Iran’s Nuclear Program Charging Ahead: The Latest IAED Reports

08/31/2012
2012-08-30 by Richard Weitz  The key sentence in the today’s IAEA report on Iran is that the agency is "unable to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities." And…

Russia as a Pacific Power: Tensions with Japan

08/30/2012
2012-08-30 By Richard Weitz Relations between Russia and Japan have remained strained throughout the post-Soviet period. Despite the end of the Cold War, Moscow and Tokyo have been unable to resolve their territorial dispute over what the Russians call the Southern Kurils and the Japanese label their Northern Territories. The 1875…

F-35 Opens the Door to True Cooperation of Forces

08/30/2012
by Col. Chelsea Anderson (Excerpt) August 28, 2012 The potential for cooperation among U.S. armed forces as well as coalition forces all using the F-35 variants is significant. In fact, the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Air Force are working on their own F-35 variants and eight other countries have…

Japan, the Iraq War, and More on the Coming Out Party

08/28/2012
2012-08-28 By Richard Weitz In explaining their government’s December 2003 decision to support Operation Iraqi Freedom, Japanese officials cited the imperative of supporting their country’s bilateral military alliance with the United States. They considered the deployment of ground troops to the Iraqi theater as especially important in demonstrating Japan’s reliability to…

South Korean Defense Re-Considered: Preparing for 2015

08/28/2012
2012-08-28 Second Line of Defense has been shaping a broader understanding of the challenges and opportunities in shaping a new Pacific strategy for the 21s Century.  A key part of such a strategy is focusing on the way ahead within South Korea to broaden the ability of U.S. forces in the…

Sorties 199 and 200 for the F-35 At Eglin AFB

08/28/2012
2012-08-28 These photos were taken on Friday August 24, 2012 during sorties number 199 and 200.  Major Mike Roundtree flew 199, and Lt. Col. Joseph Bachmann 200. We will publish interviews done with both pilots after their flights in the near future. In a press release from the 33rd Fighter…

A Day in the Life of the F-35 and the Integrated Training Center

08/28/2012
This slideshow provides a view from the F-35 Integrated Training Center of a day in the life of this center. The Joint Strike Fighter is born joint and the training and support approach is rooted in combing service culture with a new approach to joint training. The slideshow has been…