Featured Article

08/20/2023
By Robbin Laird From the introduction to the Book: In their preface to their book on the F-35, the authors start with this statement: The F-35s journey through time has been unlike any other in the annuals of aerospace and defense history. It was devised under the gospel of acquisition reform, it undertook the unprecedented challenge of unifying three very different U.S. services in a common platform to replace ten existing and aging aircraft, it…
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Shaping a Way Ahead for Remotely Piloted Air Systems: The Perspective of Wing Commander Keirin Joyce

09/22/2022By Robbin Laird I have known Wing Commander Keirin Joyce for a number of years, and last spoke with him at length after he chaired last year’s Williams… Read more »

Shaping a Way Ahead for the ADF: The Key Role of C2

09/21/2022By Robbin Laird Enhancing C2 capabilities for the ADF in the near to midterm is a critical part of being able to deliver the kind of defense capabilities… Read more »

Where Does the CMV-22b Fit into U.S. Navy’s Evolving Concept of Operations?

09/19/2022A great place to go to approach ways to answer that question is to visit The Naval Aviation Warfighting Development Center or NAWDC which is best known to… Read more »

Enhancing U.S. Navy Fleet Capabilities: Reshaping the Approach to Sustaining the Force

09/08/2022By Robbin Laird Recently, the U.S. navy’s CNO Gilday underscored that fleet numbers are limited by the relatively limited defense industrial capacity in the United States. A clear… Read more »

The CH-53K and the Software Upgrade Process

09/03/2022By Robbin Laird A key difference between legacy 20th century military platforms and 21st century platforms revolve around software upgradeability. With the legacy platforms, integration on the platform… Read more »

The RAAF and the US Air Force Work Integration

08/21/2022By Robbin Laird When I worked for Secretary Wynne when he was head of defense acquisition and then Secretary of the USAF, I had a chance to focus… Read more »

Delivering Mission Capabilities to the Fleet via USVs: From Platforms to the Payloads

08/19/2022By Robbin Laird In my previous article highlighting the coming of autonomous unmanned surface vessels to the fleet, I underscored: “Autonomous USVs can provide wolfpack deployed ISR or… Read more »

Airpower in Shaping a Way Ahead in European Defense

08/08/2022By Robbin Laird In this first article in my series highlighting my recent discussion with BG (Retired) Preziosa. we discussed the importance of enhanced cooperation among European states… Read more »

The HMAS Canberra Works with USMC Aircraft Onboard for RIMPAC 22

07/25/2022By Robbin Laird HMAS Canberra was born in a strategic context for Australia considerably different from today. When the Australian government was considering adding an LHA to the… Read more »