By Lt. General (Retired) Deptula After the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps shot down an unmanned and unarmed U.S. Navy surveillance drone last week, President Trump exercised significant restraint, calling off a planned kinetic strike against the offending surface-to-air missile (SAM) launch site. Many—including the Iranian leadership—expected to see a retaliatory attack in…
By Robbin Laird During my most recent visit to London, a senior defense official flat out stated: “With the return of geography, the focus needs to be clearly on our Northern and Southern Flanks, and this means the emphasis needs to be placed upon air-naval integration. "The Royal Navy and…
By Pierre Tran Paris - Western allies face the threat of a wide range of Chinese and Russian ballistic missiles and cruise weapons, while North Korea and Iran look to their missile capability to back up claims to regional power. The nature of the development of Chinese and Russian missile…
By Kenneth Maxwell Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian (1869-1955) was known during his lifetime as "Mr. Five Per Cent.” This was after his personal share of Middle East oil. He has remained a very elusive historical individual, a spider at the heart of a veritable global web, an oilman and financier, who…
By Brendan Nicholson Australia’s new chief defence scientist says she has taken on the role at a time when the Australian Defence Force is becoming increasingly receptive to game-changing capabilities. ‘That, to me, is really critical’, Professor Tanya Monro says. A physicist, Monro was working in Britain 15 years ago…
In a recent article published on May 24, 2019, the UK Ministry of Defence highlighted the UK role within the Baltic Protector exercise, notably by focusing on Joint Expeditionary Force. A total of 3,000 military personnel and 17 vessels from nine nations will contribute to the first major maritime training…
By Robbin Laird The Trump Administration's National Security Strategy underscored the return of great power competition. By so doing, they did focus much more on the world as it is, rather than the last Administration which focused more on the world one might wish existed. But neither really capture the…
During a visit to RAF Lossiemouth in June 2016, Second Line of Defense visits the Quick Reaction Alert team based there. We focused on the question of the nature of the pyramid necessary to launch QRA ready aircraft. https://sldinfo.com/royal-air-force-operations-and-evolving-concepts-of-operations-shaping-a-triple-transition/ When I visited RAF Lossiemouth in June 2016, I had a…
