General Kevin Schneider, Commander of U.S. Pacific Air Forces and AVM Mark Flewin, Air Officer Commanding 1 Group Royal Air Force both spoke at the September 26, 2024 Sir Richard Williams Foundation Seminar.

The first presentation was by a video recording and the second was an in person presentation after the long flight from the UK. Together, the two provided insights into USAF and RAF thinking about the way ahead with allied airpower.

General Schneider underscored the close working relationship between the U.S. and Australia over the years and provided several examples of recent collaborative activity.

He focused on the recent Pitch Black exercise which was especially notable because of the expansion of partners in the Pacific region who participated.

Exercises like Pitch Black are not only increasing our interoperability, but they are helping our allied and partner nations rapidly to grow their capabilities. This in turn, helps secure their nations and provide stability to the region.

Your leadership in that exercise was evident, and the work accomplished there reached audiences around the world. You brought in so many firsts, the deployment of the Philippine Air Wing, our partners in Papua, New Guinea, and you worked tirelessly to bring in critical NATO allies from France, Spain, Germany, Italy and the UK.

NATO recognizes the importance of the Indo-Pacific and understands the impact it has on Euro Atlantic security. They also know where to find world class training with allies like you as well.

He then when on to highlight Australian cooperation in Filipino training as well as a key contribution to the common defence in the region.

I found quite interesting his spending time discussing the E-7 as well. When I first came to Australia in 2014 and then subsequently visiting the RAAF Wedgetail squadron, it was clear that the ADF had something special in the Wedgetail. But the United States and the United Kingdom even though looking for AWACS replacements, were slow to embrace the Wedgetail option. But now they have.

He noted:

The RAAF’s significant focus and role in air domain awareness stems from your nation’s early investment in the E-7 Wedgetail. It is a critical asset in our most advanced high-end training. The US Air Force Weapons School hosted the RAAF’s No. 2 Squadron for the first time as part of the weapons school integration phase in May and as part of the modernization of our own fleet.

We are excited to see the expansion of the exchange program, because now No. 2 Squadron is a multinational, integrated unit whose regular participation in global exercises with joint partners is a must, because we are developing and testing E-7 tactics with their air superiority and support for maritime strike forces. We wouldn’t be able to accomplish any of this without the genius of our collective airmen who are doing wonders at the tactical edge.

The General underscored: Australia adds immense value at the cutting edge of our most advanced tactics, techniques and procedures.

Quite obviously, the USAF needs to operate very differently in the evolving contested combat environment. And in this effort, it is working hand in glove with the RAAF.

This is how PACAF put it:

We must reorganize ourselves to tackle the high-end fights in the future, where we must be lethal while surviving in an anti-access area denial environment. We are learning to operate from austere locations, testing critical capabilities like our bomber Task Force and stressing our agile combat employment concept through a series of complex exercises at scope and at scale.

Through tremendous support from you, we’ve increased the rotational presence of U.S. capabilities in Australia across all domains, ensuring our forces work as interchangeable teams who are efficient during peacetime and lethal and survivable during wartime…

We want to find more ways to operate from different locations around the region to drive solutions to logistical challenges and to conduct rehearsals like hot pit refueling events and integrated flying operations to make our footprints even more lean and agile.

The bomber task forces, and our strategic aircraft play a critical role in our collective ability to support counter-maritime missions, something that we must do because the rise of competitors in both the Indo, Pacific and European theaters has brought anti-ship capability back to the forefront of the ASW mission. The bomber fleet is finding innovative ways to integrate modern weapons capabilities to increase survivability in an anti-access area denial environment and to support the joint fight.

He then discussed Agile Combat Employment and immediate ways ahead on training for this capability.

Next summer, we’ll partner with like-minded nations to host a large scale exercise to test agile combat employment at speed and scale in the Pacific that will coincide with the Talisman Sabre exercise, and as we anticipate the exercise will include fifth generation fighters, ISR, C-2, airlift and air fueling, and all the enablers to test our ability to deploy from the continental United States into theater to regional hubs in the first and second island chains.

