From Legacy Training to Training a Crisis Management Force: 5th Gen and the Kill Web

04/04/2019
By Robbin Laird An ability to actually have a kill web force requires the training to actually do it. Training will need to occur on two levels. First, in the live environment, working the physical pieces of operating ADA with Naval Systems with Air Systems and working the C2 architecture…

Reshaping the Fleet in the Pacific: F-35Bs, Distributed Lethality and Unmanned Systems, and Allied Capabilities

04/03/2019
By Robbin Laird The kill web appraoch at sea is tapping into a number of key real world operational developments as well as new technologies which will enhance distributed operations and lethality. Three sets of new stories recently published although not linked in the press, clearly are linked in terms…

An Aussie Perspective on Red Flag 19-1

03/31/2019
By Jenna Higgins As March rolls around, so ends another Exercise Red Flag Nellis (RF-N); an annual, month-long international exercise held at Nellis Air Base, Nevada. During our joint #highintensitywar series with From Balloons to Drones, Dr Brian Laslie explained how Exercise Red Flag was created by the United States Air Force (USAF) as a…

The Next Phase in Shaping an Integrated 21st Air Combat Force: The RAF Adds Wedgetail

03/24/2019
By Robbin Laird My visits to the UK and Australia over the past five years indicate growing working relationships between the two air forces but also that the significant rethink in Australia about shaping a fifth-generation combat force has clearly had its impact and resonance in the United Kingdom as…

The Australian Defence Force Adds a Capability to the Kill Web: The MC-55A EW Acquisition

03/19/2019
The ADF is focused on building a fifth generation defense force. Working the kill web is a key element of the con-ops which will define the force. New acquisitions are being looked at from that perspective, with the F-35 being the core  transformational building block. In a recent article by…

Bomber Task Force Deploys to RAF Fairford: How to Respond to the Russian Nuclear Threat

03/17/2019
A Bomber Task Force deployment of B-52 Stratofortress aircraft, Airmen and support equipment from the 2nd Bomb Wing, Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, have arrived in the U.S. European Command area of operations for a deployment to conduct theater integration and flying training. The aircraft will operate out of RAF…