2014-01-02 The emergence of the second nuclear age is one of the core challenges facing the US and allied forces in this decade of the 21st century. Successfully navigating these challenges is not a given, and shaping an effective response is a work in progress. During 2014, our Second Line…
2013-12-20 A potential gain from buying the Gripen could be hosting a Gripen fighter weapons school available to the broader Gripen community. In a phone interview today with Guy Martin, editor of defenceWeb, this opportunity was highlighted. “South Africa has been offered the opportunity, but has been slow to move. From…
2013-12-16 Shortly after the return of the 36th Contingency Response Group from the Philippines, we had a chance to talk with the Commander of the Group. The 36th CRG and the USMC worked closely together at the Tacloban Air Base to re-open the base to allow for insertion of relief…
We have argued for some time that the introduction of fifth generation aircraft into legacy fleets was part of a process we have called the “re-norming” of airpower. We have even published a book with that title. When we discussed the time when Lt. Col. “Chip” Berke came to Nellis…
2013-12-13 In a phone interview with Lt. Col. Berke, the Commanding Officer, VMFAT-501, the continued progress of the F-35B towards its initial operating capability or IOC in 2015 was underscored. Recently, the 33rd Fighter Wing, highlighted a four hour sortie generation training exercise. According to the 33rd FW the F-35 enterprise…
2013-12-09 By Robbin Laird Recently, Lt. General (Retired) Deptula chaired a key fighter conference in London. He underscored that a new innovative approach to thinking about the future of airpower was needed. According to Deptula “the future needs an agile operational framework for the integrated employment of allied military power.” And he…
2013-12-05 We first met with Captain Hall at the time of the christening of the latest large deck amphibious ship for the USN-USMC team. Recently, we were able to discuss the progress of the ship and the next phase of the ship’s preparation for deployment. The Captain is an experienced CRUDES…
2013-12-08 by Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake In our book on shaping a 21st century Pacific defense strategy, we have focused on the emergence of a template for distributed operations. Forward presence, indeed persistent presence, with an understanding that the allies are always forward deployed, with scalable forces with significant…
