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Leverage Allied Investments and Combat Learning Experience in Modernizing the U.S. Military

            SPEAR was successfully deployed. SPEAR is carried upside down so at launch the missile must turn over, then
            deploy its wings, start the jet engine and then navigate a course to target. All these operations were successfully
            demonstrated during the trial.

            http://ow.ly/Xae730dzsbz

            Spear 3 is a natural for the USMC concepts of operations and its closest partner, the UK, will have already
            done its integration. The new business model would suggest that the USMC and USN should seriously consider
            acquiring this weapon for the relevant mission sets.

            Recently, Defence Minister Fallon suggested that the UK’s openness to acquiring US weapon systems needs to
            be reciprocated by the United States.  But the new F-35 business model goes beyond the simple question of
            classic protectionism or conducting costly but meaningless competition when an off the shelf allied solution is
            already in play.

            Put bluntly, the F-35 business model rests on leveraging joint investments and capabilities.  For the United
            States not to follow the F-35 business model would suggest that the business rules followed by DoD simply are
            not capable of adjusting to the new 21st century realities of business.
            And the Trump Administration can not really want to see such lack of innovation, an innovation generated by
            the new combat capability which the US has invested so much in itself.

            And the UK investments and operational efforts to integrate UK weapons onto the RAF/RN F-35s is clear and
            significant.  The UK will integrate Paveway 4, Meteor, SPEAR 3 and ASRAAM to the ‘B’ variant aircraft and
            be operational with these weapons by c. 2023. It simply remains for the US to pursue the logic of the F-35
            business model.


            RESHAPING THE MARITIME DOMAIN AWARENESS STRIKE ENTERPRISE
            Either through flying the P-8 or P-8 Triton combination or contributed significant upgrades to legacy
            equipment and building the kinds of sensors crucial to maritime domain dominance, allies are contributing from
            the ground up to the evolution of US new platforms or providing technology which could be adopted by US
            forces as well, or certainly contributing to the data stream necessary to dominate the maritime battlespace.

            Standing Up the P-8/Triton Maritime Domain Strike Enterprise in
            Australia: Visiting RAAF Edinbourgh

            2017-04-24 By Robbin Laird
            During a visit to Australia last Spring, I had a chance to visit South Australia and RAAF Edinburgh, which is
            near Adelaide.

            At Adelaide, the Australian Navy will be building its new submarines and at RAAF Edinburgh the Aussies are
            standing up the other key element of their 21st century ASW capabilities, namely, the core P-8/Triton base.

            I visited RAF Lossiemouth where the Brits are standing up their P-8 base and both the Aussies and the Brits are
            building 21st century infrastructure to support their new fleets of aircraft.

            And certainly there will be cross learning between the two air forces as both face similar and large operating
            areas working with the USN and other ASW partners.





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