2016-12-29 By Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake Col. Rowell is the first Commanding Officer of VMX-1: Marine Corps Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron 1. VMX-1 includes the operational test & evaluation (OT&E) and science & technology (S&T) activities that have supported Marine Aviation from HMX-1, VX-9, MACCS-X and MAWTS-1. One…
2016-12-29 By Robbin Laird As we end 2016 and look forward to 2017, it is difficult not to believe that we face a year of upheaval. Several dynamics in play at the same time and these dynamics will interact with one another to generate profound change in the world as…
2016-12-22 By Robert Newton The election has delivered an accomplished businessman, untainted by the favors and funding of classic politics, who is soon to enter office with a mandate for change. His declared commitment is to make “America Great Again” and, while our country has many dimensions, the US military…
2016-12-16 by Gulshan Rai Luthra New Delhi/Paris. The Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MRCA) competition for the Indian skies is beginning again, this time for a much larger number than the 2007 figure of 189 MMRCAs asked by the Indian Air Force (IAF). This time, there is also an additional requirement…
2016-12-13 The Congress, pundits and others are focusing on Russia and cyber and the recent Presidential election. Before one rushes to ascribe real impact from this variable, it should be noted that Hillary Rodham Clinton lost in 2016 the same way she lost in 2008. To quote Newsweek from 2008:…
2016-12-18 By Ed Timperlake and Robbin Laird The Chinese Navy has come out into the big world as a counter-piracy force. For example, the PLAN has been part of the anti-piracy operations off of the waters of Somalia. And in 2014, the PLAN did an exercise with the US Navy with…
2016-12-17 In a piece written by Staff Sgt. Grace Lee, 56th Fighter Wing Public Affairs, a new milestone for F-35 training was identified and discussed. The first class of undergraduate pilots began training through the newly written F-35 Lightning II curriculum Dec. 5 in the F-35 Academic Training Center at…
2016-12-17 The A400M is a new fleet asset for a number of Air Forces. Keeping the aircraft with a common baseline configuration will be crucial to providing for the kind of common sustainment options which can provide for global fleet operational capabilities. A step in this direction was reached by…