08/07/2015: When former Chief of Staff of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) launched Plan Jericho, he underscored that the core opportunity, which the F-35 provided for the RAAF and the Australian defense forces, is opening up an era of continuous transformation. In his presentation, February 23, 2015 to the…
08/05/2015 By Robbin Laird When addressing the question of the threat posed by Putin’s Russia, it is crucial to not do an in-itself assessment but look at the context within which Russian actions are occurring and their broader consequences. The industrial democracies are entering unchartered territory with the confluence of…
2015-07-17 On July 10, 2015, the UK marked the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. According to a story on the UK MoD website: 75 years after the start of the Battle of Britain, the RAF marked the anniversary today [Friday, 10 July] with an enhanced Change of the…
2015-07-19 Recently, RAND published its study of the air campaign which the US called “Odyssey Dawn.” The report is entitled “Precision and Purpose: Airpower in the Libyan Civil War.” This was the “lead from behind” effort from the US point of view, but an important moment for a number of…
2015-07-11 By Richard Weitz Recently, the Pentagon released a new National Military Strategy (NMS), which updates the NMS released in 2011. It correctly identifies major threats to U.S. security but not how to generate the resources needed to generate the capabilities needed to execute an effective counterstrategy. The 2015 NMS…
2015-06-24 By Ed Timperlake and Robbin Laird As the fight against ISIS continues, and the US prepares to send more ground troops, a key problem remains: what are US objectives compared to those of the Baghdad government? Lt. General (Retired) Deptula in a recent Washington Post op ed put the…
We have focused on the challenge of Arctic operations as part of the 21st century strategic environment. Although obviously of growing significance, getting the North American states investing in capabilities to do something about is quite a different thing. There are no gaps in terms of publishing analyses; it is…
2015-06-18 According to a story in The Daily Mail, Russian air activity around the Baltic area has been stepped up. RAF Typhoons which are part of NATO's Baltic air patrol mission intercepted the aircraft. British warplanes scrambled to intercept nine Russian aircraft within hours after they flew menacingly close to…