2015-02-06 Secretary Hagel participated in the recent NATO ministerial at NATO headquarters, and spoke about how he saw the challenges facing the Alliance. He highlighted the cross-cutting impact of three threats: Russian seizure of Crimea and threats to the North; terrorism at home in the NATO territories; and combating ISIL…
2015-02-04 By Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake During our visit to Nellis AFB we had the chance to sit down with Col. Ted “Vader” Dempsey, the Commander of the Nevada Test and Training Range. According to a local Georgia paper (in a piece published in March 2014) which highlighted Dempsey’s…
02/02/2015 By Robbin Laird During my trip to Australia last year, I had a chance to visit two new squadrons within the Royal Australian Air Force: the Wedgetail and KC-30A squadrons. Both are part of the transformation of the RAAF into a powerful, integrated medium weight air force capable of…
2015-02-02 By Ed Timperlake "We are entering an era where American dominance in key warfighting domains is eroding, and we must find new and creative ways to sustain, and in some areas expand, our advantages," Hagel said in a memo to Pentagon leaders announcing his innovation initiative. Hagel noted that while the…
2015-01-30 By Harald Malmgren The outcome of the 25 January Greek elections has been the emergence of a government led by Syriza, a new party which has committed itself to reopen all previous debt and fiscal policy commitments made by Greece to the European Union and the IMF since Greek…
2015-01-29 The Wedgetail Command and Control platform and the KC-30A MRTT aircraft are the two new Australian systems operating in Iraq which have been part of the RAAF transformation. And the Wedgetail squadron is leveraging the operational experience to expand its operational envelope. Royal Australian Air Force E-7A Wedgetail Airborne…
2015-01-27 By Murielle Delaporte Editor's Note: Murielle Delaporte is embedded at sea with the NATO counter mine force discussed in this article. This interview was conducted prior to departure. NATO Allied Maritime Command’s Deputy Chief of Staff Operations, Commodore Arian Minderhoud, an overview on the evolving role of MARCOM, notably…
2015-01-26 By Richard Weitz and Robbin Laird In his January 20 State-of-the-Union address, which focused overwhelmingly on domestic politics, President Barack Obama made a number of claims about the success of his foreign and defense policies. Among those policies cited were the following: Halting the advances of the Islamic State…