We will disperse, aggregate, disaggregate, and recover aircraft. It is a highly complex logistical challenge in terms of access, spacing and overflight, maritime domain awareness and maritime strike capabilities, as well as generating and sustaining the force, making it even more challenging, we are adapting this new operational scheme of maneuver under significant fiscal constraints, a challenge that we all face as exciting as all these things are, I will never say that what we are doing is fast enough, that we have integrated enough, that we have prepared enough, or that we are ready enough.

AVM Mark Flewin then provided an RAF perspective on the way ahead.

He conveyed the sense of urgency as the West faces increasing threats and challenges. He looked back at World War II to remind the audience of the cost of the failure of deterrence.

But his presentation underscored the need for the West to get it right in terms of deterrence and although there is clear progress in the West’s capabilities, the tenor of his remarks that as an enterprise, we need to get better in order to ensure that deterrence prevails.

He underscored what he saw as five critical challenges that needed to be met on an urgent basis. The first is the need to generate greater combat mass.

He noted: We need to have the capacity to scale. It doesn’t need to be exquisite in terms of combat systems though it can be. It needs to be on the right side of the cost curve. It can be cheap.

We’ve seen from Ukraine that there’s a heavy mix of exquisite and non-exquisite capability that is ultimately delivering effects. But we need to absolutely partner with industry to be able to do that.

The second is enhancing our ability to fight tonight. The majority of the equipment we will have in 10 years we already have so we need to engage in continuous force improvement and training to ensure our force in readiness is at the level needed for deterrence

He underscored: We need to work together to optimize and get the most out of our platforms.

We’re working that in the Royal Air Force through a program called Optimize. It’s seen significant benefits already. We’ve seen the 20% improvement in availability on some platforms.

With Typhoon, for example, we’ve managed to remove 750,000 maintenance hours from that platform based on some data analysis and a risk aware approach which means we get more availability, and our mechanics are available for other tasks.

And it’s really important that we continue to spiral develop these platforms. They are going to be the baseline of our capability up to 2040 and they need to be ready to deliver.

The third is to ensure that we can adapt rapidly to technological change and to be able to incorporate relevant combat innovations being unveiled in the regional wars we see in front of us.

He put it this way:

My next point is on the criticality of embracing technological change. We talked about the electromagnetic environment today. What we witnessed in eastern Ukraine is that it’s an absolutely denied electromagnetic environment, we need to get around how we work in that environment, how we evolve in that environment. How we can bring operational advantage in that environment. We also need to not be afraid to fail and test and fail fast. It’s something we’ve worked on a lot in the UK. Naturally, we’ve moved away from it because we’ve been risk averse.

The fourth is the challenge of overcoming risk aversion and become more agile and capable of rapid innovation in our tactics and warfighting skills.

AVM Flewin emphasized:

We need to continue to change our mindset and make sure that we’re ready for the fight tomorrow. You might throw back at me that our processes aren’t efficient enough. We procure very slowly, our commercial process isn’t proficient enough.

We’ve learned a lot about that through Ukraine. We’ve adapted our process with industry. And I’d argue now that we are, we are getting after it, but there’s more to do. And we clearly need to transition from risk aversion to risk aware and objective focus.

Note: This is what the RAF has to say about the E-7:

The E-7 Wedgetail AEW Mk1 is the RAF’s successor to the E-3D Sentry and will provide a 5th Generation Airborne Early Warning and Control capability (AEW&C), with a Multi-role Electronically Scanned Array (MESA), that is interoperable and interchangeable with key allies.

The Wedgetail is the most technologically advanced AEW&C system available and will provide UK Defence with eyes in the sky, for at least the next 20 years, to see far beyond ground-based systems and fighter aircraft sensors. Capable of generating a 360-degree view of the airspace and as a force multiplier, it will provide advanced warning of approaching threats to enable commanders to fight effectively in complex environments.   

