2015-05-12 By Robbin Laird The bomber has a long and distinguished history in first the Army Air Corps and then the US Air Force. When the B-17 was born, it was a controversial aircraft, which proved its worth when Nazi Germany controlled a continent and only the B-17 fleet could…
2015-05-11 The Royal Australian Air Force has launched a transformation approach called Plan Jericho. The Chief of Staff has underscored that for this to work, the entire defense approach needs to embrace change under the influence of fifth generation warfare capabilities. Apparently, the Minister of Defence agrees with this approach.…
2015-04-29 John Blackburn retired as an Air Vice-Marshal in the Royal Australian Air Force in 2008 and has been involved in a number of strategic issues since then in Australia. He is currently the Deputy Chairman of the Sir Richard Williams Foundation, an Australian think tank focused on Air Power.…
05/09/2015: At the end of March 2015, Second Line of Defense visited HMS Queen Elizabeth in Scotland. These photos were shot during the visit by the RN/RAF team and are credited to them. [maxgallery id="118173"] The first photo shows the ski jump on the flight deck for the F-35B. The…
2015-05-01 Ed Timperlake, editor of the Second Line of Defense Forum, was the last speaker of the day prior to the wrap up of the Danish airpower symposium. The title of his briefing was “Early 21st Century Warfighting Trends: Technology, Training and Tactics,” and focused on the intersection of the…
2015-04-30 Dr. Robbin Laird was part of the last panel for the Copenhagen Airpower Symposium hosted by the Centre for Military Studies and the Williams Foundation on April 17, 2015. In his summary presentation, he looked at a number of changes affecting the evolution of airpower. One challenge facing airpower…
2015-04-24 By Robbin Laird This is fifth time I have had the opportunity to visit the first or early squadron of a new generation air system. I started with the Osprey more than eight years ago, have had multiple visits to various bases involved in the standup of the F-35,…
2015-04-30 The current Chief of Staff of the French Air Force (FAF), General Mercier, is on a visit to the United States prior to taking up his new command, as the head of the Allied Command Transformation (ACT) NATO, based in Norfolk, VA. In the roundtable in which he participated on April…
