2016-08-18 By Robbin Laird When I last visited Amberley airbase two years ago, the KC-30A was a project of concern. Now it has become a key combat asset within the RAAF contribution to current Australian and allied Middle East operations. This time with those operations ongoing, Pitch Black 2016 ramping…
2016-08-19 According to Air Commodore Richard Lennon, Commander of the RAAF’s Air Mobility Group, the C-130J played a prominent role in Pitch Black 2016. Our first attempt at using C-130 equipped with Link 16 on Exercise Pitch Black 16 has been very successful. For the first time the C-130 crew have…
2016-08-19 During the Pitch Black 2016 exercise, a KC-30A refueled US F-16s coming from Japan to the exercise in Australia. On July 19, a RAAF KC-30A flew non-stop with six F-16Cs from Kadena Air Base, Japan to RAAF Base Darwin in just over six hours. RAAF Group Captain (GPCAPT) Adam…
2016-08-14 By Robbin Laird Beginning in March 2014, the Williams Foundation began a series of seminars and workshops to examine both conceptually and practically ways to build a 21st century combat force, which can prevail in the extended battlespace. This can be looked at as a force operating in what…
2016-08-11 By Robbin Laird Exercise Pitch Black 2016 is a three-week multi-national large force employment exercise, which is being conducted from RAAF Base Darwin and RAAF Base Tindal from 29 July to 19 August 2016. Pitch Black 2016 is a high end combat exercise in which the RAAF air crews learn…
2016-08-02 By Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake General “Hawk” Carlisle has been at the center of operations as well as the airpower transition for some time. As the PACAF commander, he helped shaped the evolution of what is becoming an offensive-defensive enterprise in which combat air and missile defense systems…
2016-08-15 By Todd Miller For those of us who are not pilots, we can discuss landing aircraft on aircraft carriers but cannot appreciate just how difficult and fraught with disaster the operation is. Pilots returning from long, mentally exhausting missions are often faced with a night landing in stormy weather, at…
2016-08-13 By Scott C. Truver In early August, the USS Wasp (LHD 1) Amphibious Ready Group (ARG)––also comprising USS San Antonio (LPD 17) and USS Whidbey Island (LSD 41)––conducted AV-8B Harrier II and unmanned aircraft strikes against ISIL targets in Libya, to drive the terrorists from the coastal stronghold of…
