2016-04-06 By Robbin Laird Air Commodore Steve “Zed” Roberton knows about airpower transitions. He led the transition in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) from F-111 to Super Hornet, Commanded the RAAF’s initial Air Task Group to the Middle East, where for the first time the RAAF took an integrated…
2016-04-06 This report provides an update of the roll out of the F-35 as of March 31, 2016. The report is based on interviews with pilots, maintainers, testers and industrialists involved with the program. The F-35 is not a future program; it is here now. The Marines already have their…
2016-04-02 We recently entered an office of a senior Navy Admiral who had a sign posted: “No drone talk here.” One good reason might be the wide variety of threats to operating drones, including this one, namely a Norwegian Eagle, the bird, not a code name for a plane. The…
2016-04-01 By Robbin Laird During my March 2016 visit to Australia to attend the Airpower Conference on Multi-Domain Integration and the Williams Foundation Seminar on New Approaches to Air-Land Integration, I had a chance to meet with Air Marshal Davies throughout those sessions and then to meet at his office…
2016-03-30 By Robbin Laird During the first day of the RAAF Conference on Airpower, I had a chance to sit down and to talk with the Deputy Chief of Staff of the RAAF, Air Vice-Marshal McDonald. This is the third time I have had the opportunity to interview him, initially…
2016-03-28 By Richard Weitz The Russian media has recently given prominence to the role of Russian Special Operations Forces (SOF) in the military operation in Syria. The Russia media confirmed the death of a Russian Special forces officer conducting forward air control had called an artillery strike on his own…
2016-03-26 Eurofighter is expanding its weapons portfolio, in part to subsume key strike functions of the Tornado as it gets retired. A key missile in this effort is the addition of the Brimstone missile to the Eurofighter missile repertoire. Progress is being made in adding Brimstone to the strike package, and…
2016-03-25 The Aussies have added two new amphibious ships to the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and sorting out the way ahead is at the vortex of land, sea and airpower, and the ADF is addressing it in this manner. It is a work in progress but the first new Canberra…
