2014-01-16 It took a while for the KC-130J to work out its wrinkles. But by 2002, the new plane entered into USMC operations. This preceded the Osprey by five years, but the maturing of the Osprey and its pairing with the KC-130J is shaping a new long range force insertion capability.…
2014-01-15 Lockheed Martin commemorated the 100th F-35 Lightning II today with a ceremony for employees, elected officials and customers. The 100th F-35, known as AF-41, will be the first F-35 delivered to Luke Air Force Base (AFB) in Glendale, Ariz. Fleet Status Of the first 100 F-35s produced, 44 are…
2014-01-09 By Robbin Laird Japanese national security strategy is in evolution. In the most recent national security strategy, the Japanese government highlighted its latest iteration of what they called earlier “dynamic defense.” In an earlier piece, I wrote about the Japanese defense white paper of 2012 and highlighted the following:…
01/06/2014: Video shows Dutch pilot flying the F-35 at Eglin AFB. Credit: 33rd Fighter Wing:12/18/13 Maj. Laurens J.W. Vijge, Royal Netherlands Air Force F-35 Integrated Training Center training lead, completed his first flight after 210 hours of classroom training and 13 flights in the simulators. "The jet handles great and is very…
2014-01-07 By Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake We visited the 33rd Fighter Wing during early September 2013 in the presence of Mike Wynne the 21ST Secretary of USAF. We collectively were given a professional briefing on the roll out of the F-35 to the three services, including visiting the Navy…
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…
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…
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…
