By Pierre Tran October 31, 2023 Paris - France signed Oct. 6 a contract with Airbus Defence and Space to add a secure, high-speed satellite communications link to the A330 multirole tanker transport, a deal the company sees as plugging MRTT jets into a network of a planned European future…
By Robbin Laird I have focused in a series of interviews with Pierre Garant on how to leverage a new digital aircraft, the CH-53K, to shape an innovative new approach to sustainment. Clearly, technology is not enough. Organizational change enabled by technology is required and to do so in terms…
Currently, MAWTS-1 is conducting its latest WTI course. These photos show flight line maintenance during the course. The current course includes the new King Stallion it is training regime. The King Stallion is the third major new air systesm introduced into the USMC since 2007, the first being the Osprey…
By Robbin Laird The USMC has introduced three major air platforms in the past twenty years. The Osprey was introduced during the land wars, but introduced during the Obama Administration’s “pivot to the Pacific.” But with the Trump Administration’s emphasis on the “great power competition” in 2018 it began its…
By Robbin Laird The U.S. Navy and USMC are working closely together in shaping their approach to distributed operations. The Navy refers to distributed maritime operations; the Marines to expeditionary basing operations. Working closely together they are focused on weaving these approaches together to shape a more lethal and survivable…
By Robbin Laird As the joint force shapes a distributed force for enhanced survival and relevant presence, the ability to sustain and deliver relevant payloads to that force in combat is critical. Distributed force operations across the Pacific as a giant chessboard, requires an ability to cross link and cross…
By Robbin Laird When looking at the coming of the CH-53K to the fleet, it is shaped considerably by the air systems approach. The aircraft has been guided throughout its life by a digital thread approach which is focused on concurrently shaping development, with testing, with build, with sustainment efforts…
By Robbin Laird As the U.S. Navy works its ability for distributed operations with integrated effects, how will the fleet be supported and sustained? One answer to that question is the major challenge of rebuilding the fleet’s maintenance infrastructure. Years of just-in-time maintenance, supporting wars of choice not wars of…
