By Robbin Laird

The significant change in USMC aviation since the introduction of the Osprey has set in motion fundamental changes overall in USMC capabilities and concepts of operations.

In the past decade, the Osprey has matured as a combat platform and fostered significant change in concepts of operations. No less than the virtual end of the ARG-MEU and the shaping of a new approach to amphibious warfare and shaping new concepts of operations for dealing with peer competitors is underway.

With the end of the primary focus upon the land wars, the Osprey and changes to the attack and support helicopter fleets, have changed how the Marines can operate in a combat space. The revolution in tiltrotor technology, and the much more effective integration of the Yankee and Zulu class helicopters, have allowed the Marines to have a smaller logistical footprint in covering a wider combat space.

Enter the F-35B.

With the coming of the F-35B and the impact of the template of change laid down by the Osprey, with its range and speed, together they are driving significant change in distributed operational  combat capability. This capability has been not only reinforced, but is being taken to the next level.

Now with CNI-enabled aircraft with 360-degree situational awareness, a Marine Corps MAGTF can deploy with an integrated EW-ISR-C2-weapons carrier and trigger which can form the backbone for enabling an insertion force.

In other words, the 2010s have seen the maturing of the tiltrotar revolution being combined with the arrival of fifth generation capabilities.

And the Marines are the only combat force in the world with cutting edge integration of these new capabilities within the overall combat force.

The success of the 2010s has fostered change in how the USMC was able to operate as a crisis management force.

Those successes provide as well the  tip of the spear for the innovations of the 2020s.

Now the challenge is full spectrum crisis management which requires a force capable in operating in contested air and sea space and with an ability to provide more effective engagement as an integrated distributed force.

It is clear that USAF and US Navy as well as the US Army are shifting from their legacy forces which operated in the land wars of the 2010s, to working on becoming an integrated distributed force in which multi-domain operations and tactical decision making at the edge is a core focus of effort and attention.

Yet there is some confusion in the analytical literature over where the Marines are headed with regards to their next round of innovation. For many the focus is upon a more traditional approach to crisis management rather than realizing that the strategic shift is to full spectrum crisis management.

Some analysts have argued that the Commandant’s New Guidance is really the end of the crisis management Marines in favor of becoming part of the Navy’s overall combat force.

Others see the changes in the US Army has encompassing changes which the Marines have made to subsume Marine Corps capabilities and to displace them.

As the Army shifts to buying, deploying and adapting to a new generation of high speed helicopters, some see this as the inevitable outcome.

But in fact, the world has changed.

Doing crisis management against adversaries which posses significant strike and defense capabilities clearly requires shaping a more lethal and effective distributed force.

And in such a world, sea-basing integrated with an ability to use flexible land basing is a core capability from which the U.S. and its core allies can gain an operational advantage.

It also provides enhanced capability to do offensive-defensive operations with a distributed yet integrated force.

In his guidance, General Burger, the Commandant of the USMC, speaks of the growing importance of Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations or EABO. “We are going to build a force that can do EABO opposed to building an EABO force.”¹

When you couple this with the opportunity to combine the use of the fleet (amphibious, surface, subsurface, USVs and UUVs) with islands and allied territory (certainly not only already operational bases), the challenge will be to integrate these capabilities, sea-basing, manned and unmanned, with land bases, temporary or more permanent. Part of the challenge will be to be able to establish Forward Arming and Refueling Points or FARPs and to fold those into the integrated distributed force.

(This shift is a crucial one and requires further focus of attention. We will address the challenge of co-joining sea base with mobile land basing in a separate piece.)

Also crucial, is to shape C2 mesh networks which can combine distributed forces into a coherent combat force and operate at the tactical edge.

USMC Aviation Innovations for the 2020s

The projected additions of USMC aviation assets in the decade ahead clearly can provide key capabilities to enable this transition, much like the changes of the past decade put the Marines into this position in the first place.

Three key additions are crucial to this evolution.

The first is the addition of the CH-53K.

Without an effective heavy lift asset, an ability to operate form the seabase or to established distributed FARPS in the operational window for an integrated distributed force, the Commandant’s strategy will be undercut.  The CH-53K will provide a key element of being able to carry equipment and/or personnel to the objective area. And with its ability to carry three times the external load of the CH-53E and to be able to deliver the external load to different operating bases, the aircraft will contribute significantly to distributed operations.

