The U.S. Air Force will lead exercise Astral Knight 19, scheduled to take place in the beginning on June, primarily taking place at Aviano Air Base, Italy, and other locations in Croatia, Germany, and Slovenia. Astral Knight 2019 is a joint and multinational exercise that will involve airmen, soldiers and…
Captain Andrew "Dojo" Olsen, an F-35 Demonstration Team pilot and commander, performs aerial maneuvers in an F-35A Lightning II before the Defenders of Liberty Air & Space Show. BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, LA, UN 05.17.2019 Video by Senior Airman Stuart Bright 2nd Bomb Wing Public Affairs
By Robbin Laird I would argue that the US and its allies are not so much facing a great power competition. I would refer to it as a global contest between 21st century authoritarian powers and the liberal democracies. And on each side of the competition there is significant cross learning…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…