By Robbin Laird, Williams Foundation Research Fellow Recently, the third and final Air Warfare destroyer, appropriately named HMAS Sydney was commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy. This was a very significant moment on many levels for Australia and for its allies in the Asia-Pacific region. For this is not just…
By Robbin Laird Over the past few weeks, I have been discussing with USAF and U.S. Navy officers, how the two services are training to shape greater synergy with regard to the integrated distributed force. The fusing of multiple sensors via a common interactive self-healing web enhances the ability of…
By Robbin Laird With the strategic shift from the land wars to the more fluid battlespace involving peer competitors engaged in full spectrum crisis management with the United States and its allies, one aspect of the change for military forces is how to use lethal force effectively. This comes down…
It is clear that when either looking at the North Atlantic or the Pacific theater of operations, neither the USAF nor the USN are in a position to dominate as stove-piped services or without integrated operations with core allies. In building out the integrated distributed force, a core challenge facing…
By Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake We visited the USAF Warfare Center in 2015, when Major General Jay Silveria, was the commanding officer. A visit last month was postponed due to the COVID-19 impacts, but, hopefully, we can return later this year. But we did have the opportunity to have…
By Robbin Laird The US Navy has deployed Triton to Guam and has begun its operational history. According to an article on USNI News by Gidget Fuentes published on May 12, 2020, a pair of MQ-4C Tritons operating from Guam has been integrated into fleet operations and provide reach across…
By Robbin Laird In our last interview with Rear Admiral Garvin, we focused on how the P-8 / Triton dyad was reshaping the approach of the airborne element of the anti-submarine network. We spoke at length about how the Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Force (MPRF) could be recast into interactive…
By Robbin Laird With the strategic shift from the land wars to engaging in higher end conflict situations with peer competitors, electronic warfare and its role is changing as well. When Ed Timperlake and I visited Fallon in 2017, we met with members of HAVOC, the US Navy’s Airborne Electronic…
