Competitive Cross-Learning: The 21st Century Authoritarian Powers and the Liberal Democracies

05/12/2019
By Robbin Laird The Trump Administration's National Security Strategy underscored the return of great power competition. By so doing, they did focus much more on the world as it is, rather than the last Administration which focused more on the world one might wish existed. But neither really capture the…

The F-35 and the Warlords: A Look Back and a Look Ahead

05/10/2019
We recently visited the Warlords at Beaufort MCAS. We had a chance to meet with the CO of the squadron and to watch flight demos at this year's airshow hosted by Beaufort MCAS. This gave us a chance to reflect back at the more than a decade of dealing with…

Software Upgradeability and the F-35 Global Enterprise: The Australian Case

05/08/2019
In article published by Australian Defence and Business Review on their January-February 2019 issue, Andrew McLaughlin provided a look at how to think about the F-35 and its modernization process. The original title: "Building Data: Inside the RAAF's F-35 Mission Data Programming Capability" So, the first F-35s are here, the…

Opening the F-35 Flight Envelope: The Perspective of a VMFAT-501 Pilot

04/30/2019
U.S. Marine Capt. Frank Zastoupil, F-35B Lighting II pilot with Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501, speaks about the capabilities of the F-35B Lighting II and its participation in the 2019 Air Show aboard Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort. March 01, 2019. MCAS Beaufort holds airshows to promote the Marine…

Visiting the Warlords: An April 2019 Update from the CO of VMFAT-501

04/29/2019
By Robbin Laird During my most recent visit to 2ndMarine Air Wing, I had a chance to visit MCAS Beaufort and meet with Lt. Col. Adam Levine, the CO of VMFAT-501, otherwise known as the Warlords. As the base was busy for the airshow being held the weekend of the…

Warlords Fly at MCAS Beaufort Air Show

04/29/2019
We had a chance to attend the 2019 Beaufort MCAS Airshow on Friday, April 26, 2019. A visit the day before with the CO of the Warlords provided the framework for viewing the airshow and its star, the F-35 with its 3F software capabilities. The upgrade from the earlier version…

The 2019 Beaufort MCAS Airshow: The Warlords and the Latest F-35 on Display

04/28/2019
We had a chance to attend the 2019 Beaufort MCAS Airshow on Friday, April 26, 2019. The airshow goes through today, April 28, 2019. A visit the day before with the CO of the Warlords provided the framework for viewing the airshow and its star, the F-35 with its 3F…

UK to Deploy F-35s to Cyprus for the First Time

04/09/2019
Cyprus has provided a key operational launch point for the RAF in the Middle East for some time. Recently, the UK updated its agreement with the Cyprus government for continued operations from Cyprus. In an article published on April 8, 2019 by Hemanth Kumar and Talal Husseini, the new agreement…