By Robbin Laird The Australian Offshore Patrol Vessel or the Arafura Class OPV program is the launch program for the new Australian approach to shipbuilding. Termed a “continuous shipbuilding process,” the core point is to have an ongoing shipbuilding effort, rather than a start and stop approach built around a…
By Pierre Tran Paris - On March 18, 2020, the French air force flew six civilian patients severely hit by the deadly coronavirus in an A330 MRTT military transport jet fitted out with an onboard medical evacuation unit, the armed forces ministry said. That was the first time the service…
By Eamon Hamilton For the first time since 1989, an Air Force Hercules transport aircraft has flown to Antarctica. On February 29, a No. 37 Squadron C-130J took off from Hobart Airport for the 3400km sojourn across the Southern Ocean to the ice runway at Wilkins Aerodrome. The flight required…
By Japanese Ministry of Defense For Japan and the international community, the waters off the coast of Somalia and the Gulf of Aden are extremely important sea lanes. In response to the piracy incidents in the area, Ministry of Defense (MOD) and Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) takes measures for counter-piracy…
By Robbin Laird The Australian Offshore Patrol Vessel or the Arafura Class OPV program is the launch program for the new Australian approach to shipbuilding. Termed a “continuous shipbuilding process,” the core point is to have an ongoing shipbuilding effort, rather than a start and stop approach built around a…
by Dean Wingrin The US Navy’s Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Carney (DDG64) arrived in Cape Town for a planned port visit on Sunday 15 March, but all activities have been curtailed to minimize the spread of COVID-19 (novel coronavirus). Planned as the US Naval Forces Africa’s effort to build…
By Air Vice-Marshal John Blackburn AO (Retd) & Anne Borzycki, IIER-A In February 2020, the Australian Financial Review (AFR) reported that Australia is dangerously dependent on imported medicine. The report referenced by the AFR was published last month by the Institute for Integrated Economic Research – Australia(IIER-A). The report highlighted that…
As the Japanese focus on strengthening the perimeter of their defenses of Japan, new systems are being procured and modifications to platforms being made. The purchase of Ospreys and F-35s both As and Bs, along with the modification of Japanese helicopter landing ships are entailed as Japan looks to its…
