By Robbin Laird In the early 2000s, a billion-dollar Predator drone circled over a combat zone, its high-definition cameras capturing perfect imagery of enemy positions below. On the ground, a Special Forces operator, weighted down with 80 pounds of gear and under enemy fire, was effectively blind. He knew the…
By Robbin Laird In the clear desert night over Arizona, a CH-53K King Stallion slid into position behind the tanker, its rotors biting into thin air as the crew prepared to take the hose once more. Below, the Sonoran Desert stretched away in darkness. Above and around, the aircraft was…
Fifteen photographs from April 13, 2026, at the Chocolate Mountain Aerial Gunnery Range in California document the most operationally complex exercise in the WTI 2-26 series: Assault Support Tactics 1. The photographs span the full operational picture from contractor technicians assembling threat-representative UAS at a mountain observation point, through ground…
By Robbin Laird Six photographs taken through night vision devices on April 6, 2026, at Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, California, document one of the most operationally consequential integration exercises in WTI 2-26: the nighttime off-load of an M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System from a KC-130J Hercules. The photographs…
Thirteen photographs from April 7, 2026, document a full operational day for the UH-1Y Venom near Yuma, Arizona, as part of Weapons and Tactics Instructor Course 2-26. The day moves from the MCAS Yuma ramp through rappelling operations in the rocky desert mountains, a hot-pad turnaround at a forward site,…
By Robbin Laird When the history of the Navy’s transition from kill chain to kill web is written, the creation of the Maritime ISR Weapons and Tactics Instructor — the MISR WTI — will be recognized as one of the foundational moves. The program did not emerge from a requirements…
By Robbin Laird James (Jim) Rebesco is the co-founder and chief executive of Striveworks, an Austin, Texas-based company now seven years old that works with the U.S. Army, Navy, and defense intelligence community to deploy and sustain artificial intelligence in operational environments. His background is as a PhD in computational…
By Robbin Laird Nine photographs from April 4, 2026, at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, document the UAS tactics exercise conducted as part of Weapons and Tactics Instructor Course 2-26. The subject is the MQ-9A Reaper, operated in Marine Corps service by MAWTS-1, and the Ground Control Station from which its…
