By Pierre Tran Paris - The United Arab Emirates signed Dec. 3, 2021 contracts worth a total €17 billion ($19 billion) for 80 Dassault Aviation Rafale fighter jets, MBDA missiles, and 12 Airbus Helicopter Caracal H225M helicopters, the armed forces ministry said. The UAE Tawazun arms acquisition authority signed Rafale…
By Robbin Laird To get the kind of combat effect which U.S. forces seek, integratability of key elements of the force is crucial. It is not the old concept of network centric warfare being pursued, but rather integration of modular capability-based task forces to deliver the desired combat effect in…
By Pierre Tran Paris. Can you remember where you were on Friday 13 November 2015 is the big question, following the opening of a criminal trial for what has become known as the Bataclan attack. The court hearing, which opened Sept. 8,2021 has heard survivors, police, intelligence officers, and political…
By Robbin Laird The Marine Forces Special Operations Command provides an interesting case study for the USMC transformation path. It was stood up in 2006 and was clearly part of the response to the land wars and to enable the Marines to work more effectively within the key role which…
By Flying Officer Bronwyn Marchant Air Force has now received 44 of the planned 72 F-35A Lightning II aircraft after three more aircraft touched down at RAAF Base Williamtown on November 18. The newest aircraft to join the fleet have been accepted by No. 77 Squadron, which transited the three…
By India Strategic Mumbai. INS Visakhapatnam, a P15B stealth guided missile destroyer, was commissioned into the Indian Navy in the presence of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh at the Naval Dockyard, Mumbai on November 21, 2021. The event marks the formal induction of the first of the four ‘Visakhapatnam’ class destroyers,…
By Guy Martin As part of a regional visit, the US military’s Africa Command chief, General Stephen Townsend, has met with senior members of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) in order to strengthen bilateral defence relations. “South Africa is a partner of choice for Africom. It is the…
By Richard Weitz The Russian military obliterated a defunct Soviet-era Tselina radio-surveillance satellite, Cosmos 1408, that had been orbiting almost 500 kilometers above the Earth since 1982, with a single-short anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon on November 15. Though intended to intimidate the West, like the Russian military mobilizations near Ukraine and…
