By Robbin Laird Exercise Balikatan 2025, the 40th iteration of the annual U.S.-Philippine military exercise, marked a significant milestone in the evolution of U.S. Marine Corps littoral warfare capabilities in the Indo-Pacific region. Conducted from April 21 to May 9, 2025, the exercise showcased the debut of the 3rd Marine…
By Robbin Laird When the first T-7A Red Hawk trainer arrives at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph this December, it will mark more than just the introduction of a new aircraft. It represents the U.S. Air Force's acknowledgment of a decades-long training crisis that has quietly undermined pilot development: the service…
By Robbin Laird Air Commodore Alun Roberts, Head Air to Air Missiles Royal Air Force, outlined in a virtual presentation to the seminar, Britain's ambitious defence transformation in response to evolving global security challenges. The United Kingdom's recently published Strategic Defence Review (SDR) 2025 represents nothing sa paradigm shift in British…
By Robbin Laird The nature of warfare is fundamentally unchanged — it remains a contest of political will between adversaries. However, the character of how wars are fought has transformed dramatically. In an era where conflicts can be decided before the first missile is fired or the first shot is…
By Robbin Laird The nature of military transformation has fundamentally changed. Where once armed forces could afford to develop new platforms over decades and then figure out how to use them, today's security environment demands a completely different approach. This shift represents perhaps the most significant change in military thinking…
By Robbin Laird On September 18, 2025, the Sir Richard Williams Foundation held its 2nd seminar for the year which was entitled: "Fight Tonight: Combat Readiness at the Speed of Relevance." I will highlight the presentations at the conference in a series of articles over the next few weeks. I…
By Pasquale Preziosa In recent months, Russia has radically transformed the way it uses drones, making these low-cost tools a pillar of its strategy. What appeared at the beginning of the war to be a rudimentary bombing campaign, conducted with Iranian-made aircraft adapted for local use, has gradually evolved into…
In the early hours of a spring morning in 2024, a beaten-up Soviet-era propeller plane taxied to a halt on a rural Ukrainian runway. Two unlikely warriors emerged from the cockpit, a 56-year-old pilot who had learned to fly as a hobby before the war, and a 38-year-old former auto…
