By Robbin Laird General Kenneth Wilsbach, Commander, Pacific Air Forces, is no stranger to the Williams Foundation. When the seminars held by the foundation began in 2018 focusing directly on the strategic shift from the land wars to building the resilient and longer range force for deterrence in the 21st…
By Robbin Laird In my article on meeting the challenge of contested operations and C2, I laid out the nature of the challenge and why meeting the challenge is crucial to combat effectiveness in conflict with peer competitors. I concluded that article with this characterization of the challenge: “How might…
By Pierre Tran Paris – The United Arab Emirates has paid a down payment for its order for 80 Rafale fighter jets, aircraft builder Dassault Aviation said in an April 19 statement. “Today, we received the first down payment of the contract for the acquisition of 80 Rafale by the…
By Robbin Laird When the Chancellor of Germany announced at the end of February 2022 the need for Germany to up its defense spending and to shape a new approach to defense, perhaps a new phase in German defense is underway. But overcoming the atrophy of strategic culture, and a…
By Robbin Laird The USMC stood up its first operational unit for the CH-53K on January 15, 2022. That unit is Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron (HMH) 461 at Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) New River, North Carolina and has been designated as the first fleet CH-53K unit. It will be…
By Robbin Laird The March 24, 2022, Williams Foundation Seminar on “Accelerating the Transition to a Networked, Integrated Force” provided perspectives of core allies of Australia which assessed the state of current affairs with regard to such a force and providing insights with regard to the way ahead. Because the…
By Robbin Laird In my last piece, I highlighted the cascading effects for the German rebuild of defense going forward with the F-35 buy. This has significant implications with regard to Germany’s choice of a heavy-lift helicopter. The F-35 is built around low observability and data fusion, as well as…
Recently, the Solomon Islands leadership announced a security arrangement with China. As noted by The Economist in an article published on April 2, 2022: “To the alarm of Australia and New Zealand, the Solomon Islands has reached a security agreement with China. The prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare, confirmed this on…
