During the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase, wings have been built in the more traditional military aircraft assembly approach of building around stations. The parts and components come to the station and the wing is assembled over a period of months at the station.
AN INTERVIEW WITH REAR ADMIRAL ADMIRAL BRANHAM "Haiti was just another opportunity to demonstrate the Coast Guard’s flexibility and responsiveness, in my view. And one of the reasons we can be that way is because we’re in this theater all the time down here. We live here. We work day-to-day…
BY RICHARD WEITZ On the heels of a flawed June 1, 2010 Gaza maritime interception operation, diplomatic relations between Turkey and Israel are at an unprecedented low. Three of the six ships in the Gaza flotilla came from Turkey, including the largest, which was the site of an armed clash…
AN INTERVIEW WITH CAPTAIN RICHARD KENIN The Air Station faces a challenging AOR in which there is significant maritime and air traffic which shapes commerce, law enforcement and environmental challenges. Dealing with illegal immigration and drug trafficking is a major concern and because many of these migrants come from outside…
BY VINCE MARTINEZ The successful deployment of both V-22 tilt-rotor variants for the U.S. Marine Corps and the Air Force Special Operations Command to various theaters in the Middle East will force the defense industry, along with military forces worldwide, to accept that powered-lift is now an effective and operational…
BY JOHN WHEELER As we remember the Fallen on Memorial Day, we should be concerned lest adopting older COIN rules, where the ground troops are in equivalence with the insurgents, add needless US and allied casualties. With the tool sets which have evolved over the past decade, we should pursue…
SLD went to Pax River in April 2010 to interview several members of the Pax River test team. In this interview, Ed Timperlake and Robbin Laird talked with test pilot “Squirt” Kelly about his thoughts on the F-35 experience. [slidepress gallery=’the-f-35-pilot-an-interview-with-test-pilot-squirt-kelly-at-pax-river’] SLD: You’ve been testing the helmet and the plane.…
AN INTERVIEW WITH LIEUTENANT-COLONEL DEHNER "One of the new operational capabilities of the F-35B is its ability to sense the IR energy or the heat coming off the environment, a full 360 degrees around the aircraft. It’s as if you are in the middle of a soccer ball : this…
