A 21st Century Approach to Airpower: The Italian Air Force and the F-35

12/09/2013
2013-12-09 By Robbin Laird Recently, Lt. General (Retired) Deptula chaired a key fighter conference in London. He underscored that a new innovative approach to thinking about the future of airpower was needed. According to Deptula “the future needs an agile operational framework for the integrated employment of allied military power.” And he…

The Future is Now: Rapid Raptors, the CBG and the SSGN as Scalable Forces

12/08/2013
2013-12-08 by Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake In our book on shaping a 21st century Pacific defense strategy, we have focused on the emergence of a template for distributed operations. Forward presence, indeed persistent presence, with an understanding that the allies are always forward deployed, with scalable forces with significant…

Navy P-8 Lands on Kadena

12/05/2013
12/04/2013: According to a Japan Update story published on 12/4/13: Two of the Navy’s new P-8A Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft have arrived at Kadena Air Base. The P-8’s long-planned arrival in the western Pacific comes about a week after China unilaterally declared a broad swath of the East China Sea’s air…

Ospreys Appear at Nyutabaru Air Show

12/04/2013
12/04/2013: MV-22 Ospreys appear at a Japanese Air Self Defense Air Show for the first time. According to a story by Cpl. Benjamin Pryer: Japan Air Self-Defense Force Nyutabaru Air Base, located in Miyazaki Prefecture, hosted its annual air show Dec. 1, 2013. While an overwhelming majority of attendees were…

Special Report on Italy and the F-35

12/03/2013
2013-12-03 We have just published a Special Report drawing together a number of key interviews and analyses of the Italian approach to the F-35. In the report, we look at the Italian engagement with the F-35 and the thinking of Italian airpower leaders about the impact of the F-35 on…