NATO kicked off its largest ever intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance exercise, to distill lessons from Afghanistan and prepare for the arrival of NATO’s own RQ-4 Global Hawks, officials stated. Exercise Unified Vision held at Ørland AB, Norway, brought together air, land, and sea assets from 18 allied countries and nearly 2,000 participants for a 10-day coordination and information sharing drill. “Operations in Afghanistan have led to an unprecedented level of information sharing among Allies and partners,” alliance officials stated in a May 19 release. “NATO is committed to build on this invaluable experience and further enhance its ability to use and share data gathered by both national and collective assets,” they added. On top of NATO’s AWACS fleet, several allies are buying a pooled fleet of five Global Hawks Block 40s under the Alliance Ground Surveillance program, which is expected to be fully operational by 2017.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III rebuffed criticism that the F-35 program has proved too costly and unreliable to serve as the viable backbone of America’s and allies' future fighter fleet on April 30. “I would not categorize the F-35 as a paperweight,” Austin said in response to questioning…