F-35Cs Aboard the USS George Washington, August 2016

09/10/2016
2016-09-10 This video was shot by Todd Miller when he was onboard the USS George Washington on August 15, 2016. The video shows VX-23 “Salty Dogs” and VFA-101 “ Grim Reapers” pilots and crew working on carrier qualifications. The video shows 3 wires, touch and go and a great late…

Captain Nick Walker Provides An Update on the Queen Elizabeth Class Carrier at the Williams Foundation Air-Sea Seminar

09/09/2016
2016-09-06 By Robbin Laird Recently, the Williams Foundation held their latest seminar on 5th generation enabled combat. This one focused on new approaches to air-sea integration, and featured two key foreign military perspectives. https://sldinfo.com/the-williams-foundation-seminar-on-air-sea-integration-shaping-sea-air-land-forces-for-deterrence-in-depth/ The first was provided by Rear Admiral Manazir, who currently serves as the deputy chief of…

The Software-Upgradeable Combat Aircraft: The Case of the P-8

09/07/2016
2016-09-03 By Robbin Laird A new aspect of building, modernizing and evolving the combat capabilities of the new generation of combat aircraft is software upgradeability. Software upgradeability provides a key opportunity to evolve the capabilities of an air combat platform without having to change the hardware and correlated software configurations…

Northern Lightning Exercise

09/06/2016
09/06/2016: 4th and 5th generation aircraft soared through the skies at Volk Field on Thursday morning as pilots had combat rehearsal training. Volk Field Combat Readiness Training Center hosted their annual Northern Lightning combat exercise which provides real-world conflict scenarios for active service personnel from the National Guard, Air Force, and the…

Lt. Col. “Chip” Berke Weighs in on the F-35 Critics

09/04/2016
Recently, The Cyber Brief interviewed the Marines leading expert on fifth generation aircraft, who is an F-22 and F-35 pilot among many other things. He had these choice words for the F-35 critics: The question of “Is it worth it?” has to be put into context. You can only determine…

F-35 Weapons Testing: Ramping Up

08/31/2016
2016-08-31 According to a Press Release from the F-35 Joint Program Office dated August 22, 2016, the F-35 is ramping up its weapons testing. The F-35 Integrated Test Force (ITF) at Edwards Air Force Base, California, recently completed 25 missions comprising of 12 Weapons Delivery Accuracy (WDA) and 13 Weapon…

The Future of Naval Aviation Aboard the USS George Washington

08/28/2016
2016-08-21 By Todd Miller The USS George Washington (CVN-73) is hosting the F-35C in its final Developmental Testing cycle (DT-III) Aug. 14-23. However, for a few of those days the two VX-23 “Salty Dogs” F-35Cs from NAS Patuxent River were joined by 5 F-35Cs from VFA-101 “Grim Reapers” out of…