05/06/2016: The highest priority skillset for the Afghan Air Force A-29 Super Tucano pilots is the effective execution of close air support (CAS). Pilots are trained to employ rockets, precision-guided bombs, general purpose bombs, and strafe. The A-29 can employ a variety of weapons to do this mission: .50 cal…
2016-04-02 Nato has successfully concluded a cold-weather training exercise, Exercise Cold Response 2016 (CDR 16), which involved 12 member nations and partner countries. The exercise involved the land, maritime and aerial assets of 12 Nato and partner countries, more than 3,000 US service members and 6,500 members of the Norwegian…
2016-03-28 By Richard Weitz The Russian media has recently given prominence to the role of Russian Special Operations Forces (SOF) in the military operation in Syria. The Russia media confirmed the death of a Russian Special forces officer conducting forward air control had called an artillery strike on his own…
2016-03-21 By Robbin Laird I had a chance to meet with students and to give a presentation at the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies which is part of the Australian Defence College. I made a presentation last year to the Williams Foundation, and this discussion was a follow on to…
2016-03-19 By Robbin Laird The Williams Foundation hosted a seminar on new approaches to air-land integration. The terms of reference for the conference were as follows: Air forces need to be capable of delivering air and space power effects to support conventional and special operations in the land domain. Air-Land…
2016-03-18 By Robbin Laird On March 17, 2016, in Canberra, Australia, the Williams Foundation held a seminar looking at the evolution of fifth generation enabled combat transformation which focused on new approaches to air-land integration. And the seminar followed the two-day RAAF Airpower Conference, which addressed a broad range of airpower…
2016-03-16 By Robbin Laird The first of a two day conference on Air Power hosted by the Royal Australian Air Force featured a keynote presentation by the Minister of Defence. This represented her first major policy statement after the release of the White Paper and associated documents. For an American attending…
2016-03-16 By Robbin Laird The three Australian Service Chiefs – Air Marshal Davis (RAAF), Vice Admiral Tim Barrett (Royal Australian Navy) and Lieutenant General Angus J. Campbell, (Army) – provided a perspective on their services and the dovetailing of their efforts. http://www.airforce.gov.au/Our_People/Our_Leaders/Chief_of_Air_Force/?RAAF-cIPygzYc/Fwxxi5dCKVD3g8SFEpfUGXS http://www.navy.gov.au/biography/vice-admiral-tim-barrett http://www.army.gov.au/Our-people/Leaders/Chief-of-Army What was clear from the three presentations…
