was in Rome and meeting with the Air Force Chief of Staff. Lt. General Luca Goretti. When I entered the building and walked to his office, the memory of my last visit to that office and with then COS Lt General Preziosa…
Next year, I am publishing a book on the tiltrotor enterprise. I have been interviewing and engaging with Marines using the aircraft since 2007, the first time I flew on the aircraft. There seems to be a cottage industry of folks writing about the difficulty of flying the aircraft and…
By Robbin Laird I had a chance to visit Fleet Logistics Multi-Mission Squadron (VRM) 40 the “Mighty Bison” on Oct. 29, 2024. Earlier, I visited West Coast squadrons at North Island, San Diego, but this was my first opportunity to visit the squadron at Naval Station Norfolk. This squadron will play…
By Pierre Tran Paris - Companies around the world have noted the significance of the uncrewed surface vehicle (USV), or sea drone, as could be seen at Euronaval, an international trade show for every kind of military vessel and maritime kit, which ran Nov. 4-7. The market potential for the…
By Robbin Laird In writing our book on the maritime kill web, a key point we emphasized was that payload innovation was a key driver to enhanced and viable combat capability. Rather than focusing force design on next generation platforms, a key focus now was to focus on rapid insertion…
By Robbin Laird FLRAA is coming at the dawn of the age of autonomous systems. It is being crafted as a manned program to operate in the con-ops of formations that will operate in the world of combined arms operations of manned systems working with autonomous ones. The Army approach…