Already in service and proven with the Royal Australian, Republic of South Korean and Turkish Air Forces, the UK’s Wedgetail will serve under No 8 Squadron. It will be located at RAF Lossiemouth alongside the Poseidon Maritime Patrol aircraft, both of which are based upon the widely used Boeing 737 Next Generation airframe, allowing the RAF to take advantage of synergies between the fleets.

CAPABILITY

Capable of fulfilling a wide range of missions, Wedgetail can provide high fidelity and accurate target information utilising its cutting-edge MESA sensor housed in a distinctive fin on the spine of the aircraft. The sensor, combined with an advanced communications suite, enables the crew to provide tactical control to other assets via voice and tactical data link whilst enhancing the situational awareness of Joint Force commanders. 

The mission crew will utilise the ten state-of-the-art workstations to deliver a multi-domain battle management capability: providing situational awareness to other assets, directing offensive and defensive forces whilst maintaining continuous surveillance of an area. The Wedgetail significantly enhances the capability of friendly combat aircraft and warships, enabling their missions and increasing their survivability in a hostile environment.

The featured Photo: AVM Flewin presenting at the September 26, 2024 Sir Richard Williams Foundation Seminar.

By Robbin Laird

Recently, LtGen Heckl retired from the USMC after 37 years of service.  He has held several command positions and has a wealth of combat experience. In a series of interviews with him, we will be discussing both his experience and his judgement with regard to the way ahead for the joint force as it addresses the challenges of the evolving strategic environment.

In this first interview, we focused on his experience with the Osprey and how he views its role and impact on USMC operations. We discussed this from the standpoint of his own experience with the aircraft beginning with his initial engagement with the program, his deployment to Iraq and then his experience with the aircraft as it has evolved over time within the context of USMC operations.

We started with his initial involvement with the aircraft. He came to the Osprey from a CH-46 background and operations with that aircraft in a variety of combat situations. Heckl noted that when he left as at MAWTS-1 instructor in 1999, he had been selected as one of the initial members of the new VMMT-204 squadron to replace HMT-204. There were two accidents involving the aircraft in 2000 which slowed down the process of launching VMMT-204 so Heckl left to deploy with HMM-263 which formed the Aviation Combat Element for the 24^th Marine Expeditionary Unit and participated in the initial combat operations in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Heckl then came back to Washington where he was attached to the office of the Deputy Commandant for Aviation, Headquarters Marine Corps, where he worked as the requirements officer for the Osprey. He first flew the aircraft in May 2000 and by the time he was back in Washington he had accumulated 160 hours on the aircraft.

Heckl was now a Major working for the Deputy Commandant for Aviation. And during that time Col Glen Walters, who later became the 34th Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps from 2016 to 2019, was the Commanding Officer of VMX-22 and putting the Osprey through Operational Evaluation, specifically Operational Test-IIG, testing the platforms operational effectiveness and suitability.

I dealt often with VMX-22 in the past, but it has now become VMX-1.

As one source described VMX-22:

“Marine Tiltrotor Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron Twenty-Two (VMX-22) is a United States Marine Corps tiltrotor squadron consisting of MV-22 Osprey aircraft. The squadron, known as the “Argonauts”, is based at Marine Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina. VMX-22 stood up in August 2003 and reports to the Commander, Operational Test and Evaluation Force (COMOPTEVFOR), who in turn reports test data and results to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Director, Operational Test and Evaluation.”

Heckl then got selected for command of an Osprey squadron which deployed as the second squadron into Iraq in 2008. It was a seven-month deployment to Al Assad Airbase in Iraq and the deployment spanned the brutal summer months and the aircraft according to Heckl “performed spectacularly” primarily a function of hard work by the maintenance Marines.

I asked him to take us back to that initial period to remember what were the expectations at the time with regard to the initial Osprey deployments.

“We knew that the aircraft had unique speed, range, payload flexibility, unique survivability capabilities.

