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2017-09-04 The Secretary of the Air Force recently loaded up for high visibility on an experiment to examine light attack aircraft options.
Indeed she noted at an Air Force Association Event on August 1, 2017:
“The light attack aircraft experiment took five months from conception to aircraft delivery,” said Wilson. ”
We will learn some things, including how fast and cost-effectively we can get capabilities to the warfighter.”
Last time we looked this capability has already been delivered to the warfighter.
What has amazed us about this notion, is that the USAF already has a squadron of Super Tucanos and is working closely with the Afghans on using the plane in combat.
The 81st Fighter Squadron is part of the 14th Flying Training Wing and operates the Super Tucano conducting close air suppor to the Afghan Air Force.
It is stationed at Air Force Base, Georgia.
Four A-29 Super Tucanos arrive at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Afghanistan, Jan. 15, 2016. The aircraft will be added to the Afghans’ inventory in the spring of 2016. The A-29 Super Tucano is a ‘light air support’ aircraft capable of conducting close air support, aerial escort, armed overwatch and aerial interdiction. Designed to operate in high temperature and in extremely rugged terrain, the A-29 Super Tucano is highly maneuverable 4th generation weapons system capable of delivering precision guided munitions. It can fly at low speeds and low altitudes, is easy to fly, and provides exceptionally accurate weapons delivery. It is currently in service with 10 different air forces around the world. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Nathan Lipscomb)
As Ed Timperlake noted about the amazingly long process that it took longer for the USAF to decide to buy the Super Tucano than it took to fight World War II.
A key advantage of the Super Tucano has always been its global support structure and there is now a plant in the US to assemble the aircraft as well.
The first one was rolled out in 2014 in Jacksonville Florida.
Apparently, the US Government does not need an experiment unlike the USAF to figure out how to leverage the plane which has already been bought for the light attack aircraft mission.
Today our partner defenceWeb highlighted the Super Tucano potential sale by the US government to Nigeria.
Nigeria’s Super Tucano contract includes Paveway II guided bombs, laser-guided rockets and infrared sensors in addition to 12 aircraft, the United States government has revealed.
The US Defence Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) on 3 August announced the possible Foreign Military Sale of 12 A-29 Super Tucano aircraft, along with weapons, spares and training, to Nigeria in a contract that could be worth $593 million.
Congress was notified on 2 August, but more details emerged in the US Federal Register on 28 August.
In publishing the unclassified text of the arms sales notification, the Federal Register revealed Nigeria has requested Paveway II and Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) laser-guidance kits and ammunition. It lists these items as “major defence equipment” valued at $29 million, while the “other” component of the deal, for the Super Tucanos, sensors, training and support, is valued at $564 million.
The weapons and ammunition includes 100 GBU-12 (500 lb) Paveway II Tailkits; 100 GBU-58 (250 lb) Paveway II Tailkits; 400 Laser Guided Rockets including Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) rounds; 2 000 MK-81 (250 lb) bombs; 5 000 2.75 inch (70 mm) Hydra 70 unguided rockets; 1 000 2.75 inch Hydra 70 unguided rockets (practice); and 20 000 rounds of .50 calibre machine gun ammunition.
The APKWS is a low cost semi-active laser guidance kit developed by BAE Systems which is added to unguided 70 mm rockets, turning them into precision strike weapons. Similarly, the Paveway II, developed by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, uses semi-active laser guidance to turn Mk 81 and Mk 82 general purpose bombs into guided weapons. The DSCA said the sale includes the tail kits to transform Nigeria’s existing 500-lb and 250-lb bomb bodies into GBU-12s and GBU-58s respectively, and that Nigeria is also buying additional GBU-58s/Mk 81 bombs.
The proposed sale also includes seven AN/AAQ-22F electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensor and laser designator turrets, spares, support equipment, facilities infrastructure and hangar construction, night vision devices, simulators, and software. Training will cover pilot and maintenance instruction and human rights and international humanitarian law. FLIR’s Brite Star system comprises a large format thermal imager and colour daylight camera with laser designator for terminal guidance of laser-guided bombs and rockets.
The DSCA notice said the 12 Super Tucanos will support Nigerian military operations against terrorist organization Boko Haram and to counter illicit trafficking in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea.
The Super Tucano is a sustainable platform for counterterrorism, counter insurgency, border surveillance, and illicit trade interdiction operations.
The proposed sale will support U.S. foreign policy objectives by helping Nigeria to meet shared counterterrorism objectives for the region.
This proposed sale will strengthen the U.S. security relationship with Africa’s largest democracy.
The prime contractor is the Sierra Nevada Corporation…. The company is building Super Tucanos for the Afghan Air Force and Lebanon at its US facility.
Embraer has recorded a number of orders for its Super Tucano from African countries, which see it as a low cost light attack aircraft that can also be used as a trainer. On the continent, the Super Tucano has been ordered by Angola, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Mali, Ghana and Senegal.
The Nigerian Air Force may also get second hand Super Tucanos — in February the Nigerian Air Force announced that Brazilian government had approved the sale of three second hand Super Tucano aircraft to Nigeria.
According to the Pentagon’s Defense and Security Cooperation Agency, the Lebanese government has requested the sale of six A-29 Super Tucano aircraft, along with eight PT6A-68A turboprop engines, eight ALE-47 countermeasure dispensing systems, 2,000 advanced precision kill weapon systems, eight AN/AAR-60(V)2 missile launch detection systems, and other related items.
“This is a straight-forward military sale,” Kahwaji said. “This was funded through a Saudi $1 billion dollar grant that was given late last year.”
The point simply put is that we want to train partners to do the low intensity, counter terrorism tasks in their countries rather than US conducting these missions.
It is about training and transfer of relevant aircraft; it is not about building up the slo mo USAF pilot and maintainer force to do tasks which partners need to do, or if not, then not done at all.
We have no difficulty in understanding why the newly developed Scorpion might be of interest for training commands and other tasks, but we are having real difficulty understanding why the USAF is flying off once again between Super Tucano and the AT-6.
And in a time where the North Korean threat is a clear and present danger, putting the senior USAF brass into a media event built around this competition highlights the continuation of slo mo war when high intensity war is on the way.
This is a time to ramp up F-35 buys, deploy aircraft to Europe and the Pacific and bring forward the bomber buy.
Certainly PACOM gets it.
In a demonstration of ironclad U.S. commitment to our allies, U.S. Marine Corps’ F-35B Lightning II fighters assigned to the Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan are joined by Republic of Korea Air Force F-15K fighters during a 10-hour mission from Andersen Air Force Base, into Japanese airspace and over the Korean Peninsula, August 30th. This mission was conducted in direct response to North Korea’s intermediate-range ballistic missile launch, which flew directly over northern Japan on August 28 amid rising tension over North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile development programs. (Photo by Republic of Korea Air Force)
According to an article by CDR David Bentham, US Pacific Command, in an article published on August 31, 2017:
The United States’ newest and most advanced fighter, the U.S. Marine Corps’ F-35B Lightning II, joined U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancers for the first time in a sequenced bilateral mission with Japan and Republic of Korea air forces in Northeast Asia August 30.
Two B-1Bs from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam; four U.S. Marine F-35Bs from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan; two Koku Jieitai (Japan Air Self-Defense Force) F-15Js; and four Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) F-15Ks executed this mission to emphasize the combined ironclad commitment to the defense of Allies and the U.S. homeland. Enhancing combined military readiness through integrated missions ensures national leaders of viable and ready military options.
This mission was conducted in direct response to North Korea’s intermediate-range ballistic missile launch, which flew directly over northern Japan on August 28 amid rising tension over North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile development programs.
“North Korea’s actions are a threat to our allies, partners and homeland, and their destabilizing actions will be met accordingly,” said Gen. Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy, Commander, U.S. Pacific Air Forces, who just returned from an unscheduled visit to Japan to meet with his counterparts. “This complex mission clearly demonstrates our solidarity with our allies and underscores the broadening cooperation to defend against this common regional threat. Our forward-deployed force will be the first to the fight, ready to deliver a lethal response at a moment’s notice if our nation calls.”
Over the course of the 10-hour mission, the F-35Bs, B-1B bombers and Koku Jieitai fighters flew together over waters near Kyushu, Japan.
The U.S. and ROKAF aircraft then flew across the Korean Peninsula and practiced attack capabilities by releasing live weapons at the Pilsung Range training area before returning to their respective home stations.
“The F-35 embodies our commitment to our allies and contributes to the overall security and stability of the Indo-Asia Pacific region,” said Lt. Gen. David H. Berger, commander, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Pacific.
U.S. Pacific Command maintains strategic bomber and fighter capabilities in the Indo-Asia-Pacific theater, retaining the ability to respond to any regional threat at a moment’s notice.