But the digital nature of the aircraft, and the configuration of the cockpit is a key part of its ability to contribute as well.  The aircraft is a fly-by-wire system with digital interoperability built in. And with multiple screens in the cockpit able to manage data in a variety of ways, the aircraft can operate as a lead element, a supporting element or a distributed integrated support node to the insertion force.

A key change associated with the new digital aircraft, whether they are P-8s or Cyclone ASW helicopters, is a different kind of workflow. The screens in the aircraft can be configured to the task and data moved throughout the aircraft to facilitate a mission task-oriented work flow.

In the case of the CH-53K, the aircraft could operate as a Local Area Network for an insertion task force, or simply as a node pushing data back into the back where the Marines are operating MAGTBs.

Marines carrying MAGTBs onboard the CH-53K will be able to engage with the task force to understand their role at the point of insertion. The K as a digital aircraft combined with the digital transformation of the Marines create a very different ground force insertion capability.

The second is the addition of new and more capable unmanned assets to empower the force, and to provide for the proactive ISR which the integrated distributed force needs to enhance their operational effectiveness.

VADM Brown, the Commander of the Naval Surface Force, Pacific, has recently underscored how adding unmanned assets and their integration is a key part of the navy’s fleet transformation for the decade ahead.

From providing intelligence to acting as a decoy to firing missiles on a target passed from another ship, Brown said he has a good idea of what USVs could bring to the fight, and his command is working on finalizing concepts of operations for U.S. Fleet Forces Command and for Congress.

“I think it’s well within the possibility that we’ll fight fleet on fleet with unmanned surface vessels deep into that fight,” he said, calling it a fundamental change to how the fleet fights akin to the introduction of carrier-based aviation to a battleship-centric fleet ahead of World War II.

It is clear that the Marine Corps is thinking along similar lines, and a major aviation contributor in the next decade is likely to be the MAGTF Unmanned eXpeditionary or MUX.

According to Richard Whittle in a 2016 Breaking Defense article:

“Lt. Gen. Jon “Dog” Davis, deputy Marine commandant for aviation, has said the Corps wants the MUX to do everything the Air Force’s fixed-wing MQ-9 Reaper drone can do and more. The Reaper, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems’ derivative of their MQ-1 Predator, offers airborne endurance in the 20-hour range; carries sensors to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR); and is typically armed with four AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-ground missiles and four 500-pound guided bombs.

“Barranco said what the Marines primarily want the MUX to do is, when an assault is being mounted, “go ahead of you, get over the target area, show you that picture, stay there once troops are on the ground, and when you have to go back, be there when you come to resupply, be there when you come back, to do close air support, give you that persistent SA (situational awareness).” Escorting Ospreys to and from objective areas would sacrifice the ability to loiter over the target area, he said, but the MUX “can be a gap-filler temporarily for the seven or eight years until FVL starts coming on line to be our manned solution to provide escort in support of our Ospreys.”

“Davis has said a relay of MUX could also serve as an airborne “picket line” around ships, which is one reason Bell Helicopter has named a tiltrotor drone it is offering for the job “V-247,” pronounced “vee-twenty-four-seven” to emphasize the potential for round-the-clock operations….

The third is further progress in shaping the digital integration of the force so that distributed operations can be more effective in contested environments.

The significant changes in C2 and ISR capabilities, integration and distribution is many ways the 6th generation rather than being a new aircraft. For the Marines, working digital interoperability has been a high priority as they prepared for the shift from the land wars to engaging in contested multi-domain operations.

This is not a thing but an enabler of integrated distributed operations. At the International Fighter Conference 2019, Lt. General David Nahom, Director of Strategic Plans and Programs, for the USAF, underscored that a core focus in shaping the evolution of USAF airpower was upon joint all-domain command and control. He argued that “we are building the high-speed highway on which to put the trucks.”

But as Lt. General (Retired) David Deptula put it, “I personally don’t think the “highway” and “trucks” analogy is that valuable as it implies that aircraft are nothing more than “trucks,” when in fact they are the enablers of the “highway.”  That is your point on F-35.  The point that should be emphasized is that modern aircraft are not the “trucks” as aircraft were used in the last century—they are much more.”

This is very much the USMC approach where legacy, and new aircraft are being shaped to operate in ways that allow the force to be distributed into discrete combat packages but integrated to the point of combat effect.