“But our awareness of what it could do came with the use of the aircraft in real world situations.

“For example, Senator Barack Obama came over with Sec Def Hagel and Senator Jack Reed. We had to support Senator Obama moving around. I launched five airplanes. I was in one of them. But we only needed three of them but we launched backups to be ready.

“We had to land at a Forward Operating Base (FOB) just east of the Baghdad International Airport. We had to do a vertical landing in sequence with three aircraft to carry all of the people involved.

“We flew all the way across the country of Iraq, into Jordan, and went to Marka International Airport to drop off Senator Obama. We landed. We didn’t shut down, didn’t get gas, and we were on the deck for probably 20-30 minutes after dropping him off and we took off again, flew back into Iraq and had enough gas to service two assault support requests before we got gas.

“If we were using CH-46s that would have taken us two days and several landings for gas.

“That was an eye opener for me, and I thought back to when we invaded Iraq back in 2003. Flying the frog, I launched off the USS Nassau. I barely made it to Jabala airfield, before we had to get gas. And here, the V 22 was traversing almost the entire width of Iraq, and covering a third of the country of Jordan, and then back into Iraq on one bag of fuel. Just amazing.

“The other part about the airplane that we realized was survivability. So back then, the zones were designated a color code. Green is obviously good. Black was the worst. So if you had a black zone, you could go only go in at night. The Osprey operated in the black zones comfortably.

“We would ingress to the objective while we wore night vision goggles. And then at the pre brief point, we would pull the thrust control lever, the TCL or the gas pedal, essentially to flight idle and then we would just start the slow, gradual spiral.

“We had very minimal infrared (IR) signature. The most significant contributor to IR signature is hot gas impingement. Hot gas comes out of the 46 or a 53 and heats up the surface of the aircraft.

“With the V-22 its two big heat generators are the engines. Those two powerful engines are located on the wing tips, sitting at the dead center of a 38-foot proprotor that’s blowing hurricane force air around it. And both engines have full time infrared suppressors. And not to mention that while you’re doing that, your acoustical signature is virtually eliminated, you’re just basically gliding on the wing. You got down to a certain altitude, and you’d level off, maintaining at or below 200 feet AGL above ground level.

“So we stay out of the small arms fire and RPG envelope, and reduced our signature to MANPADS. So the heat signature is low, the acoustical signatures is low, and then less than a mile from the landing zone is when you actually have to start putting in power to do a vertical landing.

“In other words, the survivability is just phenomenal. Of course, the systems on the aircraft since then have been upgraded. The automation has progressed by leaps and bounds. There is virtually no LZ the aircraft can not land in regardless of dust condition.”

I pointed out that the discussion of Osprey safety – which is about the same level as most rotorcraft – has completely ignored the impact of the aircraft on survivability. How many lives have been saved by the tiltrotor aircraft and how it operates is not a common subject.

Heckl agreed completely and argued that safety is a factor in survivability, but the focus has to be on survivability.

“As a former MAWTS-1 instructor and then as CO, our focus was very much on the Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTPs) for enhanced survivability. And with regard to rotorcraft, a key survivability challenge comes with regard to ingress and egress from a LZ. With the Osprey, we can approach or leave the LZ from a variety of points differently from rotorcraft and with speed they simply do not have. In Iraq, we would go through the small arms and RPG envelope in seconds.”

In 2010, Heckl became the CO of MAWTS-1 where the first class of Ospreys were integrated into the TTPs being worked at this unique warfighting center.

My colleague Ed Timperlake and I have recently published a book on MAWTS-1 and as LtGen (retired) George Trautman, former DCA, commented about MAWTS-1: “How did MAWTS-1 evolve to become such an indispensable pillar within the Marine Corps? Its significance lies in its role as the premier training unit for Weapons and Tactics instruction, where it refines and disseminates cutting-edge concepts of employment – often with new weapons that have potential capabilities never previously imagined.

