09/10/2017: From June to December 2017, Air Force is trialling the use of a Ka-Band Satellite Communication (SATCOM) antenna and suite on board a C-130J Hercules transport aircraft. This SATCOM system provides greater bandwidth than previous systems fitted to the RAAF’s Hercules fleet, and allows live-streaming and transfer of large files…
2017-08-27 By Robbin Laird For me, having been at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, unanticipated events are a key part of being realistic about risks. What risks are we not focused upon that are anticipatable? What does the current bias of policy making and the politically correct definition of…
9/11/2017: The Afghan Air Force in Mazar-e-Sharif, Northern Afghanistan, has grown increasingly independent, launching on and completing missions on a daily basis using MD530 Helicopters and A29 Super Tucano jets. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) announced on September 5 that it has issued a $1.38 billion contract to MD Helicopters…
2017-09-04 By Todd Miller Going five for five in the complex, methodical and engineering-driven military aircraft test regimes is rare. Weather, range logistics, recording equipment, aircraft readiness or one of any other number of details typically conspire to scrub a test flight. This past July the Textron Aviation Defense Team…
2017-09-04 The Secretary of the Air Force recently loaded up for high visibility on an experiment to examine light attack aircraft options. Indeed she noted at an Air Force Association Event on August 1, 2017: "The light attack aircraft experiment took five months from conception to aircraft delivery," said Wilson.…
2017-09-03 By Robbin Laird On August 23, 2017, the Williams Foundation held a seminar on the future of electronic warfare. One of the speakers at that conference was Air Commodore Chipman, the Director General of Capability Planning in the RAAF. His presentation was different from the other presentations in that…
2017-09-07 By Robbin Laird On August 23, 2017, the Williams Foundation held a seminar on the future of electronic warfare. With the introduction of the Growler, this has provided a natural hook into the broader discussion of the evolving payloads, which need to be part of an integrated 21st century combat…
2017-08-31 It is difficult to miss the ramping up of tensions caused by North Korean missile launches and nuclear progress. We have argued for some time that the command structure for US forces in Korea should be given to the USAF for it is an ADA, USAF, and USN capability team…