According to the USMC 2019 Aviation Plan:

“Digital interoperability is the seamless integration of digital systems and exchange of data, across all domains and networks throughout the MAGTF, naval, joint, and coalition forces, to include communication in degraded or denied environments, to rapidly share accurate information, provide greater situational awareness, accelerate the kill chain, and enhance survivability in order to outmaneuver and defeat the threat across the ROMO….

“The Marine Corps executes mission threads primarily as an integrated MAGTF organized to support the Marine rifleman. The integration of the MAGTF and the successful execution of mission threads relies on the effective exchange of critical information; communication therefore, whether in the form of electronic data or voice, is critical to the exchange of mission essential information….

“We continue to pursue integration and data exchange throughout various arenas: situational awareness; aircraft survivability; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR); fire support; and logistics by conducting continuous and iterative analysis of ever evolving information exchange requirements (IERs) and the technological tools needed to satisfy those requirements.”

In short, the progress in USMC aviation of the past decade is a prologue to the Commandant’s 2019 guidance.

Its progress in the 2020s will enable its realization.

Rethinking the Amphibious Task Force: Digital Interoperability and the Transformation of USMC Aviation

The 0-5 Military: Reshaping Concepts of Operations for Full Spectrum Crisis Management

The featured photo shows a UH-1Y Huey takes off alongside an AH-1W Super Cobra during a training exercise testing a digital interoperability system at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C., July 24, 2015.

Digital interoperability is the technology capable of increasing prowess on the battlefield.

The exercise included Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 467, Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 2, and U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Special Operations Command, testing a LINK 16 conversion system for one of the first times within an explicitly rotary-wing exercise. August 12, 2015.

The role of maritime remotes in shaping proactive ISR was highlighted in a discussion with Robert Slaven, formerly of the Australian Navy and now with L3Harris.

The Integrated Distributed Force and Maritime Operations

2019 AvPlan

 

 

 

By Andrew McLaughlin

The RAAF graduates a growing number of Air Warfare Instructors across multiple skillsets

They are among the RAAF best of the best – the latest batch of Air Warfare Instructor (AWI) capability subject matter experts showing they have what it takes to emerge as graduates of the biennial 2019 Air Warfare Instructor Course (AWIC).

The course concluded with the now familiar Exercise Dawn Strike, an event where about 20 combat aircraft fought their way through a defensive force to conduct a simulated strike on RAAF Base Williamtown.

While flying en route from RAAF Amberley, the course candidates and their airborne instructors flying F/A-18 classic and Super Hornets and EA-18G Growlers were intercepted by other classic Hornets from Williamtown off the NSW mid-north coast, with the melee being ‘supervised’ by an E-7A Wedgetail.

All attacking and defending aircraft then conducted a spectacular high-speed low-level ‘beat-up’ of Williamtown in waves of up to four aircraft, before recovering at the base for the graduates’ informal patch presentation at the Williamtown mess.

A couple of nights later, your writer was privileged to attend the formal graduation where the newly minted AWIs were presented with their qualifications and various awards of excellence in front of senior RAAF leadership, past and present FCI and AWI patch wearers, their peers, and family and friends.

FROM FCI TO AWI

AWI course candidates are drawn from an increasing number of RAAF air combat specialties.

The FCI course was founded in 1954 by WGCDR Dick Creswell to develop specialist Fighter Combat Instructors from air combat lessons he had learned as Commanding Officer of 77SQN in the Korean War, and his previous air combat experience in WWII. In 1954 the RAAF was flying Gloster Meteor fighters, and through the following four decades course candidates operated the CA-27 Sabre, Dassault Mirage IIIO, and the classic Hornet.

In 1992 the FCI course was expanded for the first time to include ground-based Fighter Intelligence Instructors (FII) and Fighter Combat Controllers (FCC), while later that decade the first F-111C strike crews were also invited to undertake the course and graduate as FCI ‘patch-wearers’.

FCIs are considered subject matter experts in the fields of air combat, strike, RAAF weapons systems, and adversary capabilities and tactics. But to be considered to participate in the course, candidates must have completed a number of professional milestones.

Following operational conversion (OPCON) to their aircraft type, candidate pilots and air combat officers (ACO) will have completed at least one three-year squadron tour and a large force employment exercise such as Red Flag, Cope North or Pitch Black. These major exercises are often where pilots are upgraded to a B Category (B-Cat) rating which qualifies them to lead four-ship formations in combat. Course candidates are also invited to participate based on their above-average competency and leadership qualities.

Up until 2017, the FCI Course was conducted wholly within Air Combat Group (ACG) and using ACG resources. Due to the limited resources of the operationally-focused force element group (FEG) – and despite the high-quality output of the course – the course’s scope was understandably limited.

