2012: Swans Take Flight

01/15/2012
01/08/2012 by Robbin Laird As the country prepares for the Presidential and Congressional elections, the world will move on oblivious to the logic of the debate inside the Beltway and the country.  The national debt has become a more important focus than national security.  In fact, for many the two have…

The Super Tucano has won the LAS competition: Lingering Questions

01/04/2012
01/04/2012 By Ed Timperlake There is tremendous news for the American/NATO war effort in Afghanistan. With the selection of the Super Tucano, the Afghan Army Air Force can now begin to develop a combat capable air fleet for the Afghan Air Force. Doing so is part of the process of…

Re-crafting the Weapons Enterprise: A Core Strategic Necessity

12/19/2011
12/09/2011 In late November, Second Line of Defense continued the dialogue with Professor Mark Lewis, former Chief Scientist of the USAF, on the emerging opportunities and challenges facing the country in fielding 21st Century capabilities.  Here the focus was upon the need to shape a weapons enterprise built around 5th generation…

The USAF Takes a Decision (2)

11/24/2011
by Ed Timperlake How many bad press releases can one firm issue? https://www.sldinfo.com/the-usaf-makes-a-decision/ Hawker Beech just issued another one: Following the notification last week that Hawker Beechcraft Corporation (HBC) was excluded from the Light Air Support (LAS) bidding process, the company has requested that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) review the…

Pacific Strategy XIII: Re-Working South Korean Defense

10/27/2011
10/27/2011 - In our discussions at USMC Yuma Air Station with MAWTS, one issue analyzed was the impact of the first 4-6 F-35Bs on the first operations of the Amphibious Ready Group.  This has naturally led us to look at the same sort of question for the CVN and for…

Pacific Strategy XII: The Role of the USAF

10/27/2011
10/26/2011: As this rollout of a Pacific strategy for the United States in the Pacific has made clear, air power is not synonymous with the USAF.  Airpower is crucial at every level of establishing presence and shaping the building blocks of scalability.  Without aviation assets, the USCG cutters have very…

Shaping a Pacific Strategy IV

10/11/2011
10/11/2011 - The approach we are building is from the ground up – quite literally.  The US to protect its economic interests and sovereignty needs to deploy forward throughout the Pacific. We started with the USCG and its everyday forward deployments in the North and South Pacific.  And our interview…

Shaping a Pacific Strategy: Honeycombing the Pacific

09/27/2011
09/27/2011 As the United States eventually gets around to looking at the world, a new strategy as well as a new approach to using the tools available to the national command authority will be necessary.  Currently, the US is in strategic free fall.  The Iraq engagement is ending, the Afghan…