On August 23, 2017, the Williams Foundation held a seminar on the future of electronic warfare.
One of the speakers at that conference was Air Commodore Chipman, the Director General of Capability Planning in the RAAF.
His presentation was different from the other presentations in that he spoke to the question of force design to ensure that EW was an effect built into the force.
In this sense, he picked up on themes, which he discussed at the last Williams Seminar, which was specifically focused on force structure design.
“We need to have broad enough of a perspective so that we can drive programs towards joint outcomes.
“For example, it will be crucial to bring E-7, with F-35 and air warfare destroyers into a common decision making space so that we can realize built in capabilities for integrated air and missile defense.”
He continued this approach in his discussion at the latest Williams Seminar.
I met with him the week before the seminar at his office in Russell.
Air Commodore Chipman on a panel at the Williams Foundation Seminar on Electronic Warfare, August 23, 2017.
He would focus upon the effects or more generally designing the force to get the kind of information and decision-making dominance you need to achieve against a reactive 21st century peer competitor.
“I am going to focus on the backend capabilities which we are not invested in enough at the moment, rather than dedicated EW platforms.
“We are doing pretty well at buying platforms, which allow us to observe in the EW area, and we are buying platforms, which can act within that space.
“But we can not orient ourselves effectively enough and make the kind of decisions in a timely manner which we will need to be able to do.
“So applying the OODA loop, we are doing reasonably in the Observe and Act area but not enough in the Orientate and Decide part of the OODA loop.
“How do I manage to leverage my intelligence data base and networking forward to locate and identify the proper threat so I can orient my EW capabilities and then how do I make decisions to deny, degrade, deceive or destroy that threat?”
In that discussion, he underscored a core point about the contribution of the Williams Foundation Conferences .
“I probably would not have had the thought I just expressed to you if I was not going to make this presentation.
“It takes you out of your day job and forces you to think at a different level, which is critical if we are going to shape the kind of force which we need to develop and deploy.”
At the conference, Air Commodore Chipman entitled his presentation “Electronic Warfare – C4I Enablers,” which allowed him to discuss what he called the backend of the EW Warfighting capability.
In effect, what he outlined throughout his remarks were the building blocks crucial to enhance the ability to deny EW success to the adversary as you tried to maximize your own ability to prevail in the electro magnetic spectrum.
Again, it was not about a single point of entry specialized EW platform; it was about the force being able to shape an approach and to evolve an approach that minimizes vulnerabilities and maximizes capabilities to exploit EW vulnerabilities of an adversary.
He started by discussing a radar range equation, which exemplifies the importance of force design, and shaping an approach.
My understanding of electronic warfare started to improve when I was taught this equation – what a great place to start. In a very basic sense, this equation tells us that the range at which radar first detects a target increases with the amount of power transmitted, the antenna’s performance, the radar’s operating wavelength and the targets radar cross section. Detection range also decreases with the minimum power required to discriminate a target return from competing clutter and noise.
This equation can help explain why long range surveillance radars operate at lower frequencies, why integrating force elements can deliver superior detection performance. It explains how basic noise jamming decreases sensor performance. It explains why the United States has invested so heavily in stealth technology over the last 30 years, and why China and Russia are now doing the same.
From this perspective, he then discussed low observability as a key force design issue in the current period.
It’s important to understand that stealth does not make an aircraft invisible; it just makes it extremely difficult to detect, track and engage. It is also important to understand that stealth does not just apply to the aircraft’s radar signature. Modern stealth aircraft utilise low observable technology across the entire electromagnetic spectrum to reduce radio frequency, infrared, electro-optical, visual and acoustic signature.
I make this point to address a common fallacy; that somehow low-observable technology is being made redundant by the proliferation of counter-stealth technologies in our region. There is no doubt low observable technology will be subject to the same counter and counter-counter cycle as other forms of electronic warfare, but there is also no doubt that low observable technology combined with specialist operational tactics makes stealth aircraft far easier to hide in the electromagnetic spectrum using on-board or off-board jammers than conventional aircraft. They are more survivable and better equipped to penetrate contested airspace in order to achieve an operational objective. Stealth is not just viable, it’s becoming increasingly vital.
For Air Commodore Chipman, the force design issue, which is crucial here is signature management.
Clearly, the F-35 is part of the low signature focus which the RAAF is pursuing, but there is a broader issue – how do you reduce your overall radar signature profile and enhance the adversaries vulnerabilities in the same domain?
Signature management is certainly not unique to the air domain. Our Army is now consciously minimising their electronic signature during Brigade manoeuvre exercises. And our submariners have long been masters in masking their signature, and making very deliberate vulnerability assessments before exposing themselves to the risk of detection. As the battle for supremacy of the electromagnetic spectrum intensifies, we will all need to rise to their level of skill and expertise.
This includes signature management at the force level. The networks used to achieve force integration must be secure, resilient and persistent – but they should also be designed and operated cognisant of their electromagnetic signature. We will need to make compromises that balance the operational advantages of joint force integration through networking, and the imperative to minimise our vulnerability through effective signature management. And we’ll continue to employ force level electronic attack in its historical supporting role, to mask a force that is no longer able to hide below an adversary’s detection threshold.
He then went on to describe way ahead in terms of Boyd’s OODA loop as he suggested he would in the remarks in our discussion prior to the conference.
Boyd himself identified the orient phase as quote “the most important part of the OODA loop since it shapes the way we observe, the way we decide, the way we act”. I’m at risk of over-simplifying this stage by suggesting the task is to take observed data and generate meaning. This involves accurately identifying and locating specific emitters in the electromagnetic spectrum. In this way, we create a tactical operating picture, which provides essential situational awareness across the joint force.
Identification is heuristic – we observe specific characteristics of a signal in the environment and compare those characteristics with a database of previously observed signals in order to establish the identity of that emitter. We improve the accuracy of identification by correlating different characteristics the threat system’s emissions collected by different sensors.
Locating emitters in the environment is largely achieved through triangulation. This is one of the great advantages of networking: if a single signal is received by two geographically separated receivers, the task of accurately locating the source of that signal becomes relatively simple. However, both receivers must interpret the signal the same way and cooperate constructively to identify and locate it, otherwise they create ambiguity and confusion.
This is why intelligence mission data is so important. It is the heuristic frame of reference we use to orientate ourselves in the electromagnetic spectrum. Developing joint force concepts for emitter identification and geolocation will require all contributing systems operate to a compatible frame of reference.
And if it’s not immediately obvious, let me emphasise this point: we need a compatible frame of reference to be interoperable with our primary security partners as well.
To add to this complexity, the frame of reference is not static. We must be capable of resolving ambiguous signals in the environment, and we must be capable of interpreting new observations that have not been previously associated with a specific threat system.
That requires two feedback loops:
One that operates at the tactical and operational level to cue Electronic Attack resources and rapidly disseminate new information to the joint force.
This is the domain of Electronic Warfare Support.
The second feedback loop operates at the strategic level – signals intelligence – which ensures our intelligence mission data is constantly updated.
This is why EW is part of the broader information network and warfare domain.
For it is about enhancing information available to the warfighter at the key point of attack or defense and augmenting you ability to attack the critical choke points affect force performance of an adversary.
This requires a more sophisticated understanding of how information should be managed across the joint force. Recognition of this requirement led in part to the establishment of the Chief of Joint Capabilities, with a dedicated Information Warfare Division responsible for joint intelligence and electronic warfare.
The goal is to have a more lethal and survivable force and one able to operate and prevail in the electromagnetic spectrum.
We must create a test and training environment that stimulates the exacting demands of electronic warfare, both at the individual and collective training level. Historically, this has only been possible through the use of actual adversary systems – threat emulators provide reasonable training, but they can not provide the high fidelity test and training environment required to develop and validate electronic warfare strategies and tactics.
Royal Australian Air Force Air Cdre Robert Chipman, General Planning Capability director, signs Pacific Air Forces’ guest book during the Pacific F-35 Symposium at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, March 15, 2017. The symposium is a PACAF-hosted event that brings together the four Pacific members of the F-35 program: Japan, Australia, the Republic of Korea and the U.S. While attending the event, senior officers, warfighters and F-35 experts discussed a range of topics related to integrating the F-35 into multilateral air operations in the Indo-Asia-Pacific. The U.S. currently flies the F-35B out of Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, and is scheduled to field two additional squadrons at Eielson AFB, Alaska, starting in 2020. Australia and Japan are already flying their own F-35s and the ROK is projected to receive its first in 2018. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. James Stewart)
The rapid development of adversary capabilities and the difficulty associated with acquiring actual threat systems will drive the need for more effective threat emulation. And it will reinforce the need for a coherent Live, Virtual and Constructive test and training environment.
