The future of the RAF is on display at the Farnborough Air Show. With the F-35, the RAF is part of the multi-domain airpower transformation and will work closely with European allies, notably in reshaping Northern Tier Defense. With the Typhoon, the RAF is seeking a modernized aircraft reworked to compliment the F-35 but with a yet undetermined relationship with its European partners. And the A330MRTT and A400M aircraft, as well as MBDA missiles, are part of a broader context of resolving Brexit.

Vladimir Putin has clearly focused on expanding Russian influence in the areas of strategic interest to Russia such as the region that stretches from the Baltics to the Nordics. Proof? They have generated major military exercises designed to influence behavior, such as last year’s Zapad 2018. They have issued nuclear threats against the Danes and the… Keep reading →

China’s increasingly aggressive rise puts the Pacific theater in play in a way it hasn’t been since 1945. In this essay, Singaporean scholar Ben Ho Wan Beng and retired US Marine Gary Lehmann look at what a critical but overlooked World War II battle has to tell us about the potential strengths — and weaknesses — of the Marine Corps’s new concept for waging the next Pacific war. — the editors

The initial contract announced today was just $198 million for the first 30 vehicles, to be delivered by next fall, but Marines want to replace approximately 870 existing AAVs with better-protected, more mobile ACVs “as rapidly as we can,” which will take into “the mid to late ’20s.”

  China and Russia are outmaneuvering the US, using aggressive actions that fall short of war, a group of generals and admirals have concluded. To counter them, the US needs new ways to use its military without shooting, concludes a newly released report on the Quantico conclave. The US military will need new legal authorities… Keep reading →

Northrop Grumman was pushed aside today by Lockheed Martin as it picked Raytheon to build perhaps the F-35’s most important sensor, the Distributed Aperture System. “It’s a major upset,” Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group said when I asked him to discuss the decision.

WASHINGTON: The Senate Armed Services Committee has proposed the most sweeping reevaluation of the military in 30 years, with tough questions for all four armed services but especially the Marine Corps. While its provisions cover topics ranging from swarming robots to “construction and maintenance of public works in Cis-Lunar Space,” its overwhelming focus is reorienting… Keep reading →

CENTER FOR STRATEGIC & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Some Marine Corps units, but not all, will get extra training in large-scale combat as the Pentagon refocuses from counterinsurgency to great power conflict. While every Marine would have a role in a major war with Russia or China — the service isn’t big enough to leave anybody on… Keep reading →

The Marines want new missiles for multiple missions: attacking enemy aircraft, ships at sea, and ground targets. But getting them on a tight budget will require working closely with the Army and Navy.

“That’ll be the uphill battle, getting this through conference,” a Senate staffer told me. “I told DoD (the Department of Defense), if you don’t like what’s in our mark, you know your strategy: Go talk to HASC (the House Armed Services Committee).