02/19/2018: "A year’s worth of planning has come to fruitition. We started off the exercise with a para accuracy event that challenged our SAR techs at hitting a marked target. We moved into Monday where we did a major air disaster exercise where a number of agencies from 8 Wing produced a scenario that really stressed…
1/17/2018: USS Wasp pulling in to moor at Commander, Fleet Activities Sasebo. The Wasp, capable of operating the U.S. Marine Corp’s F-35B Join Strike Fighter, will replace USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) as the forward-deployed amphibious assault ship in 7th Fleet. The F-35 Enabled USS Wasp Arrives in Japan from…
2018-01-10 By Robbin Laird During my visit to Sikorsky’s West Palm Beach facility on October 26, 2017, I had a chance to visit what seems at first blush a rather odd sight for a helicopter testing program, namely, a fully operational CH-53K, except for one thing. It does not fly,…
2018-01-09 By Richard Weitz The Trump administration’s National Security Strategy (NSS)—if fully executed in the Pentagon’s upcoming National Defense Strategy in January and its Nuclear Posture and Ballistic Missile Defense Reviews in February—would provide robust protection against WMD threats, whether wielded by terrorists or hostile countries. Reflecting the bipartisan foundation…
2018-01-10 By B-17 Operator Elly Sallingboe Another display season has come to a close and as I write this I reflect on just how successful the 2017 season actually was. Sally B News issue 55 We did have more rain than I can remember but, most of it was during weekdays…
2018-01-07 By Danny Lam Necessity and proportionality are central concepts behind legitimate use of force in international law from the Anglo-European tradition. The simplicity of the concepts belie the moral quagmire when applied to actual cases such as the use of nuclear weapons on Japan in what became the final…
2018-01-06 By Todd Miller In an encounter that could be described, “AgilePod meets AgilePlatform” the USAF AgilePod was recently fitted to a Textron Aviation Defense LLC Scorpion jet. The test fitment took place December 21, 2017 at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Wright-Patterson AFB. The event showcased both the…
2018-01-01 By Richard Weitz The Trump administration’s National Security Strategy (NSS) has likely had a more impact than most previous versions of this document. Foreign observers are probably reading the text closely, especially the sections referencing their own country. The strategy has four primary pillars: (1) protecting the homeland by…
