By James Jeffrey Once better known for its distinctive style of making potent coffee and its gelatinous confectionary cubes called Turkish Delight, these days Turkey is making a name for itself through a more deadly means: as a major global player in armed drone development. I first got an inkling…
By Robbin Laird In my recent visit to MAWTS-1, I had a chance to talk with a seasoned USMC artillery officer who is now part of the Ground Combat Department at MAWTS-1. The GCD deals with the entire integration focus of the marines from sea, land, to air, and in…
By Robbin Laird In my last piece, I highlighted the cascading effects for the German rebuild of defense going forward with the F-35 buy. This has significant implications with regard to Germany’s choice of a heavy-lift helicopter. The F-35 is built around low observability and data fusion, as well as…
By Deb Henley An airborne E-3G Sentry, operated by the Airborne Warning and Control System, or AWACS, Combined Test Force updated its electronic support measures, or ESM, database in flight over central Texas with a file transmitted from its reprogramming center at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, using an existing beyond line-of-site…
By Maj. Jorge Hernandez Marines from Marine Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron One (VMX-1) and sailors from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 23 (HSC-23) teamed up to conduct tactics development in integrating manned and unmanned rotary-wing aircraft at Naval Air Facility El Centro, California on March 10, 2022. During the exercise,…
By Robbin Laird The CH-53K comes into the USMC and into the Israeli Defence Force as both are in the process of transformation. The two forces are on different transformation paths with different adversaries as focal points, but this platform is coming to both forces as they are working new…
WE ARE REPOSTING THIS PIECE WHICH WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE FALL OF 2019 By Robbin Laird There were a wide range of presentations in Berlin at this year’s International Fighter Conference. Among those presenting were Air Force officers or industry representatives from countries facing a direct “existential threat” from…
By Robbin Laird During a visit to 2nd Marine Air Wing last summer, I met with Marine Air Group 26. During that visit we discussed the transition from the land wars, which included the need for more focus on the Northern Flank of NATO. Certainly, the current European crisis has…