“It was still a very fighter-centric course,” Air Warfare Centre Commander, AIRCDRE Phil Gordon told ADBR. “But with the advent of Plan Jericho and the Air Warfare Centre in 2016, the die was cast to fundamentally re-think how we execute that advanced integrated training, and we leant very heavily on the US Fighter Weapons School model when it broadened its scope to become the USAF Weapons School.

“The first AWIC we ran was in 2017, and that was the first one that was not entirely based around fighters with other supporting capabilities, but became a whole-of-community integrated effort,” he added.

With its own dedicated budget and instructional resources to draw upon, the AWIC was brought under the Tactics and Training Directorate (TTD), an element of the Air Warfare Centre.

“The Air Warfare Centre I would say was born of Plan Jericho and the need to drive the Air Force to make the most of all the new capabilities that are being introduced,” AIRCDRE Gordon said. “When it was formed in January 2016 with the motto to ‘Ready the Warfighter’, it really was focused on driving innovation and integration across all of air force to get us to that 5th generation future.

“One of the newly created directorates within the AWC at that time was the TTD which has 88 Squadron within it,” he added. “I think the TTD is one of the real crown jewels in our drive for high-end integration. It has some really high-calibre subject matter experts from each of the platforms and systems that we use operationally, and we put them all together and make them work out how to get all the systems to work together and how to fight as a system-of-systems, not as a series of individual platforms.

“Having developed these tactics, 88SQN really shapes the training and the tactics and the development of the rest of Air Command, so that everyone is heading in the right direction to deliver on that integrated future.”

While the AWC is headquartered at RAAF Edinburgh near Adelaide, the “critical mass” of TTD and 88SQN is based at RAAF Williamtown in order to be co-located with key RAAF elements such as ACG, 81WG, Headquarters Surveillance & Response Group (HQSRG), 41WG, 42WG, the E-7As Wedgetails of 2SQN, and most of the fighter squadrons’ headquarters.

The TTD is currently headed by GPCAPT Matt McCormack and 88SQN is commanded by WGCDR Tim Main. GPCAPT McCormack is a classic Hornet pilot and a former CO of 2OCU, while WGCDR Main is an air combat officer and a qualified Fighter Combat Controller (FCC).

With the change from FCI course to AWIC, the 2017 course was vastly expanded to include AEW&C Combat Instructors (ACI) from the E-7A Wedgetail, and Mobility Tactics Instructors (MTI) from the C-130J. Also in 2017 the FII qualification was “re-branded” as ICI, or Intelligence Combat Instructor.

“So we broadened the community away from just fighters to include Wedgetail and C-130s,” AIRCDRE Gordon said. “Then in 2019 we created a Growler Tactics Instructor (GTI).”

Prior to 2017, FCI courses usually graduated between six and 10 fast-jet crew members plus a few FIIs and FCCs. But AWIC19 graduated a total of 27 AWIs across six specialist domains, comprising eight FCIs (five classic Hornet pilots, two Super Hornet pilots, and one Super Hornet ‘back-seater’ weapons systems operator), four FCCs, three ICIs, five ACIs, three MTIs, and four GTIs.

COURSE ELEMENTS

Exercise Dawn Strike at the end of May was just the last of several major exercise elements conducted over the five months of the course.

The first of these was Exercise Diamond Sage conducted in Canberra in January which comprised planning meetings and briefings in conjunction with Air Force Headquarters (AFHQ) and other participating ADF capability managers. Following that was an initial instructional phase in February, before the course rolled into Exercise Diamond Shield in March.

Previously called Aces South, Diamond Shield is an air defence exercise conducted at Williamtown and Amberley and the airspace in between and, this year, was supported by visiting USAF F-16C/D fighters from the 18th Aggressor Squadron based at Eielson AFB in Alaska.

Following an additional instructional phase, the course rolled into Exercise Diamond Spear which is a dedicated air-to-ground phase using live and simulated ordnance on the ranges around Williamtown and Amberley. Exercise Diamond Spear was previously called Aces Strike.

In between all the flying activities of the course, the AWIs are required to complete intensive academics to provide theoretical grounding for what they will later be required to put into practice.

The major exercise element of the AWI course was the massive three-week long Exercise Diamond Storm which was conducted primarily in the Northern Territory ranges around Darwin and RAAF Tindal near Katherine.

