“China is not mentioned with one single word in the current Strategic Concept,” said NATO SecGen Jens Stoltenberg. “In one [way] or the other, I’m absolutely certain China will be reflected, and the challenges that China poses will be reflected” in the planned 2022 update.
By Theresa HitchensThe deployment of the two US Navy ships, along with a refueling ship, is the largest American presence in the waterway in three years.
By Paul McLeary“There are a lot of requirements out there and we could use everything we had and a little bit more,” says ACC head Gen. Mike Holmes, but “we need to put some priority on modernization.”
By Theresa HitchensAlthough retiring the B-2 fleet could save the Air Force nearly $3 billion, CSIS cautions that doing so “would leave the nation without a long-range penetrating strike aircraft and would weaken the airborne component of the nuclear triad.”
By Theresa HitchensAFA ORLANDO: The Air Force, which relies on large vulnerable targets known as JSTARS, AWACS, Rivet Joint and other aircraft, knows it may need to shift its reliance on big, largely indefensible planes to fused networks of sensors as they are doing with JSTARS. That was the word from Gen. Mike Holmes here today when…
By Colin ClarkShifting from a primary focus on counterinsurgency land wars to building a high intensity combat force able to prevail against peer competitors is a significant challenge for the United States and its closest allies after 15 years of COIN. A key dynamic within this effort is the crucial opportunity the US and its closest allies have to…
By Robbin LairdCAPITOL HILL: How smart is too smart? When F-35 Joint Strike Fighters flew simulated combat missions around Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, their pilots couldn’t see the “enemy” radars on their screens. Why? The F-35s’ on-board computers analyzed data from the airplanes’ various sensors, compared the readings to known threats, and figured out the…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.The Australian military is shaping a transformed military force, one built around new platforms but ones that operate in a joint manner in an extended battlespace. The goal is to extend the defense perimeter of Australia and create, in effect, their own version of an Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) strategy. They also recognize a key reality of 21st…
By Robbin LairdNATO HQ: As Central Command continues to hammer Daesh with bombs, rockets, bullets, and more, that’s straining the limited supply of AWACS, the airborne radar/command post aircraft that form the backbone of a modern air campaign. “That’s a capability under stress,” a senior NATO diplomat told reporters here. AWACS is one of those classic “high-demand, low-density”…
By Colin ClarkAs former Air Force Chief of Staff “Buzz” Moseley once declared, “there is not a place on the face of the earth that the USAF will not fight their way into.” But this aspiration has been complicated by 15 years of fighting low-end opponents like the Taliban even as peer adversaries like China and Russia…
By Robbin Laird, Ed Timperlake and Murielle DelaporteMore and more American leaders recognize the importance of taking a whole of government approach to using America’s power. We are strongest when we bring the full weight of our national power to bear — diplomacy, information, the military and economics. Applied with strategic skill, these four levers of national power — when acting in…
By David Deptula
The shift from slo mo — counterinsurgency operations — to high intensity combat is a major challenge for the US military and its allies. It is a culture shift, a procurement shift and an investment shift. But mobilization is even more important than modernization. To get ready for this shift, our weapons inventory needs to…
By Robbin Laird