In the dynamic and fluid conditions of the defense business in the second decade of the 21st century, governments and industry and working through a variety of approaches and business models to shape capabilities for US and allied forces. We will present on an occasional basis some of the models…
In meetings during our visit to TRANSCOM spring, TRANSCOM officials explained how they addressed the Haiti mission. Three key aspects of this mission were highlighted. First, the Haiti effort had to be conducted while the two key ongoing efforts were maintained at a high level, namely support for the Afghan…
In early June, the SLD team visited the latest National Security Cutter, the WMSL-751 or the USCGC WAESCHE. The team toured the vessel while it was ported in San Diego for a training and repair mission. Captain Lance Bardo, the Commanding Officer of the Waesche, who will soon retire, provided…
[caption id="attachment_10706" align="alignleft" width="116" caption="Dr. Richard Weitz (Credit Photo: The Hudson Institute)"][/caption] By Dr. Richard Weitz A major attraction-getter at the recent Farnborough International Air Show, the biennial aviation event in southern England at which representatives from SLD attended, was a video displaying a laser weapon downing four unmanned…
When Second Line of Defense visited Spain in May 2010 for the Trade Media briefings given by Military Airbus, there was an opportunity to visit the A400M final assembly line and to see the 4th A400M under construction which can be seen in the slide show below. In addition Peter…
By Richard Weitz One of the challenges General David Petraeus, U.S. Army, faces as the newly appointed commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan is the failure of past efforts to induce many of the Taliban guerrillas to defect and some of the Taliban leaders to negotiate a peace…
SLD talked with Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems’ Mark Rossi about the Distributed Aperture System (DAS) on the F-35, which together with the helmet provides 360-degree situational awareness for the F-35 pilot. Mark has served as the Director of the AN/AAQ-37 Electro-Optical Distributed Aperture System (EO DAS) for the F-35 platform,…
By Steve Nerheim As the USCG participates in the current challenging Gulf oil spill crisis, the danger of the tropical storm season coming upon us reminds us that crises can be telescoped. In this two part article by Steve Nerheim, the USCG approach to partnering in crisis management is analyzed…
