2014-11-09 By Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake During our visit to the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center in October 2014, we had a chance to discuss the importance of training and the way ahead with CDR Charles "Chunks" Smith. Question; You are currently at Top Gun but what is…
2014-11-09 By Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake During our visit to the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center, we had a chance to discuss the approach to strike integration being pursued in the training process at the Center with CDR Charles "Scotty" Brown, current STRIKE XO, previous TOPGUN Instructor. Brown…
2014-11-06 VMX-22 flew to USS AMERICA and worked with the crew in shaping an initial maintenance regime aboard the ship. The ship has a hanger bay below the flight deck where maintenance is performed, unlike legacy large deck amphibs. The AMERICA class ship has a much larger hangar bay that…
2014-11-08 When a country has joined the F-35 global enterprise, whatever variant they start with they can clearly mix and match going forward. The commonality of the combat systems and the cockpit makes flexibility an inherent capability. Australia has made a clear commitment to the F-35 and to reshaping its…
2014-11-07 By Robbin Laird Visiting the USS Arlington for someone who lived in Arlington on September 11, 2001 is a very poignant event. And it is especially so for someone like me who was in the Pentagon that day. I went into my meeting. Suddenly, I felt the building rock.…
11/08/2014: The Marines and Sailors of 1st Marine Division commemorated the 10-year anniversary of the Second Battle of Fallujah, Operation AL FAJR, by hosting a ceremony at Camp Pendleton. The ceremony honored all service members who participated in the historic battle, and reunited veterans from private to general officer in…
11/08/2014: The Missile Defense Agency, U.S. Pacific Command, and U.S. Navy Sailors aboard the USS John Paul Jones (DDG 53) successfully conducted a flight test of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system, resulting in three successful near-simultaneous target engagements over the Pacific Ocean by the Aegis Baseline (BL) 9.C1…
11/07/2014: Bold Alligator 2014 is a crisis response exercise and continues the work of BA 2012 and BA 2013. It is about calibrating insertion forces against various threats. The forces are American and coalition with several nations contributing ships, and combat personnel to both the planning and execution of the…