We must prepare forces to operate in future contested environments where the cycle of counter and counter-counter technology is far more rapid than we’ve experienced historically. Mastering this volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment will require a new way of thinking for those of us accustomed to air superiority and a dominance of the electromagnetic spectrum. We must now come to terms with competing for both.
Our workforce challenges are pervasive: creating the workforce establishment, recruiting appropriately skilled personnel to fill those positions and then developing professional mastery all take time. I am constantly reminded by DGPERS that from the time a new workforce need is identified, it takes on average seven years to establish, recruit and train an individual to competently perform that role. It’s difficult to think that far forward, and it is difficult to be that patient.
We are experiencing the consequences of under-investment in our classified war-fighting networks and information systems. These challenges are not insurmountable, but they increase the complexity and risk of integrating new systems into a coherent joint electronic warfare capability.
Finally, we are already encountering the demands of protecting highly classified data and systems. This will soon become routine, but we currently lack the policy settings and organisational capacity to administer these programs with confidence. It will place demands throughout the organisation. For example, the requirement for a positive vetted top secret security clearance has increased by an order of magnitude in Air Force over the last ten years, and this will do doubt continue to increase across the Australian Defence Organisation and industry.
These are examples of the enabling capabilities that are so critical to the realisation of a 5th generation Air Force. Plan Jericho was created to draw attention to the importance of enabling capabilities and deliver the organisational capacity and incentive to remediate them. Air Force’s investment in this program has created confidence that we’re up to the challenge.
It is encouraging to see joint force integration also being incentivised by the Joint Force Authority – and the increasing influence of our Chief of Joint Capabilities. It will be through Air Force’s commitment to the centre, that we will deliver integrated 5th generation air and space power for the future joint force.
On August 23, 2017, the Williams Foundation held a seminar on the future of electronic warfare.
With the introduction of the Growler, this has provided a natural hook into the broader discussion of the evolving payloads, which need to be part of an integrated 21st century combat force.
A number of presentations provided a look at the technology and con-ops of evolving EW capabilities.
These presentations provided the perspectives from industry and from Australian services and the joint perspective.
And a broad brush look at the technologies was provided by an American presenter as well.
What was clear was that this is becoming a vital area for R and D as well as integration into the evolving force structure.
John Conway
The presentation by MAGGEN Kahryn Toohey, head of Australian Army Development, underscored the importance of re-energizing the work of the ground forces in the evolving combat environment.
It is clear that the Aussie Army, like the US Marine Corps sees the importance of making EW effects available throughout the ground maneuver force. The question is how best to achieve this result.
And the presentation by Captain Steve Dryden, from the Royal Australian Navy, also emphasized the increased salience of focus and concern for the Navy with regard to information warfare issues.
Although he did not discuss this aspect, a key element shaping the way ahead for Navy contributions will clearly be radar technologies and their ability to communicate across the fleet and the ADF and to provide for a multi-mission information warfare functionality.
This will be enhanced as the new radars coming on line from CEA enter the fleet; and as the RAAF and the RAN work integration between Wedgetail and Air Warfare Destroyer among other dynamic innovations going forward.
The Army and the Navy have had specialized capabilities throughout their history, but the need now was to shape an integrated capability or as Lt. General (Retired) Davis put it a server available to the warfighter to pull down EW capabilities as appropriate to the fight.
The Department of Defence has formed a new department, the Information Warfare Division within the Joint Capabilities Group, which is standing up capabilities to shape interactive IW tools and approaches.
Brigadier Stephen Beaumont, Director General Information Warfare, Joint Capabilities Group, argued for the importance of shaping an enterprise wide EW system approach.
His perspective was encapsulated in the following slide:
Indeed, one could view the importance of such an office to be a clearinghouse to inform the various players operating within government and the services of the activities of each other, as well as the technology capabilities available to them through the work of their compatriots operating throughout the ADF and government or among partners and allies.
This is such a dynamic and fluid area of development and operation that it is clear that open-ended learning is a core requirement for mission success.
The presentation by the Boeing representative focused on upgrades to Growler, which are necessary certainly to keep pace with the threats.
A key addition will be next generation jammer, which is designed to enhance the ability to handle multiple targets at once and to be supportive of the evolving air combat force.
The presentation by Raytheon, the company building the next generation jammer, focused upon the need to shape a broader information warfare enterprise encompassing ISR, cyber and EW. To put into the words of the work we have shaped on Second Line of Defense, an enterprise that could support Tron Warfare.
Finally, Jeffery McCreary from the Georgia Technology Research Institute provided a broad ranging overview on the evolution of technologies and how that would affect the EW domain, indeed transform it.
He focused on the importance of EW within the C2 or decision-making cycle, and the importance of disrupting the adversaries decision making cycle.
In order to do this, the force will need to rely more on artificial intelligence machine based contributions to enhance the blue side and disrupt the red side within the force equation.
And to do this, improvements needed to be made in terms of how warriors can act upon information, through new visual display technologies and other key ways to enhance the ability to gain strategic control over the flow of tactical information.
Within the evolving force structure, unmanned elements will be able to play a greater role within the man-machine interface to gain the upper hand in the electro magnetic spectrum.
The core objective is clearly decision-making superiority.
The goal is to accelerate blue side’s OODA loop while slowing red sides OODA loop.
The seminar organizer, John Conway, highlighted during the seminar and in talks after the seminar, the centrality of building EW into the operational art for the evolving combat force.
It is about reshaping the payloads, which can be delivered by the integrated force across the spectrum of warfare.
The introduction of the Growler is an important jump-start to Australian capabilities, but it comes into the force as the Aussies are working force integration hard.
In short, the seminar provided a case study of shaping a way ahead for broadening the capability, which the evolving 21st century combat force, can deliver.
2017-08-31 It is difficult to miss the ramping up of tensions caused by North Korean missile launches and nuclear progress.
We have argued for some time that the command structure for US forces in Korea should be given to the USAF for it is an ADA, USAF, and USN capability team which can make a difference.
We are not about to replay 1953.
We have also argued that fifth generation aircraft are not replacement aircraft but part of shaping the way ahead to craft a war winning force for high intensity warfare.
And we have also documented over the past few years, the Marines arriving first in the next round of fifth generation development with their F-35Bs.
We have also argued that the USAF needs to ramp up its buy rate and get on with near term deployments to RAF Lakenheath in Europe and in Japan in the Pacific.
For now, the Marines are providing the key F-35 capabilities.
In a demonstration of ironclad U.S. commitment to our allies, U.S. Marine Corps’ F-35B Lightning II fighters assigned to the Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan are joined by Republic of Korea Air Force F-15K fighters during a 10-hour mission from Andersen Air Force Base, into Japanese airspace and over the Korean Peninsula, August 30th. This mission was conducted in direct response to North Korea’s intermediate-range ballistic missile launch, which flew directly over northern Japan on August 28 amid rising tension over North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile development programs. (Photo by Republic of Korea Air Force)
And the US has deployed F-35Bs with strategic bombers to South Korea.
According to an article by CDR David Bentham, US Pacific Command, in an article published on August 31, 2017:
The United States’ newest and most advanced fighter, the U.S. Marine Corps’ F-35B Lightning II, joined U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancers for the first time in a sequenced bilateral mission with Japan and Republic of Korea air forces in Northeast Asia August 30.
Two B-1Bs from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam; four U.S. Marine F-35Bs from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan; two Koku Jieitai (Japan Air Self-Defense Force) F-15Js; and four Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) F-15Ks executed this mission to emphasize the combined ironclad commitment to the defense of Allies and the U.S. homeland. Enhancing combined military readiness through integrated missions ensures national leaders of viable and ready military options.
This mission was conducted in direct response to North Korea’s intermediate-range ballistic missile launch, which flew directly over northern Japan on August 28 amid rising tension over North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile development programs.
“North Korea’s actions are a threat to our allies, partners and homeland, and their destabilizing actions will be met accordingly,” said Gen. Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy, Commander, U.S. Pacific Air Forces, who just returned from an unscheduled visit to Japan to meet with his counterparts. “This complex mission clearly demonstrates our solidarity with our allies and underscores the broadening cooperation to defend against this common regional threat. Our forward-deployed force will be the first to the fight, ready to deliver a lethal response at a moment’s notice if our nation calls.”
Over the course of the 10-hour mission, the F-35Bs, B-1B bombers and Koku Jieitai fighters flew together over waters near Kyushu, Japan.
The U.S. and ROKAF aircraft then flew across the Korean Peninsula and practiced attack capabilities by releasing live weapons at the Pilsung Range training area before returning to their respective home stations.
