Another Step Forward in the IOC for the F-35B: The USMC Tests its Sortie Generation Capabilities

12/13/2013
2013-12-13 In a phone interview with Lt. Col. Berke, the Commanding Officer, VMFAT-501, the continued progress of the F-35B towards its initial operating capability or IOC in 2015 was underscored. Recently, the 33rd Fighter Wing, highlighted a four hour sortie generation training exercise. According to the 33rd FW the F-35 enterprise…

Eglin F-35s In All Three Variants Fly Joint Training Sorties

12/12/2013
12/12/2013: A Marine F-35B Lightning II breaks left out of a formation flight with United Kingdom F-35B aircraft over Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., Dec. 4. The joint-program reached a new single-day record for F-35 sorties Dec. 4 with 45 training missions between all three models of the aircraft. The…

A 21st Century Approach to Airpower: The Italian Air Force and the F-35

12/09/2013
2013-12-09 By Robbin Laird Recently, Lt. General (Retired) Deptula chaired a key fighter conference in London. He underscored that a new innovative approach to thinking about the future of airpower was needed. According to Deptula “the future needs an agile operational framework for the integrated employment of allied military power.” And he…

The Future is Now: Rapid Raptors, the CBG and the SSGN as Scalable Forces

12/08/2013
2013-12-08 by Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake In our book on shaping a 21st century Pacific defense strategy, we have focused on the emergence of a template for distributed operations. Forward presence, indeed persistent presence, with an understanding that the allies are always forward deployed, with scalable forces with significant…

Special Report on Italy and the F-35

12/03/2013
2013-12-03 We have just published a Special Report drawing together a number of key interviews and analyses of the Italian approach to the F-35. In the report, we look at the Italian engagement with the F-35 and the thinking of Italian airpower leaders about the impact of the F-35 on…

Forging an Agile Framework for the Future of Airpower: Shaping Cross-Domain Synergy

11/15/2013
2013-11-14 by Lt. General (Retired) Deptula Since the early days of aviation the progress and the accomplishments of air and space power have been legendary.  Airpower changed the face of warfare—not just in terms of precision and lethality, but in all its facets from logistics, to intelligence, to mobility, mission…

Re-Shaping American 21st Century Airpower: The Coalition and Partnership Dimension

11/10/2013
2013-11-10 by Robbin Laird Frequently peppering American presentations about the evolution of military strategies, approaches and capabilities are references to the central importance of coalitions and of partners. But what is not often realized is HOW fundamentally the situation has changed over the past thirty years.  When coalitions and partners…