Shaping a Services Approach

06/11/2011
06/11/2011 - At last year’s Airbus Military Trade media event, Richard Thompson, head of Airbus Military Services, provided an overview to the evolving services approach: In terms of concepts that we are developing, we’re moving from what has been for the last year’s traditional product support, all the usual things…

The Dynamics of Change in the Middle East

06/10/2011
An Interview with Gilles Kepel (Credit: http://gilleskepel.weebly.com/) 06/09/2011 - Second Line of Defense’ Robbin Laird sat down with Gilles Kepel in Paris and had a wide-ranging discussion on trends in the Middle East.  At the heart of the discussion was a clear argument that any simplistic assumption that there is…

The Discipline in the System Piece of the TACC

06/08/2011
An Interview with Col. Mintzlaff [caption id="attachment_18520" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Col. Mintzlaff During the Interview, April 2011 (Credit: SLD)"][/caption] 06/08/2011 - During the roundtable at Tanker Airlift Control Center (TACC)  the challenge of maintaining discipline in the system was a key focus for discussion. The airlift system and the multi-modal approach reinforce…

The Role of the Barrel at the TACC

06/08/2011
The Adjudication Piece An Interview with Major Corinne Bonner [caption id="attachment_18870" align="alignleft" width="204" caption="Major Bonner During the SLD Interview (Credit: SLD)"][/caption] 06/09/2011 - During the roundtable at the Tanker Airlift Control Center (TACC) , the discussion closed with the challenge of adjudication (i.e. matching resources to demand and bringing plan and…

The C-235 in the French Air Force

06/08/2011
06/09/2011: During the Airbus Trade Media event in Spain in mid-May, Commandant David Spieles of the French Air Force provided an overview of how the French Air Force used the C-235 and their plans for the evolution of the fleet.  The core point really revolved around the relative ruggedness of…

The Future of the People’s Republic of China (II)

06/07/2011
Have We Experienced the Dawn of the Chinese Century? By the Hon. Bill Anderson [caption id="attachment_19514" align="alignleft" width="231"] China as Epicenter of the Globe? (Credit: Bigstock)[/caption] 06/07/2011 - As Second Line of Defense completes its first issues forum, I offer a final thought from a different perspective on Chinese influence…both…