“The F-35 embodies our commitment to our allies and contributes to the overall security and stability of the Indo-Asia Pacific region,” said Lt. Gen. David H. Berger, commander, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Pacific.
U.S. Pacific Command maintains strategic bomber and fighter capabilities in the Indo-Asia-Pacific theater, retaining the ability to respond to any regional threat at a moment’s notice.
It is hard to show up in a crisis if you are not there.
And the Marines are clearly there with their F-35Bs.
Editor’s Note: The Marines were first to Red Flag with their F-35s and this engagement has been important in shaping a real world deployment.
It is also important to note all the cross learning going on among the US service F-35 communities and with he allies in shaping an F-35 global enterprise.
This deployment is a force insertion which will lead to enhanced distributed knowledge to the F-35 global enterprise and to the US and allied combat fleets.
Late last year, we went to Yuma to say goodbye to the Green Knights as they were preparing to deploy to Japan.
2017-01-02 By Ed Timperlake and Robbin Laird
We last visited VMF-121 prior it being declared IOC with the F-35B.
That visit was in the Summer of 2014 and we spent time the then XO of the Squadron, Major Summa, now Lt. Col. Summa and the CO of the Beaufort Squadron of F-35s, namely the Warlords of Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501, which we have also visited.
During our most recent visit to MCAS Yuma we had a chance to visit both of the IOC F-35B squadrons in Marine Aircraft Group-13.
Ed Timperlake with Lt. Col. Bardo after our interview with him at Yuma.
We also visited with MAWTS-1 and VMX-1, who have just returned from DT-III testing onboard the USS America.
The first F-35B IOC squadron in the world, VMF-121, the Green Knights, are in the processing of transitioning to their deployment in Japan.
Equipment and personnel are already on the way to Japan and the squadron will fly out this winter across the Northern Pacific to operate from Japan.
The deployment comes at a crucial time, given ongoing developments in the Pacific, and the opportunity to be combat operational with F-22s in Pacific Defense.
The F-35B will continue with this new generation of a V/STOL aircraft to work its flexibility with regard to ships and landing bases, which do not necessarily have to be regular airfields.
The flexibility which the B provides is an inherent advantage in the Pacific, with its rich tapestry of islands from which to operate to have the unique “F/A/E -35B” integrate into the emerging Kill Webs as expressed by Rear Admiral Manzer.
We had a chance to talk with Lt. Col. Bardo, the CO of the squadron, who is taking the squadron to Japan but will soon thereafter transition from the squadron.
But Bardo has been with the squadron during its IOC and work up with the Marine Corps for its deployment to Japan.
He and his squadron are performing key historical tasks as the cutting edge operational F-35 squadron in the world.
This is an unusual situation for the Marines to find themselves in terms of combat air, but the flexibility of a combat information dominance aircraft fits right in with the evolving concepts of operations of the Marines.
Lt. Col. Bardo underscored the importance of Close Air Support for Marines and the role which the F-35 can play in significantly expanding the scope and nature of close air support.
“CAS is considered doctrinally a function which operates only in a permissive air environment.
We can expand CAS to deal with a much wider range of situations than when we would simply operate in a permissive air environment.
And we can provide greater assurance to Marines as they deploy on the ground that we can deal with a much wider array of pop-up threats than we could do with legacy aircraft.”
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Lt. Col. Bardo described the path to get to where the squadron was right now as it prepared for its Japanese deployment.
The period since declaring IOC has been a busy and challenging one as the squadron pushed out the boundaries of the operational capabilities of the aircraft and worked with MAGTF to integrate the airplane into the CAS role as well as working with the USAF on the air to air missions as well.
It has been a busy period for Bardo and his squadron but certainly historic as well.
Throughout the squadron has found the core capabilities of the aircraft to be a solid foundation for shaping the way ahead.
As Lt. Col Bardo described the F-35:
“For the pilot, the ability to shift among missions without having to think sequentially about doing so is really a key strength of the aircraft.
The airplane can think CAS and air-to-air at the same time and the pilot can then mix and match as the mission demands rather than having to think through the sequence of going from one mission set to the next.”
In broad terms, Lt. Col. Bardo described the progress of the squadron going from its time at 29 Palms working CAS, to working closely with MAWTS-1 on shaping the tactics for the use of the aircraft in support of the MAGTF, to its participation in Red Flag this summer as the F-35 component of the air operations being exercised at Red Flag.
In total, these experiences have been crucial in preparing the squadron for its deployment to Japan.
With regard to 29 Palms, the support to the ground combat element was the focus of attention in Steel Knight 2016, which included operating from Red Beach, an austere combat training facility where the presence of FOD or ground debris is a challenge.
“At the exercise we could show Marines that the F-35 is a core asset for expanding the operational environment in which the MAGTF could operate and how we can support the GCE.
We built trust in the infantry in what this revolutionary STOVL asset can bring to the force and to enhance their lethality and survivability as well.”
With MAWTS-1, the squadron has worked closely on shaping the tactics and training for the new aircraft.
The MAWTS-1 F-35 instructors have come from VMF-121, and the synergy has been crucial to shaping the way ahead for VMF-121 as it faces its deployment to Japan.
Then this summer, the squadron sent planes to Red Flag and flew in a US-only exercise with the full panoply of USN and USAF aircraft, excluding the F-15s.
There the USMC flew its jets and were part of reshaping of air to air operations associated with the F-35.
Lt. Col. Bardo noted that there were many F-16 National Guard pilots who were there, some of which had flown with the F-22 but had not flown with the F-35.
They soon learned that you did not want to be an adversary but to leverage what the F-35 brought the fight.
As they prepared to the deployment to Japan the CO reflected back on his time with the squadron.
“It has been hard work and we have been at the cutting edge of many things with this new aircraft.
The squadron has met the challenges with hard work, innovation and courage and that is how we are preparing for our first overseas deployment, namely to Japan.”
We concluded by reflecting back over the history of the Green Knights who from the beginning brought innovation to the fight in the Pacific.
Historically it is interesting to note that VMF-121 was activated in June 1941 and began flying air ground combat missions in August 1942, with the “Cactus Air Force” on Guadalcanal.
The Green Knights made Marine aviation history with fourteen aces, including the legendary Joe Foss CMH so the F-35 enabled squadron is making its own aviation history.
Recently, the Vietnam generation “Green Knights: visited Yuma. Together with the F-35 generation Green Knights, the Vietnam generation Green Knights celebrated the USMC’s 241st birthday on November 19, 2016
Lt. Col. Bardo commented:
“It was amazing for us to meet with and discuss with the Vietnam-era Green Knights.
Although much has changed; much has not.
What I told the squadron with our visitors present: look at our predecessors and that will be you in a few years.
You want to be as proud as they are; to look back at your achievements as being the first F-35 squadron and making aviation history.
You will not focus so much on the hard work we have done over the past two years, but will focus on the achievements.
And learn from them about how to meet the challenges and serve the nation.”
Biography of Lt. Col. Bardo
Lieutenant Colonel Bardo is a graduate of Whittier College and holds a B.A. in Biology. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in May of 1998 and attended The Basic School that fall. Upon completion, he began Aviation Preflight training at NAS Pensacola, FL. He conducted his primary flight training in the T-34C while assigned to VT-28 at NAS Corpus Christi, TX. Following primary flight training, he was reassigned to VT-22 at NAS Kingsville, TX. He earned his Naval Aviator’s Wings in September of 2001.
He completed fleet replacement training in the AV-8B Harrier at Marine Attack Training Squadron 203 at MCAS Cherry Point, NC.
In September of 2002, First Lieutenant Bardo reported to MCAS Yuma and was assigned to Marine Attack Squadron 214.
While assigned to the “Black Sheep” he served as the Powerline Division Officer and a daily schedule writer. Promoted to Captain in October of 2002, he deployed in support of Operations Southern Watch (OSW) and Iraqi Freedom (OIF) I. In spring of 2004, Captain Bardo deployed aboard the USS Belleau Wood as part of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). Upon reaching the Persian Gulf, the 11th MEU transitioned ashore in support of OIF II. Upon returning home from deployment, Captain Bardo transferred to 3D MAW headquarters in Miramar where he augmented the G-3 Staff while maintaining currency in the AV-8B.
In June of 2006, Captain Bardo returned to the “Black Sheep” and completed the flight leadership and instructor prerequisites to attend the Weapons and Tactics Instructor Course. Upon completion of WTI class 1-07 in October, Captain Bardo served as the Pilot Training Officer. In January 2007, he deployed to Japan for one year supporting two back-to-back 31st MEUs.
