Allies

Allies

For AIA, ‘America First’ Means First In Capabilities & Sales

PARIS AIR SHOW: As much as I tried to give David Melcher slack to say the powerful Aerospace Industries Association he leads was finding it more difficult to do business under the chaotic and oft-bewildering Trump administration, he kept saying things were pretty well in hand. “The first year of an administration is certainly more […]

Air Warfare

Uneasy Times In Europe As Continent Mulls Next Fighter

If the re-emergence of an assertive and occasionally belligerent Moscow was an unattractive possibility for Europeans of a cautious nature, an American president whose election campaign comments inadvertently or otherwise questioned his commitment to Article 5, the very heart of NATO, seemed unimaginable. Today, Europe is faced with both a Russia that is a strategic rival […]

Air Warfare

Allies And 21st Century Weapons: The F-35 Comes To Europe

A key dynamic in the shift from COIN-centric land wars to a twenty-first century combat force is what the US and its closest allies will learn from each other thanks to the core weapons systems they are buying at the same time. Hidden in plain view is the emergence of a significant driver of change  –- flying the same […]

Allies

Afghans Want More US Troops? Show Us Results

It looks as if the Trump administration will soon send 3,000 to 5,000 U.S. troops to fight in Afghanistan, the theater of America’s longest war. The mission — training and advising (and bolstering) the Afghan national security forces — will remain the same even though we’ve seen this play out more than once: the verdict […]

Allies

Trump Taps HASC Staffers For Intel & Europe Jobs

WASHINGTON: While reports that he may have violated the law swirl around disgraced former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn today, the White House moved to fill a few more of the very large number of empty offices of senior Pentagon officials. For our readers, the key appointment is of Kari Bingen, who apparently was nominated to […]

Air Warfare

Norway: A Model for NATO’s Northern Tier

Norway faces the challenge of crafting a national defense strategy for the 21st strategy in the face of Vlad Putin’s more aggressive Russia.  Because Putin thinks through his use of military power and designs limited objectives to achieve what he considers in the best interest of Russia, Norway faces a double challenge: how to defend […]

Air Warfare

US Must Counter Putin, Push NATO To Rearm

The United States — preoccupied with the wars of the Middle East and a pivot to Asia — has largely left the global playing field to Russian President Putin and must now lead NATO by forging a new consensus on the Russian threat and investing in new weapons. The correlation of forces in the European theater has arguably […]

Air Warfare

Dollar Hedges Help UK MoD Keep Calm In Age Of Trump & Brexit

WASHINGTON: Despite a turbulent Trump administration and a plummeting pound, the Anglo-American defense relationship remains strong, said the senior civil servant in the Ministry of Defence. “Under any circumstances, we’re going to continue to work very, very closely with the States,” Stephen Lovegrove, Permanent Secretary of the UK Ministry of Defence, told reporters this morning. […]

Air Warfare

How To Strengthen Alliances On President Trump’s Watch

America’s Asian allies have been unnerved by President Donald Trump’s dismissive rhetoric about alliances based on cost/benefit grounds, and his decision to dump the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement. That’s part of the reason Defense Secretary Jim Mattis traveled in Asia to calm nerves in Tokyo and Seoul. America’s European allies are also deeply unsettled by Trump’s […]