2016-04-30 By Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake After our day with the F-35 Developmental Test Team at Edwards AFB, we met with the KC-30A team at Edwards. The team was continuing the effort to clear the tanker boom with an ever-growing number of receiver aircraft. The team we met with had…
2016-05-02 We earlier posted some photos of Australians working in Australia to support its mission in Anarctica. Now according to a report from the Japanese Ministry of Defense, the Japanese have come to help the Aussies when their own icebreaker well "broke down." Since the Australian icebreaker Aurora Australis grounded…
2016-04-29 Lossie is a key operating base for Typhoon and Tornado, and as such is supported by aircraft from other bases, notably from Brize-Norton where the lift and tanker fleet is based. For example, the rapid deployment of the Typhoon from Lossie to the Middle East after the Parliament vote authorizing…
2016-04-09 According to an article on the UK Ministry of Defence website, the Ministry of Defence has announced contracts worth 167 million pounds to upgrade and build new facilities at RAF Marham, the future home of the UK F-35B Lightning II squadrons. The contracts, which will create 300 new jobs,…
2016-04-06 By Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake During the OT-2 aboard the USS Wasp, a young British maintainer made a simple point about the F-35: Lt. Cdr. Kitchen from the Royal Navy commented during a round table aboard the Wasp in May 2015: “The F-35 can be surrounded by myth…
2016-03-25 By Robbin Laird The RAAF’s Williamtown Air Base is the home of key current combat assets, the historic home of several legacy air assets, and the future home of a major part of the F-35 capability. This was my third visit to the base, the first being to 2nd…
2016-03-06 By Robbin Laird The MAGTF and the USN-USMC team are working on shaping a 21st century approach to joint operations from the sea. There is a broader transformation of jointness being shaped by the evolution of the amphibious forces has escaped attention as precisely what it is – the…
2016-03-04 The HMAS Canberra is part of the Australian aid effort to Fiji to help in the wake of Cyclone Winston. According to the Australian Ministry of Defence: On Tuesday March 01, HMAS Canberra steamed towards cyclone devastated Koro Island to assist with the Fiji Government's disaster relief effort. Australian…