Anti-access/area denial is not as new as you might think. Commonly known as A2/AD, "anti-access/area denial" has become a hot topic in recent years. Many have detailed the threats that A2/AD weapons systems pose to the US military, especially its aircraft carriers. But those threats aren’t new; A2/AD campaigns have been waged since the Greco-Persian [...]
US President Barack Obama recently suggested that the leaders of Islamic State “know they will lose in Syria and Iraq”, and that consequently they’re already “shifting their strategy” to accommodate that impending battlefield defeat. President Obama’s assessment was later repeated by the commander of Australia’s training mission in Iraq, who predicted victory by August [...]
"After neutralizing this advanced surface based air defense system [our flight of four F-35s] destroyed four additional targets. Suffice to say that this mission would have been close to suicide with a four-ship of F-16s alone!" This post was first published by Kampflybloggen (The Combat Aircraft Blog), the official blog of the Norwegian F-35 Program Office [...]
The F-35 Lightning II has been operational with the USMC for more than a year, with the USAF for several months, and is nearing introduction into the USN. These services see the F-35 not merely as a new capability, but as part of a much broader transformation of the power projection force. It is [...]
The decline in USN and USMC non-deployed flying rates are a cause for concern, as demonstrated by increased home station accident rates. Fixing the problem will take time. Concern has arisen over an increase in aircraft crashes in 2016, particularly USN and USMC F/A-18C Hornets and F/A-18E/F Super Hornets. Since May, four Hornet or Super Hornet [...]
That’s not very joint” The quote came from a senior Air Force officer in response to a suggestion of mine. My suggestion was that Air Force elements on operations needed stronger air power identities if we wanted to tell the story of Australian air power better. No one suggests HMAS Perth or 7th Battalion Royal [...]
Why do we have an Air Force? In addressing that question, can we move beyond the "Justification Cycle"? Before you read any further into this post, I’d ask you to think about a response to the question posed in the title: Why do we have an Air Force? With your answer in mind, please [...]
“Strategy” is one of those words that’s used so widely and in so many different contexts that it often seems to generate confusion. That doesn’t need to be the case, as the nature of Australia’s long-running involvement in the wars in the Middle East can be used to illustrate. Writing in the Fairfax media [...]