2013-02-16 by Col. Bradley Weisz In December of 2009, President Barack Obama ordered the build-up of an additional 30,000 U.S. forces to Afghanistan in support of the 8-year-old war officially known as Operation ENDURING FREEDOM. The primary objectives for this large troop surge were to reverse the Taliban momentum that…
With the North Korean nuclear weapons test a keen reminder of the challenges of the 2nd nuclear age, the need to get missile defense right is increasingly pressing. https://sldinfo.com/the-challenge-of-deterrence-in-the-second-nuclear-age-a-discussion-with-paul-bracken/ [caption id="attachment_50869" align="alignnone" width="200"] PACIFIC OCEAN (Feb. 13, 2013) A Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block 1A interceptor is launched from the guided-missile…
2013-02-11 Unfortunately, the debate about the littoral combat ship, and the confusion of building a fairly limited ship with disruptive change, has obscured the real transformation at sea. The dynamics of change affecting the seabase are truly significant. The ARG-MEU is being transformed into an expeditionary strike group. With the addition…
2013-02-08 The UAE has ordered three A330MRTT tankers. It has now received its first one. According to a comment made to Second Line of Defense by a senior USAF officer (retired) who has worked closely with the UAE: “They should consider buying a larger fleet of tankers, in order to…
2013-02-08 by Michael W. Wynne, 21st Secretary of the USAF The start of a new year and of a new Administration is good time to think about the future. A key challenge facing the new Administration and Congress is to ensure that US military capabilities continue to innovate and evolve in…
2013-02-06 Recently, the USCG has ordered an additional aircraft to its Maritime Patrol aircraft fleet. This order will bring the fleet size to 18. The role of the Ocean Sentry (the USCG's version of the CN-235) is central to the USCG's missions. [caption id="attachment_50622" align="alignnone" width="300"] A USCG CN-235 in…
2013-02-06 By Lt. General (Retired) Gaviard With the advent of "network centric operations," it is becoming more and more difficult, to conceive the use of drones in an isolated fashion. On the contrary, the use of drone must be envisioned as fully transverse within an independent 'system of systems". Following this…
2013-02-03 By Lt. General (Retired) Gaviard In a recent interview with the French weekly, L’Express, Lt. General (Retired) Gaviard discussed the progress of the French intervention to date. At this stage in the Serval operation, what are the reasons for the French armed forces success in Mali? The first phase of…
