During our latest visit to Australia, the Second Line of Defense team had a chance to talk with the commander of the Air Mobility Group, Air Commodore Bill “K9” Kourelakos, during our visit to Richmond Airbase and with Group Captain Steve Pesce, Office Commanding 86 Wing, at Amberley Airbase. During…
2017-12-28 By Stephen Blank The Trump Administration’s new National Security Strategy (NSS) received a flood of public scrutiny even before it was announced. Not surprisingly this flood morphed into a tidal wave once it appeared. But virtually all of this commentary focused on the tone and major themes observers claimed…
2017-12-18 By Brian Morra The Department of Defense’s acquisition system is a major cause of the erosion of the defense capabilities of the United States. This erosion is visible in high profile, fatal accidents like those the US Navy has experienced in the Western Pacific over the past two years.…
2017-11-16 By Todd Miller Regardless the virtues of the platform, Textron Defense Aviation LLC’s approach to build an aircraft tailored to military operations where no stated requirement exists is rare and risky. However, it is not risk taken in a vacuum, but rather an example of entrepreneurship that was inspired…
2017-01-14 ŠIAULIAI, Lithuania On 5 January 2017, NATO’s Baltic Air Policing (BAP) mission entered its 43rd rotation since its beginning in 2004. After four months of leading the mission, France handed over the symbolic key to the Baltic Airspace to the Netherlands at the traditional ceremony held at Šiauliai Air Base. The…
2016-12-06 By Danny Lam President Elect Trump’s 10 minute phone call with President Tsai of Taiwan was a watershed event that marked the great divide between the Kissinger-Nixon era of foreign policy toward China and the Trump era. At the beginning of the Kissinger-Nixon era, the US was faced with…
2015-01-22 When visiting the Gerald R. Ford and making the trek to the bridge, one notices quickly that the deck space in front of the island is significantly expanded over a Nimitz class carrier. We talked with the Captain and a construction engineer about the changes on our visit to…
2014-02-24 The Asian market is a growing and significant one for the global arms industry. But it is also a highly competitive one. This article from our partner defenceWeb highlights a recent agreement between Denel and Malysia which illustrates the evolving global situation in the arms markets. Denel Aerostructures signs…
