Visiting the Light and Medium Aircraft Line at Airbus Military: September 2012

10/14/2012
2012-10-14 During a recent visit to Seville, Second Line of Defense had a chance to talk with Martin Armas, in charge of the industrialization of the final assembly line.  His formal title is Head of M and L Industrial Management and Control. During the visit, several planes were in various…

The Coming of an Airbus Plant to Mobile Alabama

09/18/2012
2012-09-18 by George Talbot For Mobile, Ala., the announcement on July 2, 2012 that the city would be the site of a $600 million, 1,000-worker assembly plant for Airbus aircraft seemed to prove the point that persistence pays off. The city in 2011 lost its bid to become the assembly…

The Coming of the AMERICA Class Warship to the USN-USMC Blue-Green Team

09/07/2012
2012-09-07 By Robbin Laird When Ed Timperlake and I were commenting on the CNO’s recent piece in the USN Institute Proceedings on platforms and payloads, we underscored how some of the new assets fit into the CNO’s approach. The CNO's approach is reinforced by the kinds of platforms starting to come…

The Joint Strike Fighter and the Australian Defense Sector

07/17/2012
2012-07-18 By Kym Bergmann / Canberra This article has been provided by our new partner, Asia Pacific Defence Reporter and is published with their permission. The announcement that Australia would participate in the Joint Strike Fighter project was made almost exactly a decade ago on June 22, 2002.  In another…

High Speed, High Value: The X 3 Visits America

07/16/2012
2012-07-16  By Robbin Laird The month long visit of the X3 – high-speed hybrid Eurocopter to America is half-way overview. It began at the Eurocopter facilities in Grand Prairie, Texas in June 2012. With the Lt Governor of Texas and other political dignitaries present, the senior leadership of Eurocopter introduced…

A Whole New Twist on “Buy America”

07/16/2012
2012-07-16 by Robbin Laird This past weekend in a fine piece in The New York Times, C.J. Chivers focused on  the airpower dimension in Afghan operations.  The title was tellingly: “Afghan Conflict Losing Air Power as U.S. pulls out.” In its way, this strike was a model of what air power can…

Misleading Headlines and Progress: Does the One Hinder the Other?

07/09/2012
7/9/12: by Robbin Laird Building new platforms in the 21st century is challenging. caroThe challenge in part is that it has been so long since new air platforms have been built that an entire generation has grown up as the recipients of the work of the 50s and 60s and…