11/15/2017: For the first time in a decade, three U.S. Navy Carrier Strike Groups (CSGs) coordinated operations in the Indo-Asia-Pacific. The USS Nimitz (CVN 68), USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), and USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) Strike Groups staged a complex series of air and sea exercises with Japan. According…
2017-11-10 By Robbin Laird The F-35 undergoes final assembly and checkout at three plants around the world – in Italy, in Japan and in Fort Worth, Texas. The Italian and Japanese lines are low rate production lines whereas the Fort Worth line is the high rate production facility. The Fort Worth…
2017-11-11 The first F-35s have arrived in Norway as the Norwegian Air Force stands up its initial training capability. According to an article published November 10, 2017 on the Norwegian Ministry of Defence, the ceremony welcoming the new addition to the Norwegian Defence Force was highlighted. Rain, sun, wind and…
2017-11-10 By Robbin Laird The transformation of Marine Corps aviation and with innovations in terms of the ability of the Marines to operate at greater distance, speed and more effectively in distributed operations began with the Osprey. The F-35B is now being added to the force and it provides, sensing,…
2017-11-12 An important aspect of the F-35 final assembly facility in Fort Worth is the capability to produce three variants of the aircraft on the same assembly line. Now that capability has been demonstrated off of the Italian line as the first F-35B built outside of the United States came…
2017-11-11 At the recent NATO Defense Ministers meeting held on November 8, 2017 in Brussels, the Ministers decided to modernize the NATO command structure. As a story published on November 8, 2017 by Radio Free Europe noted: NATO defense ministers have endorsed a plan to establish two new military headquarters designed…
2017-11-01 By Kenneth Maxwell The declaration of an independent Catalan Republic by the president of the Catalan parliament, Carles Puigdemont, on Friday 27 October, was immediately followed by the imposition of direct rule by Madrid. The Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, following the vote in the Spanish Senate to invoke…
2017-11-06 by Murielle Delaporte The Niger Ambush puts the fight against Islamic terrorists into perspective. During an ambush, in early October in Niger, American and Nigerian soldiers encountered terrorist fighters who caused the deaths of nine of the counter-terrorist forces. It is also a reminder that fighting global terrorism requires…
