The UK and the F-35

10/22/2012
10/08/12 Excerpt from The Manfucturer The best engineering solutions for specific parts of the world’s most advanced fighter aircraft have inadvertently created a very British supply chain. Will Stirling reports. When plans for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) were first drawn up about 20-years ago, the prime contractor Lockheed Martin…

The A400M Prepares for Delivery: An Update from Seville, September 2012

10/22/2012
2012-10-22 Second Line of Defense visited the Seville final assembly line (FAL) in late September for an update on the delivery schedule and process. And our guide to the effort was the senior Airbus Military engineer Jesús Portillo, in charge of the A400M Program Management Office. As with engineers, the approach…

China-US Relations: The Obama Administration Record

10/22/2012
2012-10-22 by Richard Weitz The government of China will play a key role, either positively or negatively, in whether the next U.S. administration will achieve its foreign and domestic objectives. The Obama administration’s increased focus on China and the Asia-Pacific region enjoys widespread bipartisan support in Washington and even a…

Who is spying on the “empty field” in Alabama?

10/21/2012
2012-10-21 by Robbin Laird Norm Dicks known in Washington state and national politics as Mr. Boeing spared nothing in attacking Northrop Grumman or EADS in derailing the preferred position of the USAF. Even though Boeing hardly had a stable of veterans in building tankers, Dicks frequently asserted the historic experience…

The Christening of the America Class Amphibious Ship: The Opening of a New Era (Updated)

10/21/2012
2012-10-19 By Robbin Laird I am attending the christening event for the new America class ship which will be held October 20, 2012.  And have had the opportunity to discuss the ship with several key players in developing and defining the new ship. Discussions have been held with the prospective…

The Central Asian Nuclear Free Zone Agreement: A Russian End Run?

10/20/2012
10/20/12 by Richard Weitz Although less well known than Kazakhstan, the government of Uzbekistan also has strong nuclear nonproliferation credentials. The country’s leaders have accepted the legally binding arms control obligations of the former USSR, acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear weapons state, worked with the U.S.…

The Middle East and North Korea: CTBT Hard Cases

10/19/2012
2012-10-19 by Richard Weitz The current nuclear crises involving Iran and North Korea make it unlikely that either of these two countries, or Egypt and Israel, will soon join the CTBT. Current U.S. priorities are rightly on preventing further North Korean nuclear tests as well as keeping Iran from developing…

BAE Turns on New Automated F-35 Facility

10/19/2012
10/18/12  According to The Engineer: The new Integrated Assembly Line (IAL) at the company’s Samlesbury site in Lancashire will help the company ramp up production from the current level of one per week up to one per day by 2016 Installed in the latest phase of the new F-35 fighter…