In October of 2008, he was promoted to Major and began serving as the Aircraft Maintenance Officer. He deployed in May 2009 to Kandahar Air Base, Afghanistan in support of Marine Aircraft Group 40, 2d Marine Expeditionary Brigade flying in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF).
In December of 2009, Major Bardo reported to Eglin Air Force Base, FL as one of the initial cadre of instructors tasked with standing up the “Warlords” of Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501, the USMC’s first F-35B squadron. In January of 2011, Major Bardo was selected to attend Intermediate Level School at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island where he earned a Master of Arts in National Security and Strategic Studies. He returned to VMFAT-501 where he completed transition training to the F-35B. While at VMFAT-501, he served as the Director of Safety and Standardization as well as the Operations Officer.
In January of 2015, Lieutenant Colonel Bardo reported to MAG-13, located at MCAS Yuma, Arizona and assumed command of VMFA-121 in July of 2015.
Lieutenant Colonel Bardo has over 1800 flight hours, primarily in the AV-8B and F-35B and over 480 combat hours in support of OSW, OIF, and OEF. His qualifications include: Weapons and Tactics Instructor, Mission Commander, Training Landing Signal Officer, Air Combat Tactics Instructor, Low Altitude Tactics Instructor, Functional Check Flight pilot and Demonstration pilot.
His personal decorations include the Meritorious Service Medal, Air Medal with Strike Numeral “12”, Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, third award, and Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, fourth award.
The first slideshow shows the squadron on the day we visited and are credited to Second Line of Defense.
The second slideshow shows the squadron participating in Steel Knight and operating at Red Beach.
The third slideshow shows them at Red Flag in an all-US air combat exercise.
The fourth slideshow shows a Japanese visit to the squadron in Yuma earlier this year with Lt. Col. Bardo working with the Japanese visitors.
The photos for the final three slideshows are all credited to the USMC.
Editor’s Note: When you visit the squadron, in the main building there is a Joseph Foss room.
Looking at the history of the squadron and Joe Foss’s role in that history, one can understand the heritage being built into the new combat capability represented by the F-35 B for the 21st Century USMC.
Tradition clearly matters.
Joseph Foss, C.O. VMF-121, Medal of Honor Recipient
Joe Foss was born on April 17, 1915 to a Norwegian-Scots family in South Dakota. He learned hunting and marksmanship at a young age. Like millions of others, 11-year old Joe Foss was inspired by Charles Lindbergh, especially after he saw Lindy at an airport near Sioux Falls.
Five years later he watched a Marine squadron put on a dazzling exhibition, led by Capt. Clayton Jerome, future wartime Director of Marine Corps Aviation.
In 1934, Joe began his college education in Sioux Falls, but he had to drop out to help his mother run the family farm. However he scraped up $65 for private flying lessons. Five years later he entered the University of South Dakota again and supported himself by waiting on tables. In his senior year he also completed a civilian pilot training program before he graduated with a Business degree in 1940.
Upon graduation he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps reserves as an aviation cadet. Seven months later, he earned his Marine wings at Pensacola and was commissioned a second lieutenant. For the next nine months he was a ‘plowback’ flight instructor. He was at Pensacola when the news of Pearl Harbor broke, and since he was Officer of the Day, he was placed in charge of base security. Thus he prepared to defend Pensacola from Jap invaders, riding around the perimeter on a bicycle.
To his distress, he was then ordered to the aerial photographers school and assigned to a VMO-1, a photo reconnaissance squadron.
But he insisted he wanted fighter pilot duty, even after being told “You’re too ancient, Joe. You’re 27 years old!” After lengthy lobbying with Aircraft Carrier Training Group, he learned all about the new F4F Wildcat, logging over 150 flight hours in June and July.
When he finished training, he became executive officer of VMF-121.
Three weeks later, he was on his way to the South Pacific, where the United States was desperately trying to turn the tide of war. Arriving in the South Pacific, VMF-121 was loaded aboard the escort carrier Copahee.
Guadalcanal
On the morning of October 9, they were catapulted off the decks, in Joe’s only combat carrier mission. Landing at Henderson Field, he was told that his fighters were now based at the ‘cow pasture.’
He was impressed with the ‘make-do’ character of the ‘Cactus Air Force. The airfield was riddled with bomb craters and wrecked aircraft, but also featured three batteries of 90mm anti-aircraft guns and two radar stations. As ‘exec’ of -121, he would normally lead a flight of two four-plane divisions, whenever there were enough Wildcats to go around.
He was the oldest pilot in the flight, four years older than the average age of 23. The flight would become known as ‘Foss’s Flying Circus’ and rack up over 60 victories. Five of them would become aces; two would die in the in the fight for Guadalcanal.
On October 13, 1942, VMF-121 scored its first victories when Lts. Freeman and Narr each got a Japanese plane. Later that same day, Joe led a dozen Wildcats to intercept 32 enemy bombers and fighters. In his first combat, a Zero bounced Joe, but overshot, and Joe was able to fire a good burst and claim one destroyed aircraft.
Instantly, three more Zeros set upon him, and he barely made it back to ‘Fighter One’, his Wildcat dripping oil. Chastened by the experience, he declared “You can call me ‘Swivel-Neck Joe’ from now on.” From the first day, Joe followed the tactics of Joe Bauer: getting in close, so close that another pilot joked that the ‘exec’ left powder burns on his targets. The next day while intercepting a flight of enemy bombers, Joe’s engine acted up and he took cover in the clouds. But suddenly a Wildcat whizzed past him, tailed by a Zero. Joe cut loose and shot the Zero’s wing off. It was his second victory in two days.
While the Wildcats’ primary responsibility was air defense, they also strafed Japanese infantry and ships when they had enough ammunition. Joe led on such mission on the 16th. Mid-October was the low point for the Americans in the struggle for Guadalcanal.
Japanese warships shelled the U.S. positions nightly, with special attention to the airstrips. To avoid the shelling, some fliers slept in the front lines. Foss grew to appreciate the Navy’s fighter doctrine and found that the “Thach Weave” effectively countered the Zero’s superior performance, because “it allowed us to point eyes and guns in every direction.”
Joe was leading an interception on morning of the 18th when the Zero top cover pounced on them and downed an F4F. But Foss was able to get above them and flamed the nearest, hit another, and briefly engaged a third. Gaining an angle, he finally shot up the third plane’s engine.
Marine Corps F4F Wildcat at Guadalcanal, marked with 19 Japanese flags.
Next he found a group of Bettys already under attack by VF-71. He executed a firing pass from above, flashed through the enemy bombers, and pulled up sharply, blasting one from below. Nine days at Guadalcanal and he was an ace! Two days later Lt. Col. Harold Bauer and Foss led a flight of Wildcats on the morning intercept. In the dogfighting, Joe downed two Zeros, but took a hit in his engine. He landed safely at Henderson Field with a bad cut on his head, but otherwise unharmed.
‘Cactus Fighter Command’ struggled to keep enough Wildcats airworthy to meet the daily Japanese air strikes. On the 23rd, it put up two flights, led by Foss and Maj. Davis. There were plenty of targets and Joe soon exploded a Zero. He went after another which tried to twist away in a looping maneuver. Joe followed and opened up while inverted at the top of his loop. He caught the Zero and flamed it. He later described it as a lucky shot.
Next he spotted a Japanese pilot doing a slow roll; he fired as the Zero’s wings rolled through the vertical and saw the enemy pilot blown out of the cockpit, minus a parachute. Suddenly he was all alone and two Zeros hit him, but his rugged Grumman absorbed the damage, permitting Foss to flame one of his assailants.
Once again, he nursed a damaged fighter back to Guadalalcanal. So far he had destroyed eleven enemy planes, but had brought back four Wildcats that were too damaged to fly again.
October 25 was the day that the Japanese planned to occupy Henderson Field; they sent their fighters over, with orders to circle until the airstrip was theirs. It didn’t work out that way, as the U.S. ground forces held their lines and ‘Cactus’ did its part. Joe Foss led six Wildcats up before 10 AM, and claimed two of the Marine’s three kills on that sortie.
Afterwards, he berated himself for wasting ammunition on long-range shooting. He kept learning how important it was to get close. (The great German ace, Erich Hartmann, said “Get close enough until the airplane fills the whole windscreen; then you can’t miss.”) In an afternoon mission on the 25th, he downed three more, to become the Marine Corps’ first ‘ace in a day’. He had achieved 14 victories in only 13 days.
Despite rugged living conditions and the stress of daily combat flying, Foss retained his enthusiasm. He and some other fliers of VMF-121 occasionally went prowling with their rifles in the jungle, looking for Japanese soldiers, but Col. Bauer stopped this activity; trained fighter pilots were too valuable to risk this way.