Formerly called Aces North, Diamond Storm this year included visiting USAF F-15C Eagles of the 144th Fighter Wing (144FW) California Air National Guard based in Fresno, and B-52Hs from the 23rd Expeditionary Bomber Squadron (23EBS) on a rotational deployment at Anderson AFB on Guam that were working with the ADF on the regular Enhanced Air Cooperation (EAC) program.

“There are multiple levels why it is important for USAF to support exercises like Diamond Storm, the major one being interoperability between the United States and Australia,” the 23EBS Assistant Director of Operations, Maj Bryson Ayers said in a statement during the exercise. “We train together because it gives us a better understanding of the people we are likely to work with in the future.

“It’s sometimes the small things that build the strongest relationships, we don’t just fly together – we eat together and attend briefs together,” Maj Byers added. “We are learning about how life is different in the two countries and yet essentially the same. It has been an enriching couple of weeks for the crew on the ground here.”

In addition to the USAF assets, there were also US Marine Corps AH-1Z Vipers, UH-1Y Venoms and MV-22B Ospreys, and Alpha Jets and Learjets operated by Air Affairs and Raytheon to provide additional electronic warfare, adversary force, and a force multiplication capability.

The Raytheon Electronic Warfare Training Systems (EWTS) Learjet 35A provides a simulated contested electromagnetic environment which course candidates need to manage and ‘fight’ through. An ADF statement says the EWTS inclusion in the adversary force’s order of battle introduced radar jamming, communications denial, and deception through accurate threat simulation.

“When we experience jamming from the Learjet it makes it more difficult for us to be able to target that aircraft,” F/A-18A pilot FLGOFF ‘Georgi’ said in a statement during the exercise. “We have to use our radar in a more deliberate manner to achieve an affect. It increases the complexity of the task and is a fantastic simulation of what would happen in the real world.”

Raytheon also deployed its Mobile Threat Training Emitter System (MTTES) system from Oakey in QLD to the NT for Diamond Storm. The MTTES is a new capability designed to provide an operationally representative ground-based threat, the effects of which can be coordinated with other air and ground elements to create a layered defence posture that requires advanced integrated planning and execution to overcome.

“The threat emitters give us another layer of targeting complexity when we are focused on delivering weapons on our adversary’s doorstep,” said FLGOFF Georgi. “We must defend against surface-to-air threat systems that can pop-up without notice anywhere in the area of operation. It’s been great to see our aircraft threat warning indicators react in real time to surface-to-air threats. It really makes a difference when you see an indicator light up as opposed to having to pretend.”

Diamond Storm also saw the final employment of the Dornier Alpha Jets as adversaries prior to their return to Canada. Operated by Discovery Air Defence Services under Air Affairs Australia’s existing Jet Air Support contract, the three former Luftwaffe Alpha Jets have been based at Williamtown since August 2017 on a two-year trial contract to provide adversary ‘Red Air’, Joint Terminal Attach Controller (JTAC) training, and RAN fleet support work.

Another simulated threat employed for Diamond Storm was a Royal Air Force Skyguard radar and inflatable simulated weapons system – or ‘jumping castle’ – which was set up in the Bradshaw Range southwest of Darwin. The RAF says that when the Skyguard radar and inflatable weapons system are paired together, they create a layered defence.

“The Skyguard radar can track aircraft up to 16 kilometres away and has twin 35mm cannons with a range of four kilometres,” RAF Aerospace Systems Manager, SGT Nick said in a statement during the exercise. “In a real world scenario it would be used to protect high value assets like a hospital or base headquarters.

“Skyguard sends out an electronic signal to the aircraft, giving the aircraft a realistic target on the ground,” he added. “From the air, a pilot will see an inflatable tank and react to the threat from the Skyguard. Our equipment is simulating an adversary force that the AWIC candidates have to identify, engage or manoeuvre around.”

Following Diamond Storm, the Skyguard radar and inflatable weapons systems was deployed to Queensland and used in Exercise Talisman Sabre 2019.

Apart from the fast jets, other ADF Diamond Storm assets included Hawk 127, AP-3C (EW) Orion, P-8A Poseidon, C-17A, KC-30A MRTT, E-7A Wedgetail and C-130J Hercules, as well as 114 Mobile Control and Reporting Unit (114MCRU) and 3CRU operating AN/TPS-77 Tactical Air Defence Radar Systems (TADRS), Army SASR special forces and Tiger ARHs, and 4SQN combat controllers.

