A Joint Task Force consisting of up to four ships, maritime patrol aircraft and more than 1,200 personnel from the Australian Defence Force are deployed on Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2019, a series of key engagement activities with Australia’s regional neighbours. Running from March to May, Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2019 is geared towards…
An F-35B Lightning II attack jet flies alongside a KC-130J tanker aircraft attached to a refueling drogue during an aerial refueling mission above the East China Sea, Oct. 23, 2018. The F-35B belongs to Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121 (VMFA-121) and the KC-130J belongs to Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron…
By Robbin Laird The Trump Administration's National Security Strategy underscored the return of great power competition. By so doing, they did focus much more on the world as it is, rather than the last Administration which focused more on the world one might wish existed. But neither really capture the…
By Robbin Laird Two broad findings can be drawn from my five years of visiting Australia and working with the Australian Defence Force. The first is that they are very focused on building out as integrated a force as they are capable of doing, and that means not only leveraging…
By Ed Timperlake As the Guaidó forces on the streets of Venezuela were losing the tactical battle, a strategic defeat was rapidly approaching, that is until the president made an historic phone call to President Putin. That call accomplished a most important objective: President Trump personally built new strategic maneuvering space,…
We recently visited the Warlords at Beaufort MCAS. We had a chance to meet with the CO of the squadron and to watch flight demos at this year's airshow hosted by Beaufort MCAS. This gave us a chance to reflect back at the more than a decade of dealing with…
The return of the Russians to a position of directly threatening Europe is not a return to the Cold War. Not only is Russia, not the Soviet Union with the Warsaw Pact, but the threat being posed is considerably different. Analysts have focused on the hybrid threat whereby Russia uses…
A short video compilation showing U.S. Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II aircraft conducting distributed short take-off and vertical landing operations to simultaneously re-arm and refuel from KC-130J Hercules aircraft, as well as re-arm and refuel with MV-22B Osprey aircraft, at Laguna Army Airfield, Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona. This training was…
