A recent NATO decision provides a golden opportunity to work an effective approach accelerating the paradigm shift in maritime operations. At a summit of NATO Baltic allies held on 14 January 2025, the Sec Gen of NATO announced the establishment of a new NATO task force. According to a NATO…
By Robbin Laird When I was working with the U.S. Coast Guard, more than a decade ago, the Commandant was considering a new acquisition approach. The acquisition approach became known as Deepwater. This is the only comprehensive mutli-domain acquisiton approach which the U.S. has tried to implement in the maritime…
There is a shift in how the maritime warfighting force is evolving and with that significant elements for a paradigm shift in the maritime force. One aspect of that paradigm shift has been spearheaded by the Danes with their focus on a new generation of modular shipbuilding. That approach is…
The King Stallion as the latest major aviation addition to the USMC has come to MCAS Yuma in two major ways. VMX-1, the key Marine Corps operational test squadron, based at MCAS Yuma and they received their first King Stallion last June. This brought together all the key aricraft which…
The Australian Defence Force: Meeting the Modernization Challenges examines the Australian Defence Force's (ADF) modernization efforts in light of evolving geopolitical realities, particularly concerning China. The book analyzes the challenges of balancing immediate readiness with long-term force planning. The author incorporates interviews and presentations from the 2024 Sir Richard Williams…
I last visited the Naval Aviation Warfighting Development Center in Fallon, Nevada during the pandemic in 2020 during the Rear Admiral Brophy’s time in command of NAWDC. During that visit I became familiar with an important new pilot program in NAWDC which was quite different from the rest of the…
The first pillar of the Italian approach to airpower has been a clear commitment to the F-35 as a driver of change in shaping a fifth generation enabled force. The second pillar has been to build a facility to produce their own F-35s along with European allies and to place…
By Robbin Laird The Italian Air Force leadership saw early on that the F-35 was more than a next generation aircraft – it was a whole different way to look at airpower in the digital age and enabling multi-domain airpower. They committed to the aircraft and have built a fifth-generation…
