2016-08-20 By Todd Miller The USS George Washington (CVN-73) is hosting the F-35C in its final Developmental Testing cycle (DT-III) Aug. 14-23. However, for a few of those days the two VX-23 “Salty Dogs” F-35Cs from NAS Patuxent River were joined by 5 F-35Cs from VFA-101 “Grim Reapers” out of…
2016-08-20 This video was shot by Todd Miller when he was onboard the USS George Washington on August 15, 2016. The video shows VX-23 “Salty Dogs” and VFA-101 “ Grim Reapers” pilots and crew working on carrier qualifications. The video highlights the entry of the F-35C into a hangar onboard the…
2016-08-14 By Robbin Laird Beginning in March 2014, the Williams Foundation began a series of seminars and workshops to examine both conceptually and practically ways to build a 21st century combat force, which can prevail in the extended battlespace. This can be looked at as a force operating in what…
2016-08-11 By Robbin Laird Exercise Pitch Black 2016 is a three-week multi-national large force employment exercise, which is being conducted from RAAF Base Darwin and RAAF Base Tindal from 29 July to 19 August 2016. Pitch Black 2016 is a high end combat exercise in which the RAAF air crews learn…
2016-08-07 By Harald Malmgren Although the British government, the Bank of England, the IMF and a variety of US and European think tanks had warned an extremely bad, even catastrophic downturn of the UK would ensue if British voters decided in favor of exit from the European Union. The June 23…
2016-08-15 By Richard Weitz Congress is making progress finalizing this year’s draft FY2017 National Missile Defense Act (NDAA). As The Washington Post recently noted, one likely revision we will see from previous years will be a change in congressional guidance on U.S. ballistic missile defenses (BMD); specifically, the Senate and…
2016-08-02 By Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake General “Hawk” Carlisle has been at the center of operations as well as the airpower transition for some time. As the PACAF commander, he helped shaped the evolution of what is becoming an offensive-defensive enterprise in which combat air and missile defense systems…
2016-08-15 By Todd Miller For those of us who are not pilots, we can discuss landing aircraft on aircraft carriers but cannot appreciate just how difficult and fraught with disaster the operation is. Pilots returning from long, mentally exhausting missions are often faced with a night landing in stormy weather, at…
