2013-01-23 According to a Lockheed Martin press release: AF-1, joined the 500 flight hour club recently during its 272nd flight. It joins AF-2 which passed the milestone June 26, 2012. The conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) fighter begin flight operations when it made its inaugural flight Nov. 14, 2009. The…
2013-01-24 Mass and Supremacy presents a series of arguments for increased and sustained funding for the F-35 “Lightning II” Joint Strike Fighter. The American Enterprise Institute authors argue that the program is the key index of weapons modernization for US forces for the coming decade, and that because of this,…
2013-01-24 Second Line of Defense and AOL Defense Board of Contributor Members Dr. Robbin Laird and Lt. General Dave Deptula USAF (Retired) sat down in mid December 2012 with General Mike Hostage, the Commander, Air Combat Command, with headquarters at Langley Air Force Base, Va. As the commander, he is…
2013-01-20 Second Line of Defense had a chance to talk with Major General Christopher Owens, Commanding General, 1st MAW in mid-December towards the end of a major USMC exercise in the Pacific. http://www.1stmaw.marines.mil/ https://slsp.manpower.usmc.mil/gosa/biographies/rptBiography.asp?PERSON_ID=2072&PERSON_TYPE=General Second Line of Defense had a chance to talk with Major General Christopher Owens, Commanding General, 1st…
2013-01-19 Recently, Steve O'Bryan briefed the annual results of the F-35 Program in 2012. Among the highlights of the review, are test results and cumulative flying hours. The brief can be seen below. 2012 f 35 overview from Second Line of Defense
2013-01-17 by Robbin Laird The 21st century is not the 20th. But this is too often forgotten when it comes to shaping an effective military and security strategy. [caption id="attachment_48733" align="alignnone" width="232"] Any US-China rivalry in the Pacific really revolves around who has the most effective allied strategy. Credit Image:…
2013-01-16 By Jonathan Glancey The Telegraph Everyone I meet involved in the F-35 project talks lyrically about the computer wizardry of this digital-era aircraft. I ask the same analogue question, over and again, of the test pilots: so what’s it like to fly? 'A no-brainer,’ they chorus. They talk so…
2013-01-13 By Robbin Laird The pivot to the Pacific started more than a century ago. The United States first became a Pacific power in 1898, the year the US first annexed Hawaii and then gained Guam and the Philippines (as well as Puerto Rico) from Spain after a "short, victorious war."…
