10/10/2017: In September 2017, Sweden hosted Exercise Aurora, its largest military exercise in nearly 25 years. The exercise involved nearly 30 per cent of the Swedish Armed Forces, as well as troop contributions from NATO Allied and partner countries - which joined on a bilateral basis. The goal of the exercise…
2017-10-05 By Robbin Laird The USAF has seen more than a decade in which a primary function has been to support ground operations. The USAF has served as Fed Ex, a flying gas station, a strike and ISR server in the sky for various types of ground operations. The end…
2017-09-26 Aurora 17 is the largest Swedish exercise in more than 20 years, and is intended to exercise Sweden’s defense capability against a larger, sophisticated opponent. According to the Swedish Ministry of Defence: In order to increase military capabilities, Swedish Armed Forces will conduct Exercise Aurora 17 – a national exercise that will…
2017-09-30 By Robbin Laird © 2017 FrontLine Defence (Vol 14, No 4) The rebuilding of Russia’s Northern fleet and its defense bastion built around the Kola Peninsula creates a direct challenge to the Norwegian area of interest. Clearly, the expanded reach of Russia into the Arctic also affects the nature of the…
2017-09-14 The Williams Foundation has been a thought leader in bringing together the key players in the Australian military as well as allies to shape a way ahead for the integrated force. Since March 2014, the Williams Foundation has conducted a series of Seminars that explored the opportunities and challenges…
2017-09-15 by Ed Timperlake and Robbin Laird The United States has fought relatively slow-motion wars or “slo mo,” land wars for more than a decade and a half. This does not mean American and Allied combat troops have not experienced the violence and threats commiserate with engaging against a nasty…
09/25/2017: An Australian Defence Force (ADF) Joint Task Group, Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2017, has departed Sydney to participate in a series of key military exercises throughout the Indo-Pacific region. Running from September to November, Indo-Pacific Endeavour will focus on enhancing military cooperation with some of Australia’s key regional partners including Indonesia, Japan,…
2017-09-13 By Robbin Laird The UK has announced its new shipbuilding strategy, one which seeks to leverage the modularity approach introduced by building the new Queen Elizabeth class carriers. Now the First Sea Lord has addressed the question of the role of the maritime sector in generating broader defense transformation.…
