2015-04-22 By Murielle Delaporte *** This article is based in part on interviews conducted last November with French and U.S. military forces based in Djibouti. Djibouti is uniquely located "near a tectonic triple junction, where three tectonic plates meet: African, Arabian and Somali," reads its geological description referring to the Red…
2015-04-21 By Robbin Laird On April 8, 2015, I returned to Seville and visited both the Final Assembly Line and the training facility for the A400M. This was the first time I had visited the training facility but the third time I have seen the FAL. The program is ramping…
2015-04-22 By Robbin Laird The Littoral Combat Ship is being built and deployed. But it is neither a Frigate nor a Fast Patrol Boat, but really a hybrid that falls between the two. A concern raised by the Military Sealift Command has been the support concept as well, whereby distance…
2015-04-24 Dr. Peter Viggo Jakobsen, from the Royal Danish Defence College, provided an overview of the evolution of Danish defense policy to lead off the Symposium on Airpower co-hosted by the Williams Foundation and the Centre for Military Studies of the University of Copenhagen. http://sldinfo.wpstage.net/the-danish-airpower-symposium-laying-a-foundation-for-rethinking-coalition-airpower/ Jakobsen explained that Denmark was…
2015-04-21 By Robbin Laird There is nothing that focuses one’s thinking about defense more than having an immediate and direct threat that is not going away anytime soon. With the Russian Ambassador threatening to use nuclear weapons against Denmark if they join the NATO missile defense network, or Russians paratrooping…
2015-04-14 By Robbin Laird Logistics is certainly the dark art or science of military capability. Indeed, one problem facing broader understanding of the centrality of logistics, notably expeditionary logistics in support of joint or coalition operations, is that the crucial role of logistics in operations is not viewed by politicians…
2015-04-20 By Robbin Laird During my visit to 2d MEB (Marine Expeditionary Brigade), I had the opportunity to interview Major General Richard L. Simcock II, Commanding General, 2d MEB, and Major Marcus Mainz, lead 2d MEB planner for Exercise Bold Alligator 2014, where we had a lengthy discussion regarding the…
04/21/2015: Mr. Stoltenberg visited Iceland to discuss issues at the top of NATO’s security agenda. He discussed Russia’s continued aggressive actions in Ukraine and the rise of violent extremism in the Middle East and North Africa with Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur, David Gunnlaugsson and Foreign Minister Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson. …
