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Williamtown Airbase Operations, 2020

06/02/2020
We have visited Williamtown Airbase in Australia several times in the past and look forward to future visits. In this posting, we highlight recent flight operations from Williamtown Airbase as seen in the slideshow below. The base is transitioning from a Hornet to an F-35 base which certainly can be…

Digital Thread Design, Production and Sustainment: Shaping a 21st Century Build and Modernization Process

06/01/2020
Sikorsky is working with NAVAIR and the USMC to deliver a new build heavy lift helicopter, the CH-53K. This is a digital aircraft, unlike its predecessor the CH-53E which is a mechanical aircraft. What this means is that the aircraft is digitally designed, manufactured by a digital thread production process,…

New Appointee Delineates Trump’s Nuclear Arms Control Vision

06/01/2020
By Richard Weitz In his first public speech on U.S. arms control policy, the newly appointed Special Presidential Envoy for Arms Control, Marshall Billingslea, offered more details on the administration’s general approach toward the issue, particularly concerns about “unconstrained” warheads and verification. Billingslea has also been nominated to be the…

Working Mobile Basing: Defining the Challenge

05/31/2020
By Robbin Laird The USMC has mobile basing in its DNA. With the strategic shift from the Middle Eastern land wars to full spectrum crisis management, an ability to distribute a force but to do so with capabilities which allow it to be integratable is crucial. For the Marines, this…

The Coming of the Air Warfare Destroyer to Australia: A Key Maritime Kill Web Building Block

05/31/2020
By Robbin Laird, Williams Foundation Research Fellow Recently, the third and final Air Warfare destroyer, appropriately named HMAS Sydney was commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy. This was a very significant moment on many levels for Australia and for its allies in the Asia-Pacific region. For this is not just…

Hot Loading F-35Bs and Distributed STOVL Ops

05/30/2020
U.S. Marines with Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron One (MAWTS-1) and U.S. Marines with Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 211 conducted the first independent Distributed STOVL Operation (DSO) by flying all ordnance, personnel, and fuel in on mission aircraft at Yuma, Ariz., April 13,2017. Marines employed the manual drive…