They slept in six-man tents and ate the wretched powdered eggs that are mentioned in almost every pilot’s memoirs. On guy had a gramophone that they played scratchy records on. They bathed in the Lunga River; many grew beards rather than try to shave in cold water. They kept the beards neatly trimmed, not for appearances, but to ensure their beards didn’t interfere with the close-fitting oxygen masks. ‘Washing Machine Charlie’ and ‘Millimeter Mike’ harassed the field nightly, so some pilots tried to sleep in the daytime.
Down!
On November 7th Foss led seven F4Fs up the Slot to attack some IJN destroyers and a cruiser, covered by six Rufe floatplane fighters. They dispatched five of the Rufes promptly and prepared to strafe the destroyers. Joe climbed up to protect the others and got involved in a dogfight with a Pete, a two-man float biplane. He shot down the slow-flying plane, but not before its rear gunner perforated the Wildcat’s engine with 7.7mm machine gun fire.
Once again, Foss’ aircraft started sputtering on the way home. But his time, it didn’t make it. As the engine died, he put it into the longest possible shallow dive, to get as close to home as he could.
As his plane went into the water off Malaita Island, Foss struggled with his parachute harness and his seat. He went under with his plane, gulped salt water, and almost drowned before he freed himself and inflated his Mae West. Exhausted and with the tide against him, he knew that he couldn’t swim to shore. While trying to rest and re-gain his strength in his life raft, he spotted shark fins nearby. He sprinkled the chlorine powder supplied for that purpose in his emergency pack and that seemed to help.
As darkness approached, he heard some searchers looking for him. They hauled him in and brought him to Malaita’s Catholic mission. There were a number of Europeans and Australians, including two nuns who had been there for forty years and had never seen an automobile. They fed him steak and eggs and invited him stay for two weeks.
The next day a PBY Catalina, piloted by Maj. Jack Cram rescued him. On his return to Guadalcanal, he learned that ‘Cactus’ had downed 15 Japanese planes in the previous day’s air battle. His own tally stood at 19. On the ninth, Admiral Bull Halsey pinned the Distinguished Flying Cross on him and two other pilots.
The Americans were bringing four transports full of infantry to Guadalcanal on November 12. The Japanese sent 16 Betty bombers and 30 covering Zeroes after them, while the American Wildcats and Airacobras defended.
Foss and his Wildcats were flying top cover CAP and dived headlong into the attackers, right down onto the deck. As Barrett Tillman described it in Wildcat Aces of WWII: Ignoring the peril, Foss hauled into within 100 yards of the nearest bomber and aimed at the starboard engine, which spouted flame. The G4M tried a water landing, caught a wingtip and tumbled into oblivion. Foss set his sight on another Betty when a Zero intervened. The F4F nosed up briefly and fired a beautifully aimed snapshot which sent the A6M spearing into the water. He then resumed the chase.
Joe Foss
Foss caught up with the next Betty in line and made a deflection shot into its wingroot; the bomber flamed up and then set down in the water. The massive dogfight continued, until Joe ran out of fuel and ammunition.
Between the fighters and the AA, the Americans destroyed almost all the bombers and many of the Zeros. No U.S. ships were seriously damaged. But that night another naval surface battle raged in Ironbottom Sound. Warships on both sides were sunk or damaged, including the IJN battleship Hiei which Marine bombers and torpedo planes finished off on the 13th. The major Japanese effort continued on the 14th, as they brought in a seven ship troop convoy. The American air forces cut this up as well.
Late that afternoon, Col. Bauer, tired of being stuck on the ground at Fighter Command, went up with Joe to take a look. It was his last flight, described by Joe Foss in a letter to Bauer’s family. No trace of ‘Indian Joe’ was ever found. Back at Guadalcanal, Foss was diagnosed with malaria. Two great leaders of Cactus Fighter Command were gone, although Foss would return in six weeks.
He recuperated in New Caledonia and Australia. He met some of the high-scoring Australian aces, who viewed the Japanese as inferior opponents and were a little dismissive of Joe’s 23 victories. After a brief relapse of malaria, Joe returned to Guadalcanal on New Year’s Day. Improvements had been made in his absence, notably pierced steel planking (PSP) for the Fighter Strip. Foss returned to combat flying on the 15th when he shot down three more planes to bring his total to 26.
He flew his last mission ten days later when his flight and four P-38s intercepted a force of over 60 Zeros and Vals. Quickly analyzing the situation, he ordered his flight to stay high, circling in a Lufbery. This made his small flight look like a decoy to the Japanese. Soon Cactus scrambled more fighters and the Japanese planes fled. It was ironic that in one of Joe Foss’ most satisfying missions, he didn’t fire a shot.
During my recent stay in Australia to attend and write the report for the Williams Foundation seminar on the future of electronic warfare, I had the chance to continue my discussions with Air Marshal Leo Davies, the Chief of Staff of the RAAF.
The RAAF is certainly leading the pack in shaping and crafting a fifth generation air force.
In my most recent interview with the Air Commander Australia the strategic shift was described very clearly.
Question: You have raised the question of the shift in recruitment and training with regard to your pilots.
How would you regard the shift on the demand side for the pilot?
Air Vice-Marshal Roberton: You go from having to manage a package to being a node, a sensor, and a shooter in a network.
We are no longer operating as little bespoke package and building block of a force.
If you’re doing this properly to prepare for a fifth-generation fight, you start them in the middle of the web, and our warfighters understand what they can contribute and where they can draw upon to be a sensor and a shooter in that web.
And that’s not just airpower, that’s across the entire joint space.
This requires us to fundamentally change our exercise approach to train aviators in the kill web. It is a fundamental in dealing with the kinds of adversaries we find in the real world.
We cannot take yesterday’s “block and tackle” combat aircraft approach to train to be the kind of distributed mission commanders we need in the future air combat force.
We need to focus on the sensor-shooter relationship in which we can deliver distributed kinetic and non-kinetic effects.
And this comes from within the kill web.
Put another way, you are training for autonomy in all of the weapon shooter nodes and crafting the overall impact accordingly.
Our decisive advantage is going to be in our ability to operate in high-tempo ops, fully networked.
Wreath laying at the Pool of Reflection during the Last Post Ceremony, commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Milne Bay at the Australian War Memorial.
(L-R) Chief of Army, Lieutenant General Angus J. Campbell, AO, DSC; Regimental Sergeant Major – Army, Warrant Officer Don Spinks, OAM; Chief of Air Force, Air Marshal Leo Davies, AO, CSC and Warrant Officer of the Air Force, Warrant Officer Robert Swanwick.
That’s what will make it a completely unfair fight.
It’s not going to be about mass and numbers; that will always have a part to play.
But our decisive advantage has to be our ability to just run our kill web at high speed.
We have parts of our organization that are now thinking at the tactical and operational level in fifth-generation sense, but we are yet to exercise the enabling and support function in that same mindset.
With a major reshaping effort under way as described by Air Commander Australia, how does the Chief of the RAAF see then the role of the RAAF?
“Our core business is to ensure that we can be a responsible element of whatever coalition the government determines we need to work with to meet Australian interests
“Australia and the Air Force in particular need to be equipped, trained and agile enough to be effective.
“Our core business is to focus on day-to-day management of sovereign Australia territory and interests.
“And that can vary from our contribution to the monitoring of fisheries, or of dealing with people smuggling, or of being aware of what’s in the sky above us, and what might be in the sky above us in years to come, is our everyday evolution of a defense force.
“We can do that better if we understand our neighborhood as well as we understand our own country.
“We have consciously begun to shape a trained workforce and a strategy which prioritizes our international engagement and our relationship with our neighbors,
“We’ve had strong military-to-military relationships with our neighbors for many decades. And we look to strengthen and improve our effect in this domain.”
Question: You are being a more integrated force, but this template, which you are shaping, could then form a solid foundation for the kinds of innovation, which your government might see as important in the years ahead.
What kinds of innovations do you see in the mid term from this perspective?
Air Marshal Davies: Clearly, situational awareness of the air and space domain is critical, but so is an ability to affect an adversary; potentially at long range as part of an integrated package.
“What form this will take is a work in progress and will reflect judgments about need in the period ahead within a coalition context.
“If we shape a force that can only do parts of the warfighting continuum we will have failed.
“That is why in our exercises with partners such as in Talisman Saber 2017 we are working the spectrum of conflict both to shape capability, but to lay a solid foundation for thinking about future operational needs.”
Question: As we go forward, it is important to think through the military force we are building up against the objectives, which Australia and its allies can establish within the region and beyond.
You are building a very flexible and in that overused term, agile force, but these tools need to be matched up against objectives.
Clearly, as you have said, protection of Australian territory is crucial but beyond that what approach do we need?
