We will have a chance to interview Air Marshal Davies next month when in Canberra for the latest Williams Foundation Seminar. Air Marshal Davies opened the airshow, an airshow which featured the announcement of the loyal wingman program, with his perspective on the key role of industry and partnering with…
“Germany's challenge is to recognize that history and geography have not disappeared as key factors shaping Germany’s prosperity and security; and that Germany needs as well to focus upon re-energizing the European project as well. If Germany became a nation isolated in a disaggregating Europe, Germany itself might disintegrate as a…
By Robbin Laird The build up of the Russian missile arsenal, short, medium and long range, with clear violations of INF limitations are designed less to create a so-called anti-access and area denial capability than an arsenal designed to make the recovery of classic conventional deterrence seem beyond reach in…
By Robbin Laird I have been travelling to Australia and working with the Williams Foundation in Canberra for five years. I am now a research Fellow at the Foundation. What I have found most fascinating about my time there and the journey of discovery of the RAAF is how they have…
By Richard Weitz Much of this month’s Munich Security Conference saw a reaffirmation of anti-Trumpism nostalgia. This culminated in the poignant silence in the hall that followed Vice President Mike Pence’s passing along President Donald Trump’s greeting to the delegates. But the European speakers did rally behind one good idea…
The recent news from Red Flag 2019-1 with regard to how the F-35 is teaming with other elements of an air combat force to deliver air superiority is hardly a surprise to readers of Second Line of Defense who have travelled with us over the more than a decade to…
By Andrew McLaughlin Australian industry has been allocated a large proportion of the next round of regional F-35 JSF program Maintenance, Repair, Overhaul and Upgrade (MRO&U) workshare awards. Of the 388 component work assignments awarded in the Asia-Pacific region, Australian companies have been awarded 343 of them. The latest component…
In 2017, Rheinmetall announced that they had won a contract to supply ammunition for the USAF's F-35s. In a March 6, 2017 press release, the company announced the contract. Rheinmetall has just booked an order from the US Air Force to supply ammunition for the F-35 stealth multirole fighter. The…
