The New UK Air Combat Strategy: Putting into a Strategic Context

07/19/2018
By Robbin Laird With the anticipated announcement paralleling efforts in France and Germany, the UK government has announced its intention to build a Typhoon successor. The initial investment was announced as two billion pounds and was launched as a UK national project. But how realistic is this project as announced…

The UK Ministry of Defence Looks at Post-Brexit Future: The Case of International Cooperation

07/19/2018
With the uncertainties of Brexit, the UK government is looking for ways to enhance its global industrial relationships. One example is the recent agreement with Australia to build new frigates. Those frigates will be built on a new UK design, a global ship in the eyes of UK defense and…

Prevailing in a Disrupted and Degraded Combat Environment: MAWTS-1 Works the Challenge

07/15/2018
By Robbin Laird During my visit to MAWTS-1 shortly after the completion of their latest WTI course, I had a chance to talk with Marines involved in the WTI about their combat focus. In the strategic shift, an adversary clearly has access to a variety of advanced combat capabilities and…

Royal International Air Tattoo 2018 and the Indian Fighter Competition

07/14/2018
By Gulshan Luthra New Delhi. The Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) competition for the Indian Air Force (IAF) has started afresh, this time at the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) show in London where five of the six contenders in the fray will flutter their beautiful machines before the…

The F-35, the Iron Dome and Saving Lives

07/11/2018
By Edward Timperlake As Herman Kahn once noted: "Anything that reduces war-related destruction should not be considered altogether immoral." There is now the demonstrated promise of advanced weapons systems integrated together in an offensive and defensive enterprise to actually save the lives on innocents on both sides of combat action.…

The Coming of the Maritime Domain Enterprise to Australia: The P-8/Triton dyad

07/11/2018
The security of Australia’s maritime borders will be significantly strengthened with another major military investment.  The Turnbull Government will invest $1.4 billion and acquire the first of six MQ-4C Triton remotely piloted aircraft through a cooperative program with the United States Navy.  The Triton will complement the surveillance role of…