By Robbin Laird In writing our book on the maritime kill web, a key point we emphasized was that payload innovation was a key driver to enhanced and viable combat capability. Rather than focusing force design on next generation platforms, a key focus now was to focus on rapid insertion…
By John Blaxland There’s an understandable inclination at first blush to see the U.S. presidential election outcome as auguring difficult times ahead on the global stage. President elect Donald Trump’s iconoclastic rhetoric on Ukraine, Gaza, Taiwan, tariffs and more in the lead-up to the election, coupled with his transactional approach…
By Robbin Laird In 2015, I wrote an article asking the question of what era in American politics did the 2016 election remind me of? I answered in part that perhaps the 1890s and the collapse of the main stream parties and their re-alignment was the best analogy. The force…
By Pierre Tran Paris - The title of a new book - The Idea of China: Chinese Thinkers on Power, Progress, and People (European Council on Foreign Relations) - carries a sense of what drives Beijing when its leaders look at the world and consider how it works. It may be a…
By Robbin Laird The panel on the future of vertical lift and interviews conducted by the press during the recent AUSA conference provided further insights regarding the FLRAA program and the way ahead. The conference was held from the 14-16 October in Washington D.C. Let us address first the schedule…
By Robbin Laird FLRAA is coming at the dawn of the age of autonomous systems. It is being crafted as a manned program to operate in the con-ops of formations that will operate in the world of combined arms operations of manned systems working with autonomous ones. The Army approach…
By Robbin Laird The Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) or the Army’s new tiltrotor aircraft is being designed to operate in a new world of combat, namely one in which autonomous systems will become significant players. I would argue indeed that when introducing new manned systems now and in the…
By Robbin Laird I have returned from Australia and the latest Sir Richard Willians seminar. In that seminar, we dealt with the challenge of how to enhance the ready force while investing in the future force. The modernization of the ADF is a case study in the clash between force…
