“The Right Stuff” F-35 Style: The Edwards F-35 Integrated Test Force Talks About the Roll Out of the Global Aircraft

03/18/2016
2016-03-19 By Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake Our visits to Pax River provided insight into the East Coast team, which is completely integrated with the West Coast team at Edwards Air Force Base; the legendary home of the Right Stuff air combat innovators. In his seminal work about US military…

The Deputy Commandant of Aviation Down Under: Plan Jericho Marine Corps Style

03/18/2016
2016-03-19 By Robbin Laird The Williams Foundation hosted a seminar on new approaches to air-land integration. The terms of reference for the conference were as follows: Air forces need to be capable of delivering air and space power effects to support conventional and special operations in the land domain. Air-Land…

PAX River and the F-35 Integrated Test Force Looks Back on 2015

03/13/2016
2016-03-07 Developmental testing is a fact of life for operational fleets. As one test engineer commented during our visit to Pax River, “we continue to do developmental testing on the Super Hornet here at Pax.” And with more than 50,000 flight hours on the F-35 fleet and an operational squadron with…

Australian Aid to Fiji After Cyclone Winston: The HMAS Canberra Joins the Effort

03/09/2016
2016-03-04 The HMAS Canberra is part of the Australian aid effort to Fiji to help in the wake of Cyclone Winston. According to the Australian Ministry of Defence: On Tuesday March 01, HMAS Canberra steamed towards cyclone devastated Koro Island to assist with the Fiji Government's disaster relief effort. Australian…

The Vermont Air National Guard Prepares for the F-35: Training Intel Officers

03/08/2016
2016-03-08 The F-35 is a first generation information age combat aircraft. The USAF is training with this in mind, and has started the process of preparing the Air National Guard as well for the transition. According to a piece published February 16, 2016, by Airman 1st Class Andrea Posey, the…

Sang Yong 16: The US, South Koreans, Australians and New Zealanders Prepare for 21st Century Amphibious Operations

03/08/2016
2016-03-08 South Korea along with other Pacific allies are shaping new amphibious capabilities. As Brigadier General Mahoney, Deputy Marforpac, put it in an interview last year: “One of the larger points in the evolving narrative is the teaming of force projection capabilities where the amphibious element is a core capability.…