Parliamentary Senior Vice-Minister of Defense, Shu Watanabe, revealed at the House of Representatives Security Council that Japan and the U.S. would seal a contract to purchase first four F-35s before June 30. Both Governments have almost agreed on the unit price 10.2 billion JPY, 300 million JPY higher than the…
6/15/12: Next week, the new demonstration helicopter the X3 will be visiting the United States. Second Line of Defense will be there as the tour kicks off in Dallas Texas. SLD first saw the new helo at the Paris Air Show last year, and we are looking forward to catching…
6/15/12: Norway today commenced the largest public procurement project in its history. The event was marked by Minister of Defence Espen Barth Eide authorizing the order for the first F-35A Lightning II for the Norwegian Armed Forces. The decision to move forward was reached following an extended dialogue with the…
6/15/12: by Robbin Laird I personally have done quite a lot of work on Arctic security. And in the course of working on the Arctic and dealing with Norwegians, Canadians and Danes, the F-35 and in the Norwegian case the Aegis systems came into play as well. And in a…
6/13/12: By Robbin Laird [caption id="attachment_40496" align="alignnone" width="300"] Both the right and the left believe in realities that no longer exist. We could not do the 1991 air war today; we cannot man the oceans or provide for global presence with a maritime force operational NOW and planned for the…
by Robbin Laird In a series of articles for AOL Defense, I am going to look at several elements of re-shaping U.S. forces to enable an Asian pivot. And intend to look at several neglected aspects of a sustainable power projection force for the 21st century. The U.S. can afford…
6/12/12: By Robbin Laird In a recent issue of Force magazine, an Indian colleague provided an insightful analysis of a key axis point where the combined Chinese-Pakistani threat could combine to pose a significant strategic challenge to India. In their article: Can Siachen Spring the Next Surprise? Pravin Sawhney and…
6/12/12: We have written about the potential for the new dirigible (M1400) and its innovative sensor integration capabilities on board (Blue Devil 2). But several capabilities of this program leap off of the page. If the program was measured in a realistic manner, for example, ISR delivery equivalencies, this would…
