2015-08-11 When visiting the Royal Australian Air Force Base at Richmond earlier this week, there was an opportunity to talk with the C-130 squadron, including the training team, about the RAAF reworking the role of the C-130 with the operations of the C-17 and the KC-30A largely in place. The focus is…
08/11/2015: A pair of U-2 Dragon Ladies landing at RAF Fairford, United Kingdom. Credit:501st Combat Support Wing:6/9/15
2015-08-06 By Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake When Secretary Gates decided to put the F-35B on probation and Senator McCain became his powerful echo chamber we responded at the time on the pages of Breaking Defense that these actions were misguided. We have spent many hours with the pilots, maintainers,…
08/04/2015: During a visit to Australia in August 2015, Second Line of Defense had a chance to talk with senior RAFF personnel about the operations in Iraq and Syria. There will be more to come as these interviews are completed, but a key point was that two new combat systems were…
2015-08-08 Recently an Italian 767 Tanker refueled an F-35 in the United States. This was the first time a foreign tanker has refueled an F-35. The Italian tanker also operates as part of the European Air Transport Command and can look forward to tanking not only Italian and US F-35s…
08/08/2015: A U.S. Marine landing support specialist and U.S. Army Soldiers attach a 1,000-pound cargo load to an MV-22 with a single-point hook during External Cargo Lift Training conducted by Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron-165 (VMM-165), Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force -Crisis Response-Central Command, in an undisclosed location in Southwest…
2015-08-08 Earlier, Second Line of Defense has raised the question several times about whether the execution of the Mistral deal made any sense in light of Russian actions in Europe. As Steve Blank noted in 2014: Whatever the logic of negotiating a deal with Russia in 2011, the strategic situation…
08/05/2015: U.S. 5TH FLEET AREA OF OPERATIONS (May 28, 2015) Two F/A-18F Super Hornets launch from the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71). Theodore Roosevelt is seen deployed in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations supporting Operation Inherent Resolve, strike operations in Iraq…
