2014-06-22 by Robbin Laird The crisis in Iraq is the latest chapter in the post-Arab spring narrative. But Iraq is not an-itself crisis but part of a wider context starting with Benghazi, to Egypt, to Syria, to Iran and back again. Actions across any one part of the region reverberate…
2014-06-21 In a recent presentation at the Air Force Association, Col. Michael Orr, the CO of VMX-22, provided a look at how the USMC is shaping its combat cloud approach for the MAGTF. At the heart of the approach is working the following challenge: “We are working to push increased…
2014-06-15 by Robbin Laird The discussions of the USS America, although few and far between, have really focused on one of two issues: What it does not have, namely a well deck Or that it is an aircraft carrier at 50,000 plus tons and competes with the large deck carrier…
2014-06-20 by Oscar Nkala, Friday, 20 June 2014 The head of United Nations peace-keeping operations Herve Ladsous says the organization will soon deploy unarmed Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) surveillance drones to help the peacekeeping mission in Mali. Ladsous revealed the details of the surveillance program in a briefing to…
2014-06-20 By Stephen Blank It appears that we are reaching an inflection, if not a decisive, point in Russia’s war against Ukraine. Even as Presidents Putin and Poroshenko are directly communicating with each other about Poroshenko’s proposed peace plan, the level and intensity of fighting has escalated. On June 18-19…
2014-06-17 Airbus Defence and Space and ATK have teamed to build a light gunship based on the C-235. Now the two companies are teaming to build a larger gunship based on the C-295 airframe. According to a joint press release of the two companies dated 17 June 2014: Today His…
2014-06-16 By Stephen Blank Bismarck famously observed that Europe as such represented merely a geographical notion, certainly not a unified political entity. The Western reaction to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea has again validated this acerbic insight. And amid the absence of any Western or European…
2014-06-16 by Robbin Laird Inside the Beltway is a tough place to get real changes done. And innovation within the confines of the Pentagon is notably challenging. This decade will see significant innovation generated by the strategic and combat challenges facing American and allied forces and the introduction of several new…
