USMC Aviation: Looking Back to the 2010s and Forward to the 2020s

01/20/2020
By Robbin Laird The significant change in USMC aviation since the introduction of the Osprey has set in motion fundamental changes overall in USMC capabilities and concepts of operations. In the past decade, the Osprey has matured as a combat platform and fostered significant change in concepts of operations. No…

Shaping High End Integrated Training: The Australian Case

01/19/2020
By Andrew McLaughlin The RAAF graduates a growing number of Air Warfare Instructors across multiple skillsets They are among the RAAF best of the best – the latest batch of Air Warfare Instructor (AWI) capability subject matter experts showing they have what it takes to emerge as graduates of the biennial…

The Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force-Crisis Response-Central Command and Crisis Intervention: Insertion Into the Baghdad Embassy Crisis

01/03/2020
The United States along now with the Japanese are the only tiltrotor enabled combat forces in the world. This unique capability has been the backbone of innovations in distributed operations for the USMC for more than a decade of combat experience. And the upgrading of the Osprey underway for the…

Baghdad SPMAGTF Deployment

01/03/2020
U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 Ospreys drop off Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force-Crisis Response-Central Command (SPMAGTF-CR-CC) 19.2 Marines at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, Dec. 31, 2019. BAGHDAD, IRAQ 12.31.2019 Video by Sgt. Maj. Joey Thompson According to a story by Ben Werner of USNI News published on December…

Australian Perspectives on 5th Generation Maneuver Operations

01/02/2020
By Central Blue, The Williams Foundation On 24 October 2019, the Sir Richard Williams Foundation held a seminar examining the requirements of Fifth Generation Maneuver Operations. The aim of the seminar, building on previous seminars   was to examine the differences and potential gaps in how the Australian Defence Force (ADF) must equip and…

Rethinking the Amphibious Task Force: Digital Interoperability and the Transformation of USMC Aviation

12/31/2019
By Robbin Laird With the transformation of Marine Corps Aviation, the older notion of the ARG-MEU is being replaced by a much more flexible concept of the amphibious task force. And with the central importance of dealing with full spectrum crisis management, the capabilities resident in the task force as…

The 0-5 Military: Reshaping Concepts of Operations for Full Spectrum Crisis Management

12/31/2019
By Robbin Laird Although interesting to speculate about technology and the future of warfare, the core point is the future is now.  The US and its allies have to be ready in the near to mid term to deal with 21stcentury adversaries who will use a variety of crisis management…

Shaping a 21st Century C2/ISR Infrastructure: The Emergence of C3

12/22/2019
By Robbin Laird At the recent International Fighter Conference 2019, there was much discussion of the growing salience of the combat cloud to the “next” generation of air combat power. This discussion was subsumed within a growing emphasis on multi-domain operations, and the need for the kind of C2 which…