2016-05-09 By Richard Weitz Second Line of Defense again attended the annual Moscow Conference on International Security, which met April 26-28, 2016. This year’s focus was international terrorism. The presenters also offered insights into Russia’s military operations in Syria and expectations for future relations with the United States. The Russian…
2016-04-22 By Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake We had the opportunity in late 2012 to interview the then head of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command (NORAD-NORTHCOM), Army General Chuck Jacoby. Then on March 31, 2016, we sat down with the current NORAD and NORTHCOM Commander,…
2016-05-06 According to the UK MoD: "Royal Navy and Royal Air Force Pilots are training to fly the new state-of-the-art stealth jet the F-35B Lightning II alongside their US counterparts at Marine Air Corps Station Beaufort, South Carolina. The highly advanced 5th generation jet will come into UK service from…
05/06/2016: The highest priority skillset for the Afghan Air Force A-29 Super Tucano pilots is the effective execution of close air support (CAS). Pilots are trained to employ rockets, precision-guided bombs, general purpose bombs, and strafe. The A-29 can employ a variety of weapons to do this mission: .50 cal…
05/03/2016: As Air Commodore Heap, head of the Surveillance Response Group, noted in an interview with Second Line of Defense in March 2016: “We are small but we want to be capable of being a little Tasmanian Devil that you don’t want to play with because if you come at…
2016-05-02 Recently, Australia announced a decision to acquire a new submarine to replace the Collins class. The submarine is to be based on a French design and involve the stand up of production from the outset in Australia. The French naval shipbuilder DCNS will be a key player in the…
05/02/2016: It is not difficult to see how air intercepts in the Northern European region could escalate. Nato is working hard to shape an effective air intercept template. A number of fighter jets from NATO and NATO partner nations have been training together at an airbase in Estonia. Among the…
05/02/2016: The annual multilateral training Exercise Bersama Shield 16 has wrapped up in Malaysia and Singapore. The 12-day exercise saw the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) nations Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand and the United Kingdom conduct joint maritime, land and air operations in a multi-threat environment from 18-29 April 2016.…
