01/25/2012 The first night flight in the history of the F-35 Program was completed Wednesday, January 18, 2011 at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Piloted by Lockheed Martin Test Pilot Mark Ward, AF-6, an F-35A conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) variant, launched at 5:05 p.m. PST and landed after sunset…
01/25/2012 by Ed Timperlake We are publishing a USAF background paper currently circulating on the Hill. It validates everything we have written on Second Line of Defense for more than a year about the LAS competition. The USAF is circulating a paper on the Hill that clearly lays out for…
By Dr. Harald Malmgren 01/23/2012 - Iran is threatening to close the Straits of Hormuz. Newly tightening financial sanctions on Iran’s banks and its central bank are suffocating credit for Iran’s fuel imports and oil exports. Inside Iran there are widespread frantic efforts by businesses and people in the streets…
01/22/12 In a recent Inside the Navy report from Jason Sherman, it was reported that LRIPs 7 and 8 are to increase their orders by 40%. (Jason Sherman, “LRIPs 7, 8 to jump 40%,” Inside the Navy (1/09/12). The key driver in this upsurge is foreign orders. Mentioned in the…
01/21/2012: F-35B Turns a Page BF-6, BF-7 and BF-8 are now at Eglin AFB and are USMC owned aircraft. As Col. Tomassetti, Deputy 33rd Wing Commander has underscored: Now we can stop talking about what we can do and start showing what we can do. We move out of the…
[caption id="attachment_12920" align="alignleft" width="150" caption=" "][/caption] By Dr. Richard Weitz 01/20/2012 There is widespread international support for reintegrating lower-level Taliban foot soldiers who may have joined the insurgency for money or other non-ideological reasons. Inducing many of these “accidental guerrillas” to leave the insurgency is a reasonable goal since neither…
01/19/2011 by Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake The Second Line of Defense team spent the week of January 8th talking with USN and USMC planners and operators involved in Bold Alligator 2012. Visits to USMC Forces Command and to 2nd US Fleet Forces in Norfolk were combined with a visit…
01/17/2011 by Vince Martinez Defense reform is both possible and necessary as the force is restructured. Indeed, NOT doing so will lead to a hollow force. Now that the cards have been played relative to the defense budget cuts and service level downsizing, it is time for government and industry alike…
