By Robbin Laird Recently, the U.S. navy's CNO Gilday underscored that fleet numbers are limited by the relatively limited defense industrial capacity in the United States. A clear challenge is to rebuild and enhance the "arsenal of democracy." “We have an industrial capacity that’s limited. In other words, we can…
By Debalina Ghoshal A number of developments call for Australia not only to reply on defensive means to defend itself, but also rely on offensive capabilities like cruise missiles as part of its defense arsenal. Some of these developments are: North Korea’s ongoing missile development program, coupled with its nuclear…
By Robbin Laird A key difference between legacy 20th century military platforms and 21st century platforms revolve around software upgradeability. With the legacy platforms, integration on the platform has been done by additive change, with then having to modify the platform in various ways to incorporate the additive change. With…
The use of robots, unmanned systems, and automation of various kinds is of growing significance to providing logistical support to combat forces. During the 2021 Williams Foundation seminar on next generation autonomous systems, Col. David Beaumont, a noted ADF logistician and strategist, underscored the growing importance of such systems for…
By Lieutenant Nancy Cotton After almost three months at sea on a regional presence deployment through the Pacific, HMAS Canberra is heading back to her home port in Sydney. In June, HMA Ships Canberra, Warramunga and Supply set sail on the regional presence deployment. Canberra sailed from Townsville with embarked forces from the Australian Army, His Majesty’s Armed…
The Nordics are both individually and collectively working to enhance their defense capabilities. In this article, we are highlighting recent press releases from Nordic Ministries of Defence as well as the UK MoD with regard to shaping a way ahead for Nordic defense. The Finnish Ministry of Defence highlighted Finnish…
By Robbin Laird When I worked for Secretary Wynne when he was head of defense acquisition and then Secretary of the USAF, I had a chance to focus on the coming of the F-35 global enterprise. What I argued at the time was that a global force of F-35s would…
By Robbin Laird In my previous article highlighting the coming of autonomous unmanned surface vessels to the fleet, I underscored: “Autonomous USVs can provide wolfpack deployed ISR or relay systems to enhance the reach and survivability of the fleet in its distributed operational role. They can also provide an ability…
