By Robbin Laird The Marines in focusing on EABOs have two key lift assets which can deliver autonomous systems payloads to an EABO and to do so with the reduced signature goal which has been highlighted by LtGen Heckl. Maritime autonomous systems can be delivered to an EABO via an…
By Pierre Tran Paris - The French armed forces ministry published March 4 a list with the value of weapons, military kit, and financial support provided in Ukraine’s bloody struggle against Russia, claiming a total of some €3.8 billion ($4.1 billion). The French official list showed military gear shipped to…
The Marines are building new capabilities for force insertion which complement more traditional ways of operating. How do you insert force in various locations to hit the enemy where he isn’t? The basic concept of "hit where the enemy isn't" was well articulated in an interview, I did with the…
Recently, the UK Ministry of Defence announced its new strategy to accelerate the development of uncrewed systems for its armed forces and to generate products for export as well. In a 22 February 2024 press release by the UK MoD, this new strategy was introduced as follows: A new strategy…
By Robbin Laird In my last article, I highlighted a third way one can discuss autonomous systems working with manned air systems. This third way would focus upon crafting combat clusters which work in a combined arms operation involving a manned air system with autonomous maritime systems especially working as…
By Robbin Laird Generally, when autonomous systems are discussed in relation to manned systems, the focus is upon teaming. Images of the Australian Loyal Wingman come to mind whereby the autonomous system is seen as a slaved system to a manned aircraft, hence the term teaming. A key capability of…
By Robbin Laird Improving sustainment has been an ongoing major effort throughout the evolution of the tiltrotor enterprise. The Nacelle Improvement program (NI) is a major milestone in this effort. When discussing sustainment, an important metric is the mission-capable rate (MC). That rate - expressed as a percentage of total…
By Pierre Tran Paris - Airbus is taking more time to decide on the early stage of design for a European medium-altitude, long-endurance drone, with the industrial partners looking for a good fit with specifications, Guillaume Faury, chief executive of the aircraft builder, said Feb.15. “The preliminary design review (PDR)…
