By Robbin Laird During our latest visit to Australia, we had a chance to talk with the Commander of the RAAF’s Combat Support Group, Air Commodore Ken Robinson at his office at RAAF Amberley. With a country of the size of the United States but only about 25 million people…
By Robbin Laird It is clear that as the Russians and Chinese enhance their challenges to the liberal democracies, a key requirement for the liberal democracies will be an ability to mobilize under the threat of contested operations and to provide for resilient capabilities to defend the nation and ensure…
Robbin Laird During a visit to Amberley Airbase, Murielle Delaporte and I had a chance to talk with Group Captain Steve Pesce, Officer Commanding 86 Wing, comprising the RAAF’s C-17, KC-30A, B300, CL604 and B737 fleets. We discussed his perspectives on the future of air tanking, and specifically the next…
During our latest visit to Australia, the Second Line of Defense team had a chance to talk with the commander of the Air Mobility Group, Air Commodore Bill “K9” Kourelakos, during our visit to Richmond Airbase and with Group Captain Steve Pesce, Office Commanding 86 Wing, at Amberley Airbase. During…
Recently, Deputy Commandant of Aviation, Lt. General “Stick” Rudder testified before the Congress on the coming of the CH-53K and its importance to the USMC and its approach to combat operations. “This aircraft is mechanically and technologically amazing. It fits directly into the National Defense Strategy as far as heavy…
By Robbin Laird During my visit to Helsinki in February 2018, I had a chance to discuss the approach and modernization of Finnish Defense with Jukka Juusti, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Defence. The Permanent Secretary manages and supervises the activities of the Ministry of Defence together with the…
By Robbin Laird The US has introduced a new generation of combat aircraft. These aircraft are different from legacy aircraft notably, in that they are designed, crafted and built differently – they are software upgradeable, data rich military aircraft for 21st century forces. The challenge is to build out the…
2018-02-22 By Robbin Laird Without the composites revolution, it would be difficult to image an Osprey tiltrotor aircraft. Equally, without the composites revolution it would be difficult to envisage the successor to the CH-53E being able to lift three times more than its predecessor. The lift is a function of…