“By continually adapting to emerging threats and technological advancements, MAWTS-1 ensures that Marine aviators are equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary to excel in the ever-evolving landscape of modern warfare. The squadron’s contributions extend beyond training, influencing the development of new doctrines and fostering a culture of innovation within the Marine Corps aviation community.

“In essence, MAWTS-1 serves as a linchpin in maintaining the Marine Corps’ tactical edge, preparing its aviators for the challenges of today and the uncertainties of tomorrow.”

Heckl argued that the coming of the Osprey to MAWTS-1 in 2010 was part of honing the warfighting edge of the USMC going ahead. “Professionally, sound, and tactically planned missions are inherently safe. That is what we focused on in MAWTS-1. Safety is part of survivability.

“For a combat pilot, safety is part of the survivability issue. And that’s why I love MAWTS-1.

“We now had the V-22 collaborating with all the other rotorcraft and for me V 22 needs to be discussed in terms of operating with the KC-130Js. I would express caution for anybody to discuss V 22 without every other sentence talking about KC-130J. It is a phenomenal workhorse and when paired with the V-22 creates an incredible operational envelope for the Marines.”

His next assignments after leaving MAWTS-1 in 2011 and until his becoming the commander of 2^nd Marine Air Wing in 2018 included the following: J3 Director of Operations, United States Forces- Afghanistan (USFOR-A), Kabul, Afghanistan, Military Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy, Assistant Deputy Commandant for Aviation, HQMC Aviation Department, Washington DC, and Chief of Staff, Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO (STRIKFORNATO), Lisbon, Portugal.

For the purposes of this interview, we next focused on his time serving as the Military Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy. Heckl related his experience in working with the Sec Nav and introducing him to the Osprey and its impact. And this experience would lead the Navy to start seriously its journey to acquire the aircraft for the replacement of the C-2 in the support role for the large deck carriers.

This is a story I have never heard before and frankly of great interest to the question of building out what would become a tiltrotor enterprise. At the time during this tour in the Pentagon, the Sec Nav was Ray Mabus and the CNO was Admiral Greenert.

According to Heckl: “I am now a Colonel, and the Sec Nav wants to go out on the Bush to see the X-47 unmanned platform operating off of the large deck carrier. The staff is organizing the visit whereby he flies by aircraft to Norfolk and then take the C-2 aircraft onto the carrier. I observe that the Secretary is not pleased with how much time this going to take. I suggested to the Secretary that there was a way to go from the Pentagon helo pad directly to the Bush. I went to meet LtGen Schmidle, DCA, and he offered an Osprey. The Secretary used the aircraft and when he returned to the Pentagon, he turned to the CNO and asked: “Why are we not buying this?”

Heckl went on to work with LtGen Davis as assistant DCA, Commander of 2^nd MAW, CG of 1 MEF and retired as Commanding General Marine Corps Combat Development Command. In those positions, he saw the Osprey evolved into a multi-mission aircraft with an ability to perform very flexible roles with its roll on and roll off capabilities. I talked with Heckl when he held all of those positions about aviation and combat development issues and have published these interviews throughout the years.

But we concluded by discussing the growing relevance of the Osprey to the joint force and the USMC with the focus increasingly being upon distributed operations.

According to Heckl: “Logistics, C2 and maneuver are three key warfighting functions. The Osprey can deliver all three to a distributed force in unique ways. We have only scratched the surface of what this aircraft can deliver for the distributed force. But to get full value our of our fleet, we need to invest in and provide mid-life upgrades.”

We then discussed a subject which is not often the focus of defense modernization discussions, which is really the question of paying for the stretched service lives of equipment and in this case aircraft. The Marines used their aircraft extensively in the Middle Eastern land wars, and the investments in repairing and modernizing those aircraft was never really made. The Marine Corps and its air capabilities has been stretched and needs near term investments.

The Osprey is a clear case of such an aircraft, one which needs mid-life upgrades to extend its service life.

The B-52 is still relevant because of regular investments in upgrades; the Osprey needs to have such a funding path as well.