Near Timber Creek at the southern end of the vast Bradshaw Range, 3CRU set up its TPS-77 unit, while 114MCRU set up its radar and communications systems at Pine Creek between Darwin and Katherine.

“Our TADRS has a range of up to 250 nautical miles, and our role here is to help provide a three dimensional air picture in exercise scenarios,” 3CRU communication electronics Technician CPL Steve Maley said in a statement during the exercise. “We are trained to deploy our radar capability to the most remote locations.

“3CRU are emulating an enemy force during Diamond Storm,” he added. “We are playing the ‘baddies’ to provide complex training for the course. We have to keep the radar spinning to keep the exercise going. If a jet breaks it can potentially sit out of a mission, but if our radar goes down there is a crucial missing link.”

Also supporting the exercise was the newly upgraded Delamere Air Weapons Range (DELAWR), a half-million acre area southwest of Katherine that the ADF describes as ‘Australia’s premier weapons ranges for practice gunnery and both inert and high explosive bombing.

The range has recently received new accommodation, recreation and messing facilities to better support permanent staff and those deployed for major exercises and training events.

“The new facilities have more work-stations and work areas meaning that we can more easily accommodate exercise personnel,” Officer in Charge Range Operations, WGCDR Lynette Horne said in a statement during the exercise. “We now have a dedicated and permanent facility for Raytheon, an operations centre and briefing room, a dedicated medical room with trauma bed and purpose built explosive ordnance storage areas.

“The new facilities have enhanced our ability to provide a high-quality support base for operations in the field. All the permanent staff here look forward to the future growth of the range.”

Further upgrades are scheduled for DELAWR, including the all-important electronic warfare training range capability that will be required to provide high-fidelity threat training for the RAAF’s F-35A, EA-18G Growler, and the forthcoming Gulfstream G550-based MC-55A Peregrine electronic warfare system.

FUTURE AWIC

While AWIC19 saw the course’s continued expansion into new skillsets and categories, it was also a somewhat poignant one for the RAAF. With the F/A-18A/B classic Hornet due to retire from RAAF service in 2021/22 after 37 years of service, this will likely have been the final AWI-FCI course led by 2OCU flying classic Hornets.

In July, the RAAF commenced the final operational conversion course (OPCON) to the classic Hornet. Once that course is complete later this year, 2OCU will divest itself of its Hornets before elements of the squadron relocate to Luke AFB in Arizona in early 2020 to begin their conversion to the F-35A, before returning to Williamtown in late 2020.

“Having worked in ACG for a large part of my career, I have seen the evolution from where we started with the Hornet to where we have ended up, and the progression has been remarkable,” Commanding Officer of 2OCU, WGCDR Woodland said. “It is sad to see the Hornet retire, but it’s also an exciting time as we transition to the F-35A and beyond, evolving into that next generation fighting force.”

In the meantime, 77SQN at Williamtown and 75SQN at Tindal will continue to operate the Hornet as operational squadrons and, while they will conduct upgrades and refreshers ‘in-house’ through their own training flight elements, from next year all formal RAAF fast-jet pilot training will be conducted on the BAE Hawk, F/A-18F, EA-18G and F-35A.

By the next AWIC in 2021, one RAAF squadron of F-35As will have achieved an initial operational capability (IOC) and another will be well advanced, and local operational conversion will be well underway. But the rapidly increasing tempo of F-35 training and operational workups mean it is unlikely the RAAF will be ready to send any F-35 pilots to the 2021 course.

But the F-35A community will still play a major role in AWIC21 by providing air combat, strike, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), joint-force integration, and other support roles to the exercise.

Meanwhile a high priority for AWIC21 for the RAAF is to develop an AWI category for the P-8A Poseidon maritime ISR aircraft.

“We had planned this year to have our first students on the course flying the P-8 Poseidon, but the operational tempo of that aircraft during its transition into service meant we held back on that,” AIRCDRE Gordon told us in closing. “The P-8 community still participated in the exercises and integrated at various points, but they didn’t have any of their crews as candidates on the course.

“In 2019 we also had some other warfighter communities supporting the course and as observers. For example, we had C-17 folks, KC-30, we had combat controllers from 4SQN, and we had some cyber folks from the Information Warfare Directorate in the AWC. The priority community in 2021 is to add the P-8, but we’re also looking at how we bring these additional new communities into the course in a measurable way that doesn’t dilute the product.”

This article was published by ADBR on January 16, 2020.