Air Marshal Davies: As you suggest, military capability is a necessary but not sufficient condition for success.
“It is crucial that we sort out objectives among ourselves in the region and beyond,
“What are the most crucial challenges to be met?
“How and where do our approaches overlap and where do they differ?
“And we need to remain aware that the military responses are only one of those options that each respective government has.
“We need to be credible
“And building of credible military options, should they be needed, requires coordination with our allies.”
Question: How do you view the fundamentals of the Australian approach going forward?
Air Marshal Davies: A key element is simply our unique geography and the nature of our neighborhood. We have a unique geography, which provides protection as well as challenges within our region.
“As I mentioned earlier, this means shaping robust and clear relationships with our closest neighbors.
“It means working with allies like the US and Japan to shape very flexible military options to adapt to changes in the region.
“Space is becoming increasingly important.
“We have used space largely as a communications domain, but as adversaries adopt new approaches, we need to reconsider how we do business as well.
“And we are adding Tritons and F-35s, which means we can reshape our networks, and access to space will be needed to enable configurable and redundant networks.
“Antarctica will become increasingly important in the period ahead. It is the world’s back door and states will look to use transit over the pole to shorten operating distances to areas of interest.
“We want to make sure that we are able to properly defend our ability to maintain Antarctica as a neutral environment.”
Question: Integrated air and missile defense is clearly an important coming capability for Australia.
How best to approach that challenge?
Air Marshal Davies: We have a project, Air 6500, which is designed to get to this capability, and we have tactical pieces relevant to such an effort.
“But we are certainly not there.
“We should be starting with, “How are we going to coordinate air warfare destroyers, space-based communications, F-35, future frigates, Triton and P-8 into an integrated operating picture?
“How do we coordinate all of the command and control, including the civilian air traffic control sensors?
“How do you get them onto the same sheet of music?
“How do you begin to get all the different parts of the national orchestra to play a tune we have not finished writing yet?
“We are working to shape intellectual warriors who allow us to use those disparate elements, and pull them together.
“And without that web, without that integrated air and missile defense, within which we have to plug our allies, or at least make it pluggable, we’ll have fallen short.
“That is one of the next big steps for us.”
Editor’s Note: With regard to the photo above, here is the full caption provided by the Australian Department of Defence which highlights the World War II approach to integrated operations:
On Friday 25 August 2017 a dedicated Last Post service was held at the Australian War Memorial marking the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Milne Bay.
The Battle of Milne Bay was an important victory for Allied forces, marking the first time that Japanese forces were defeated on land. feature of the battle was the close cooperation between the Australian Army and the RAAF.
Hudson bombers from RAAF No.6 Squadron provided reconnaissance and bomber support, No.75 Squadron provided Kittyhawks, and the flying squadrons were supported by No 37 Radar Station and No8 Fire Control Unit during the Battle.
Personnel from the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) conducted a naval survey of the bay in Laurabada, which was manned by RAN personnel.
RAN warships, including HMAS Arunta, escorted the transport vessels delivering earth moving equipment, food, ammunition, aviation fuel and other essential supplies.
The Australian Army deployed its 7th and 18th Infantry Brigades.
More than 370 Australians were killed or wounded while the Japanese suffered almost 1500 casualties.
During my visit to Australia last Spring, I discussed the evolution of Plan Jericho with the do-leads of Plan Jericho, Group Captains Campbell and Mitchell.
I had a chance at the end of the Williams Foundation seminar and the following week AFTER the Jericho Dawn exercise to talk with them about the exercise and its place and significance within the Plan Jericho effort.
The exercise involved changing how the air and ground communicated with one another in the maneuver space. As such, the exercise could seem to be a look at new technologies to connect the force.
But this would miss the real point of the effort, which is the reshaping the concept of operations and the co-evolution of the ground and air forces.
And the reshaping effort requires an ongoing operational training regime to understand what further changes are required to ensure that the air-ground maneuver forces work in an effective manner.
It is about technological enablement, but changing the culture and approach of the forces as they work the new technology into new approaches.
The focus of that interview was upon the challenges of working through C2 innovation to get better force structure operational capabilities.
During my most recent visit, I had a chance to sit down at Russell with the new co-lead, Group Captain Carl Newman and Group Captain Mitchell.
In various articles which we have recently published on Second Line of Defense, we have highlighted barriers to getting the kind of 21st century combat force we need to deal with the threats which come at us in high intensity warfare.
Not only have we launched a Forum to deal with the challenge of shifting from slo mo to high intensity warfare, but we have been highlighting in some of our recent interviews some of those challenges.
One of those is clearly the fragmented and cumbersome security system which places layers of players in place and ensures that we will not achieve the kind of C2 in a dynamic threat environment which our forces will need.
For example, during our recent visit to the Naval Air Warfare Development Center at Fallon, we discussed with many of the participants the security challenge and the critical necessity to shape a new approach.
Director Plan Jericho, Group Captain Pete Mitchell (right) briefs personnel attending the Senior Airman Conference held at the Air Warfare Centre, RAAF Base Williamtown. August 2017. Credit: Australian Department of Defence
Group Captain Peter Mitchell, co-head of the Jericho project, speaking on the second day of the RAAF Airpower Conference, March 16, 2016.
We concluded during that visit the following with regard to this challenge:
One of the critical advances in the coming together of many 21st Century technological advances is the exponential growth in ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) is a critical component of a countries military battle planning and execution, and that can be a very good thing.
However, what we picked up at Fallon builds on some of the comments we heard in our visit to the Navy Jax, P-8, Triton community.
To put it in our words the “mechanics” of getting actionable timely intelligence to the aircrews and Fleet commanders is often a weak link. The “Intel” can be there but the process is often not helpful. It can be both a macro issue and a micro issue.
On a “macro” level there is a move to send “Intel” up first to higher command then back down. This challenge was discussed at Jax Navy in the context of declaring Triton ocean surveillance information part of a national strategic collection effort. Of course it is an easy solution to let the Intel flow both up and down concurrently.
Hopefully this is in work toward a successful resolution.
The conversation with the Plan Jericho co-leads started with this security challenge.
“One of our challenges is the security and policy framework needed to engage at the appropriate level with our Joint colleagues in shaping a transformation approach.
“Plan Jericho is addressing some of these challenges and sees as a key way ahead getting much greater integration between the air, land and naval forces.
“But this will not happen if we cannot reshape our security processes and approaches.
“We need to cross-pollinate across the various elements of the force structure to get the kind of operational integration which we need.”
“We need to shape the kind of cross platform Training, Tactics and Procedures (TTPs) which allow for and can accelerate integration.
“We have done that on a case by case basis but have not figured how to do that across the board or at the strategic level.”
“We are talking about the joint space, where we have influence but not ownership.
“We need to consider revolutionary innovation concepts, not the biological build approach which we are pursuing.
“The RAAF could pursue revolutionary concepts but if everyone else is pursuing evolution we will have significant gaps in our approach to achieve the kind of operational integration which we will need.”
Laird: At the end of the day, we’re talking here about changing authorities.
We’re recognizing the technologies can talk to each other, for example Wedgetail with Naval radars,
This needs to happen so that the ability of the machines to talk with one another, can unleash the man-machine relationships which we will need for high intensity conflict.
We talk about man to machine, but it’s machine to machine that we’re unleashing as well.
Then we’re changing what the man does with the machine to machine conversation.
We can make this sound harder than it is, but at the end of the day, you start with things Wedgetail or Growler talking with your new naval radars and you are going down the transformation path.
The Plan Jericho Team: Absolutely.
We can see that.
Directors Plan Jericho, Group Captain Pete Mitchell (left) and Group Captain Carl Newman, brief personnel attending the Senior Airman Conference at RAAF Base Williamtown.August 2017. Credit: Australian Department of Defence
One of the barriers that we see at the moment is the security and policy framework that actually prevents that from happening.
We see progress along these lines within Air Force, but we need ensure we can work with the Navy and Army as well to establish a joint framework.
Laird: It seems that the E7 is really a forcing function aircraft for you in this overall effort to rework TTPs to get more joint integration.
Recently, for example, the F-22s in Australia worked closely with Wedgetail to expand their capabilities to work together.
There are examples that have already been demonstrated and it seems this aircraft and its evolution is especially useful in the kind of approach which you are taking with Plan Jericho.
The Plan Jericho Team: That is a good point.
The E7 has significant potential and we need to ensure we establish a roadmap and growth path that meets the joint force needs and then leverage that growth path as a key driver for much of Air Force’s airborne integration efforts.
Laird: So in effect, you need to have a fifth generation security system to go along with the platforms shaping a fifth generation air force, and in this case the Australian owned Wedgetail is a key enabler and forcing function system.
