The Growing Threat of Organized Crime to Port Security

06/28/2012
06/28/12: Has the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (ISPS Code) prevented the expansion of organized crime, and reduced the threat to maritime shipping and to society by extension? Activity in US ports and major regional ports such as Australia and Canada suggest a mixed picture. In some ways,…

Making Sense of Moscow’s Syrian Gambit

06/27/2012
6/27/12: By Dr. Stephen Blank Evidently the Administration thinks it can persuade Russia to resolve Syria’s civil war by simply abandoning its ally, Bashear Assad, and thereby facilitate a Yemeni type solution there where Assad simply leaves Syria.[i] Moscow too has sent envoys around the world telling everyone that it…

Shaping a Strike and Defense Enterprise: The Role of DAS

06/27/2012
A key impact of the F-35 as a fleet will be to enable deployed air power to work simultaneously as a strike and defense force.  The F-35 fleet will take multi-mission to a new level.  A core enabler for such a role will be the combat system capabilities of the…

MBDA Spear missile and the F-35

06/27/2012
6:27/12:by Craig Hoyle Excerpt: European manufacturer MBDA has unveiled a UK-developed design for a next-generation air-to-surface weapon suitable for internal carriage by the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. To be shown for the first time as a full-scale mock-up at the Farnborough air show, the Spear concept would use…

With the French Forces In Afghanistan: At Crucial Point of Transition

06/26/2012
06/26/12: Second Line of Defense’s Murielle Delaporte recently spent ten days with the French forces in Afghanistan on the ground.   We interviewed her today by phone, just after her return to Paris.  She returned on the same plane with the dead and wounded from the Taliban terrorist attack in Kapisa.…

China-Iraq Ties: Oil, Arms, and Influence

06/25/2012
6/25/12: By Richard Weitz Sino-Iraq relations will likely continue to strengthen in the near future. China, which imports more than half its oil, needs Iraqi energy, while Iraq, which continues to suffer from sectarian violence and an unstable political environment, depends heavily on China’s willingness to invest in the country…

Quickstep signs contract for even more advanced F-35 composites

06/25/2012
6/24/12: Quickstep Holdings has secured its second Long Term Agreement (LTA) with Northrop Grumman to manufacture parts for the international F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program, allowing the company to manufacture more complex parts for the aircrafts. Quickstep, based in Perth, is an advanced composites manufacturer currently supplying…

Allies and the F-35: Getting on With It

06/24/2012
6/24/12: by Ed Timperlake A recent Heritage Foundation seminar focused on the F-35 and allies. The presentations were by Colonel Kevin J. Killea, 
United States Marine Corps, Dr. Robbin F. Laird, 
Co-Founder and Senior Analyst, Second Line of Defense and Anthony “Lazer” Lazarski 
Military Legislative Assistant, Office of Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK). The…