01/03/2012 - by Dr. Scott Truver The focal point of U.S. Coast Guard acquisition reform and recapitalization remains the National Security Cutter. The NSC is one of the Coast Guard’s major contributions to the nation’s fleet. As such, the Navy may want to look at the Legend-class cutters as a…
12/21/2011 - Secretary Wynne was a key policy player fostering the Rover revolution. Rover as we discuss in a companion piece is part of a cultural revolution whereby the ground and air forces can operate differently than ever before. First, the downlink of video to the ground and the audio…
[caption id="attachment_12920" align="alignleft" width="150" caption=" "][/caption] By Dr. Richard Weitz 12/02/2011 - Second Line of Defense was recently invited to participate in an open house for Lockheed Martin’s Affordable Innovation Technology Demonstration at the LM Global Vision Center in Arlington, Virginia. The demonstrations from the Lockheed Martin Global Training and…
11/01/2011 The F-35 is the first significant build of new tactical aircraft in a long time. Correlated with the build is shaping a new infrastructure to support the new fleet. In many cases, the older infrastructure is outdated in and of itself and the new aircraft accompanies needed upgrades to…
09/30/2011 We have done several interviews and notes on the arrival of the F-35s at Eglin. With the arrival of the new aircraft, which are production, not test aircraft at Eglin, a new era has begun. The update from the Deputy Wing Commander on July 17 2011: AF9 arrived yesterday…
09/25/2011 - In early August 2011, Second Line of Defense sat down with Col. Sampsel and Secretary Wynne to discuss the transition in maintenance culture and its challenges for the F-35. Col. Sampsel is living through the transition and Secretary Wynne was one of the architects of the F-35 and…
An Interview With Colonel Mark Desens, Commander of the 26th MEU 09/05/2011 - In July 2011, Second Line of Defense sat down with Colonel Mark Desens to discuss the recent deployment of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit. Earlier we had discussed, with Col. “Ozzie” Osborn, the 15th MEU, the evolution…
The LPD-24 Sails Into the Future By Ed Timperlake and Robbin Laird 06/14/2011 - Recently, it was revealed that DOD plans to keep in operation ships for more than 70 years! To put this in context, if the USS Maine had not been blown up in Havana it could have…
