2017-11-20 The new Queen Elizabeth class carrier is the largest warship ever built in the United Kingdom. While most of the focus of the press coverage has been on the process of building the carrier and now its sea trials, the carrier is coming at a very interesting point in…
2017-11-15 By Robbin Laird I have dealt with the F-22 for many years and first visited the First Fighter Wing in 2007 as the plane was being stood up and introduced to the force. What was anticipated and hoped for with the introduction of the first fifth generation aircraft is…
11/25/17: U.S. Navy Sailors with Assault Craft Unit 5 deliver a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System from Battery R, 5th Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, onto the USS Anchorage (LPD-23) via a landing craft, air cushion on Oct. 20, 2017, during Exercise Dawn Blitz. DB17 is a scenario-driven amphibious exercise conducted…
2017-11-13 By Todd Miller It’s early and the darkness feels more like night than day. Flight crew gathers at the 305th Air Mobility Wings (AMW) base operations, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (JBMDL), NJ. Paperwork in order and mission plan briefed, we leave base ops for the aircraft. The sun cracks the…
2017-11-16 The liberal democracies have much work to do to rebuild the forces and the shape an effective approach to crisis management in the Nordic and North Atlantic defense region. There are new capabilities coming to the region, notably the P-8s/and Tritons in crafting a maritime domain awareness capability and an…
2017-11-10 By Robbin Laird In a visit to Langley AFB on October 31, 2017, I had a chance to talk with Brigadier General Novotny, Deputy Director of Plans, Programs and Requirements at the Air Combat Command. I first met “Blend’r” when visiting RAF Lakenheath where he was the CO of…
11/15/2017: For the first time in a decade, three U.S. Navy Carrier Strike Groups (CSGs) coordinated operations in the Indo-Asia-Pacific. The USS Nimitz (CVN 68), USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), and USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) Strike Groups staged a complex series of air and sea exercises with Japan. According…
2017-11-10 By Robbin Laird The transformation of Marine Corps aviation and with innovations in terms of the ability of the Marines to operate at greater distance, speed and more effectively in distributed operations began with the Osprey. The F-35B is now being added to the force and it provides, sensing,…
