Featured Article

01/20/2025
By Robbin Laird When I was working with the U.S. Coast Guard, more than a decade ago, the Commandant was considering a new acquisition approach. The acquisition approach became known as Deepwater. This is the only comprehensive mutli-domain acquisiton approach which the U.S. has tried to implement in the maritime domain. In a 2003 Defense Horizons article I wrote for the National Defense University I focused on the Deepwater model within the context of various…
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Shaping the UK Carrier Strike Group: The Perspective of Commodore Andrew Betton and Col. Phil Kelly

06/22/2018By Robbin Laird During my visit to Portsmouth, England and to RAF Marham in early May 2018, I visited senior Royal Navy and defense personnel involved in the… Read more »

An Update on F-35 Manufacturing: Donald Kinard Talks with Aerospace Manufacturing

06/21/2018Ed Hill, Aerospace Manufacturing In this Q&A session Don Kinard, Lockheed Martin senior fellow F-35 production, discusses with Ed Hill how the defence giant is applying automation, robotics and additive… Read more »

Visiting VMX-1 at MCAS Yuma: Working MAGTF Modernization

06/21/2018By Robbin Laird What was clear from my visit to MAWTS-1 and getting a chance to look at the work of the latest WTI is that the Marines… Read more »

An Update on Leveraging the F-35 in Shaping a Way Ahead: The Perspective of Air Commodore David Bradshaw

06/19/2018By Robbin Laird Air Commodore Bradshaw was appointed as Lighting Force Commander, Royal Air Force Marham in April 2017 and he succeeded Air Commodore now Air Vice-Marshal H.… Read more »

Working F-35-HIMARS Integration: Shaping a Way Head for a 21st Century Distributed Shooter-Sensor Capability

06/19/2018By Robbin Laird During my latest visit to MAWTS-1 in May 2018, the work of the MAWTS-1 team during WTI-18-2 was the focus of attention. MAWTS-1 is working… Read more »

Launching the Second Hundred Years of the RAF: Setting in Motion UK F-35 Operations

06/16/2018By Robbin Laird In early May 2018, I visited RAF Marham where the RAF and the Royal Navy was getting ready to receive their F-35s which have been… Read more »

The HMS Queen Elizabeth and Crafting the Way Ahead for Its Initial Deployment

06/15/2018By Robbin Laird The coming of the HMS Queen Elizabeth to the UK combat force is a trigger for significant defense transformation. Most of the analysis of the… Read more »

Working the Way Ahead for the USMC: How MAWTS-1 Supports Change

06/13/2018By Robbin Laird During my latest visit to MAWTS-1, I had a chance to focus upon recent developments generated by the latest WTI course. Last year, I had… Read more »

VMFA-121 At Misawa Air Base

06/13/2018Marine Aircraft Group 12 forces deployed several F-35B Lightning ll’s for a regularly scheduled aviation training relocation at Misawa Air Base, Japan, May 9, 2018.  ATR’s are designed… Read more »