By Robbin Laird I have attended the International Fighter Conference in the past but missed this year’s offering. This year’s conference was held in Madrid, and I was interested in what was discussed at the conference as I am focused on the way ahead for Western air combat forces in…
By Robbin Laird I have focused in a series of interviews with Pierre Garant on how to leverage a new digital aircraft, the CH-53K, to shape an innovative new approach to sustainment. Clearly, technology is not enough. Organizational change enabled by technology is required and to do so in terms…
According to a 12 October 2023 NATO Press Release: Two initiatives were signed in the margins of the NATO Defence Ministers’ meeting this week (11-12 October 2023), demonstrating Allies’ commitment to work together to strengthen NATO’s deterrence and defence in the air domain. On Wednesday (11 October 2023), Germany and…
By Robbin Laird On 27 September 2023, the second Williams Foundation seminar for the year was held at the National Gallery in Canberra. The first focused on deterrence and the second provided a case study of building blocks for enhanced deterrent capabilities, namely shaping a multi-domain strike enterprise for the…
By Robbin Laird From the introduction to the Book: In their preface to their book on the F-35, the authors start with this statement: The F-35s journey through time has been unlike any other in the annuals of aerospace and defense history. It was devised under the gospel of acquisition…
By Robbin Laird The continuing gap between acquiring the F-35 and strategically leveraging the F-35 global fleet is significant. Fifth-generation aircraft are part of the shift in warfighting to craft a kill-enabled force. This is what I refer as the importance of moving to F-35 2.0. I discussed this challenge…
Recently, during an exercise in the Persian Gulf, a MARTAC Devil Ray USV was refueled by a USCG vessel. The production version of the Devil Ray can go more than 1000 nautical miles at normal speed but with refueling it obviously can stay on operations much longer. And staying on…
By Robbin Laird The Sir Richard Williams Foundation Seminar on 30 March 2023 focused on the way ahead with regard to deterrence of adversaries in the region, notably with both the behavior and the capabilities of the PRC in mind. The question of refocusing the role of the ADF in…
