2017-12-30 By Robbin Laird My wife is French and I have spent a good deal of my professional life dealing with European security and defense issues. I have lived through several phases almost ages of European-American relations and have travelled widely in Europe, and the Soviet Union over the past…
2017-12-28 By Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake The shift from engaging in the land wars and the con-ops associated with those land wars to preparing for higher tempo and higher intensity operations are key to the transformation of U.S. and allied forces. The challenge facing the liberal democracies was well put…
2018-01-06 The Spanish Air Force has received its second A400M as well as having recently refueled six Spanish Air Force F-18 fighters in a single mission as part of certification flight. According to a Spanish Air Force article published on December 29, 2017, the Spanish Air Force has taken delivery…
2018-01-06 According to an article published by the French Air Force on January 4, 2018, a FAF AWACS was deployed from December 9-15 2017 in support of operations in French Guiana, which is located on the northeast coast of South America. The mission was in support of providing a protective…
2018-01-06 On December 22, 2017, the Japanese government published their new defense budget on the MoD website. Japanese Defense Budget, 2018 With an enhanced threat from North Korea and China and the continuing challenges posed by Russia, the Japanese have been strengthening their perimeter defense and are looking to more…
2017-12-29 As we end 2017, the team at Second Line of Defense would like to note that we have focused for MANY years on the re-norming of airpower associated with the coming of the fifth generation aircraft. There have been many opponents along the way, and many of these folks…
2017-12-31 One of the advantages of having built a digital thread manufacturing line for the F-35 at Fort Worth is the capability which the system allows to add evolving digital capabilities to that line. A recent example was highlighted in a story published on exectuvebiz.com on December 7, 2017: Lockheed…
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…
