The Port of Djibouti is a vital resupply location for both the U.S. Navy's Sixth and Fifth Fleet. Vessels transiting in and around the port rely on Coastal Riverine Squadron 8 to protect their passage. CRS8, comprised of a diverse team of U.S. Navy Reserve sailors deployed to Djibouti in…
Late last year, the UK Ministry of Defence provided an update on its 2015 report on defense modernization. As one commentator put it with regard to the report: A combination of strained alliances and ever-expanding political demands explains the MOD’s determination to secure funds to rebuild UK military capability. After…
The F-35 has come at the time of the strategic shift for the liberal democracies from dealing primarily with the land wars to preparing for crisis management with peer competitors. We referred a decade ago to the coming of the F-35 as the renorming of airpower which was a clear…
By Murielle Delaporte When the French minister of the armed forces, Florence Parly, visited the heart of space technology in Toulouse last September, she stressed how much space has become over the past years a key domain for national security. She noted that the Russian satellite Luch-Olymp had recently been…
By defenceWeb The Algerian Navy has commissioned into service two new Kilo class submarines delivered from Russia, the Ouarsenis and Hoggar. The vessels were commissioned on 9 January at the Mers El Kebir naval base in Oran by the Deputy Minister of National Defence, Chief of Staff of the National…
U.S. Marines attached to Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response-Central Command, conduct a a tactical recovery of aircraft and personnel exercise at an undisclosed location, Southeast Asia, Dec. 9, 2018. This exercise further honed the unit’s skills as a force ready to deploy instantly anywhere in theater for…
By Guy Martin The French Air Force has sent two Dassault Rafale fighter jets to the island of Reunion for training. The aircraft landed at Gillot Air Force Base on 14 January after a 13 hour flight. They were accompanied by a C-135FR aerial refueling tanker. They were due to…
By Ed Timperlake There is a great US Navy quip about a surface combatant : “Captain we are underway with no way on.” This saying is essentially reporting that the ship is trying to go forward but it is stopped by currents or other forces and drifting. In a very…