In this case, it is far more than simply a platform.
The Plan Jericho Team: What we’re actually looking at within Jericho next is defining and distilling what the key themes, concepts, and characteristics and risks are to shaping a fifth-generation force.
“What are the defining characteristics?”
“If we can define those, then we have the opportunity to actually have a revolutionary look at security, logistics, integrated tactics and even what a 5th Gen workforce needs to look like.
“At the recent Williams Foundation Seminar on Electronic Warfare, Group Captain Glen Braz hammered home the point that we need to view Growler as part of the joint force, not as supporting the joint force.
“And making that the reality is the challenge.
“And part of what we need to address is leveraging the forcing function of such efforts as Growler integration to reshape the security piece.
“We see the Air Warfare Centre as an important piece of working the key problems of joint TTPs beyond the single platform.
“We’re not just building on what we’ve currently done.
“We’re actually looking at developing tactics in a more integrated manner.
“And this approach is something we are looking to permeate through our force.
“For example, the Growlers are collocated with our Super Hornets.
“We need to see how to integrate these assets.
“The Growler is a very different payload asset; the Super Hornet community can not simply operate in a legacy manner as a kill chain.
“We need to shape a kill web and clearly Super Hornet and Growler integration is part of the equation.
“And we are not simply inheriting approaches born elsewhere outside of Australia in this domain.
“And a major piece of the effort is about training the right kind of workforce.
“We need to shape a workforce very open to the kind of integration we are talking about here and indeed demanding further progress as part of the professional lives.”
Editor’s Note: It should be also noted that the past heads of Plan Jericho have moved on and are continuing to help shape a transformation process.
Air Commodore Rob Chipman is now Director General of Capability Planning within the RAAF. In this capacity, he is taking the Jericho approach into shaping a way ahead for capability planning within the joint force.
Air Commodore Andrew ‘Jake’ Campbell is now Deputy Commander of the Joint Task Force on Operation Sovereign Borders working with Australian Customs and Border Protection agencies against illegal immigrants.
Today, Marji Ross, Publisher of Regnery Publishing, a Salem Media Group Company has announced that the publishing house is no longer interested in working with the New York Times and its bestseller list.
She announced this decision based on the publisher’s perception of clear political bias.
The publishing house has had many books on the New York Times best seller list, so the decision was not an easy one.
Here is the letter which I received as an author who has published a best seller on the New York Times list.
September 2, 2017
Dear Regnery Author,
I am writing to inform you of an important decision we have made here at Regnery Publishing. After many years of using the New York Times’ bestseller list despite what we believe to be a clear bias against conservative books and authors and an underreporting of the bestseller rankings of those books and authors, we have concluded that we cannot in good conscience endorse this list any longer.
We will therefore immediately cease following, tracking, reporting on, promoting and publicizing the Times’ list and will henceforth use the Publishers Weekly bestseller list instead.
As many of you have experienced personally, it appears the Times has gathered book sale data in a manner which prioritizes liberal-themed books over conservative books and authors. The net result has been a bestseller list that has increasingly become less relevant to the Regnery audience, and less reflective of which books are actually selling best in the country, regardless of one’s political persuasion.
Books that have clearly outsold those at the top of the Times’ list based on Nielsen BookScan data are placed lower on the list, or eliminated from the list altogether. That’s not to say that conservative books and authors don’t appear on the Times’ list, even in the #1 spot, but too often we see what we saw yet again this week: a conservative book that sold more than 12,000 copies – more than any other book on the Times’ list—placed at #7, while Al Franken’s book, which sold 7,600, listed at #3.
I’m certainly not the first person to accuse the New York Times of allowing its liberal bias to influence the way it covers the news. But most people still expect the bestseller list to be driven simply by data. Opinions are one things, data should be immune to political views. Unfortunately, the Times’
list does not appear to accurately and fully report on sales; oftentimes it seems to reflect what the editors think Americans ought to be reading—or perhaps what the editors themselves are reading.
We realize it may be a bit unsettling to our authors that we will no longer use the “New York Times
Bestseller” moniker. Let me respond in two ways. First, if your book outsells other books in the country, it should appear on the list. If the Times treats you fairly, great! If the Times does not accurately report sales of ALL titles, whether liberal or conservative, the list has lost its value and their influence will continue to fade. Secondly, I ask you to consider this: we are often told it’s foolish to bite the hand that feeds you. I say it’s just as foolish to feed the hand that bites you.
As for the Grey Lady, the time has come to say: “this Emperor has no clothes.”
Thank you for your friendship, your partnership, and your support,
About Marji Ross, President and Publisher, Regnery
Ross has been president and publisher of conservative publisher Regnery since 2003.
She joined Regnery in 1999 as vice president and general manager, and previously worked as senior group publisher for newsletter publisher Phillips International, where she ran several business units, including investment, business and health newsletters.
She currently serves on the boards of the National Conservative Campaign Fund, the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute and the Beth Chai Congregation. In February 2005, she was named the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute’s Woman of the Year.
Tip: “Be the conductor, not a one-man band. … Most successful female executives I know thrive on proving their competence and productivity. But as the leader of an organization, we must … prioritize those things on which we can have the greatest impact. And then we must hire people smarter than us to do those things we are not particularly good at … [or] are not a particularly good use of our time.”
This special report looks at the emergence of the kill web from the perspective of the maritime and air forces.
Airpower and naval power emerged from World War II as integrated components able to fight in a single battlespace.
For the navies, carrier aviation was the key element for air enablement along with land based air which could operate from key land based choke points to provide for key capabilities to assist in controlling the sea lines of communication.
With the emergence of fifth generation aviation, the manned-unmanned dynamic and the evolution of weapons, a new version of operating in the integrated battlespace is emerging.
The US Navy refers to this as the kill web, a capability to move from a linear kill chain to a distributed fleet able to tap into capabilities available throughout an integrated force.
This is an aspiration more than the current reality, but the US and its core allies are working hard to move aspiration to reality.
We first look at some conceptual issues in terms of how to characterize the way ahead for the fleet as it integrates with land and sea based capabilities to deliver its combat effect.
We next look at the emergence of key elements of the kill web entering service with today’s US Navy, USMC, the RAF and the Royal Navy, and the RAAF and the Royal Australian Navy.
Our visits to FALLON, MAWTS-1, to the UK and to Australia provided several data points on how the U.S. and core allies are working on building out a kill web air enabled force.
We then look at the significant opportunities, which new training and development integration can provide to shape a more integrated force able to execute a kill web going forward.
Finally, we then address two case studies of the way ahead: working the unmanned-manned transition and the electronic warfare or the non-kinetic payload domain.
And we conclude with some thoughts from the newly appointed Air Commander Australia on the challenge of shaping an effective 21st century combat force.
Four A-29 Super Tucanos arrive at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Afghanistan, Jan. 15, 2016. The aircraft will be added to the Afghans’ inventory in the spring of 2016. The A-29 Super Tucano is a ‘light air support’ aircraft capable of conducting close air support, aerial escort, armed overwatch and aerial interdiction. Designed to operate in high temperature and in extremely rugged terrain, the A-29 Super Tucano is highly maneuverable 4th generation weapons system capable of delivering precision guided munitions. It can fly at low speeds and low altitudes, is easy to fly, and provides exceptionally accurate weapons delivery. It is currently in service with 10 different air forces around the world. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Nathan Lipscomb)
Royal Australian Air Force Air Cdre Robert Chipman, General Planning Capability director, signs Pacific Air Forces’ guest book during the Pacific F-35 Symposium at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, March 15, 2017. The symposium is a PACAF-hosted event that brings together the four Pacific members of the F-35 program: Japan, Australia, the Republic of Korea and the U.S. While attending the event, senior officers, warfighters and F-35 experts discussed a range of topics related to integrating the F-35 into multilateral air operations in the Indo-Asia-Pacific. The U.S. currently flies the F-35B out of Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, and is scheduled to field two additional squadrons at Eielson AFB, Alaska, starting in 2020. Australia and Japan are already flying their own F-35s and the ROK is projected to receive its first in 2018. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. James Stewart)
John Conway
Wreath laying at the Pool of Reflection during the Last Post Ceremony, commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Milne Bay at the Australian War Memorial.
Director Plan Jericho, Group Captain Pete Mitchell (right) briefs personnel attending the Senior Airman Conference held at the Air Warfare Centre, RAAF Base Williamtown. August 2017. Credit: Australian Department of Defence
Directors Plan Jericho, Group Captain Pete Mitchell (left) and Group Captain Carl Newman, brief personnel attending the Senior Airman Conference at RAAF Base Williamtown.August 2017. Credit: Australian Department of Defence
