Page 102 - Australian Defence Magazine Feb-Mar 2023

102 AIR POWER REGIONAL CAPABILITIES
FEBRUARY-MARCH 2023 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
EMERGING REGIONAL 5TH GENERATION CAPABILITIES
One of the (sometimes overused) buzzwords about Australia’s ongoing defence modernisation efforts is the term “5th generation”, particularly in transforming the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) into a “5th generation air force”.
MIKE YEO | MELBOURNE
THIS goes beyond the Lockheed-Martin F-35 Lightning II, which is quite naturally the first thing one would think of when the term “5th generation air force” is mentioned – owing to its blend of low-observable, networked, open ar- chitecture and sensor-fused characteristics.
However, many of these characteristics are also found in other platforms the RAAF will be introducing over the next decades, ranging from the networked Triton uncrewed maritime patrol aircraft to the integrated, networked Joint Air Battle Management System being delivered under Proj- ect Air 6500 Phase 1.
This networked, integrated force is also cross-domain and not limited to air platforms, which are now sensor nodes within the network, allowing anyone to contribute and react based on the ‘big picture’, essentially becoming a battlespace internet.
US AIR FORCE
For example, an F-35 can use its sensors to detect and pass on targeting data to a Hobart-class destroyer or vice versa, allowing the shooter to engage a target without acti- vating its own sensors and risk detection.
Another key capability such a networked, integrated force will be able to provide is to shorten the kill chain, enabling attacks against time-sensitive, fleeting adversary targets. Targets like mobile missile launchers, that were al- most impossible to target even up to the 1999 NATO air campaign over the Balkans.
ABOVE: The Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) has taken delivery of around 20
of 40 F-35As on order