As a boy growing up in the 1950s, I looked forward every year to the new cars and how different they would be from last year’s models. Obviously, I am not doing that in 2019, because the combination of what the frame of the car can deliver aerodynamically interacts with software and advanced materials to… Keep reading →

I have been travelling to Australia and working with the Williams Foundation in Canberra for five years. What I have found most fascinating about my time there and the journey of discovery of the RAAF is how they have fully embraced the F-35 and reshaping the eco system for the 21st century air combat force they… Keep reading →

Whatever you think of Jim Mattis, his resignation and the outflow of officials that will follow create a major foreign policy problem for the United States. There is not one ally who is applauding Mattis’s departure — but depart he will, all the same. So what must President Trump and his next defense secretary do,… Keep reading →

Presidents Putin and Trump will meet soon in Helsinki.  At a time of uncertainty in the US-Russia relationship, the meeting is an important step forward in clarifying that relationship, one that should be not reduced to a Trump tweet or a Putin chess move. Where it is being held is significant. Helsinki was part of the… Keep reading →

CAPITOL HILL: If the Commandant of the Marine Corps had one more dollar to spend — and he probably will with the recent budget deal — he’d use it to upgrade Navy ships’ electronics to take full advantage of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, he said this morning. The Marines’ new F-35Bs have the sensors to… Keep reading →

The shift from low-intensity land wars and the concepts of operations associated with them to getting ready for higher tempo and higher intensity operations are key to the transformation of U.S. and allied forces.  The challenge facing the liberal democracies was well put in a recent presentation by a senior Finnish defense official: “The timeline… Keep reading →

Denmark is a small country, but an important player in the NATO Alliance and the resurgent Nordic defense group of Norway, Sweden and Finland to deal with the rumbling Russia. And it will grow more important as it implements an impressive 20 percent increase in defense spending over the next six years. The increase was… Keep reading →

Robbin Laird is an old defense hand. Today, he’s a consultant and a member of the Breaking Defense Board of Contributors, but he served as special assistant for the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency from 1979-1983 and also worked on the National Security Council for two presidents. Here’s the piece he posted on his website, Second Line… Keep reading →

Shifting 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… Keep reading →

UPDATED: Crowley Will Stay In NYC, Per Request She Withdraw; Jan. 16 This is a little out of of our usual lane, but the controversy about Monica Crowley’s apparent plagiarism, both  in large sections of her Ph.D thesis and in a recent best-selling book of hers, raises troubling issues of truthfulness and personal integrity, values one hopes… Keep reading →