Page 20 - F-35 and Transformation

The F-35 and The Transformation of the Power Projection Forces

There is an intellectual COIN cult, which has come to dominate the Department of Defense and allied
Ministries of Defense based on the Iraq/Afghanistan military experience of the past decade of operations.
Publics used to hearing about large defense investments in the past decade can be excused for confusing
defense expenditures for land operations with a shortfall in investments in Air/Sea power projection.
Things are changing dramatically with a resurgent Russia and an increasingly geo-politically aggressive
China.
Fortunately the USAF, RAF and French Air Force have come together to develop jointly accepted air combat
con-ops.
A combat exercise held at Langley Air Force Base in December 2015 with the high end air combat
capabilities of the USAF, the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the French Air Force (FAF) was about recovering lost
or diminishing skill sets, honing new ones, and shaping a template for the 21st century transformation of their
respective nations air combat force.
The origins of the trilateral exercise came from agreements reached reached five years ago by the three
nations and the three air forces.
The exercise at Langley was the flying confirmation of the bold commitment to reshape the capabilities of the
three air forces in fighting high-end warfare.
And with the events unfolding in the Middle East, and with a peer competitor firmly entrenched at a new
airbase in Syria, the challenge of contested airspace is not an abstraction, but a real world reality. And this
was something which the Turkish-Russian exchange reinforced in the minds of pilots, and decision makers from
the current conflict.

Figure1 From left, U.S. Air Force Gen. Hawk Carlisle, commander of Air Combat Command, French air force
Deputy Chief of the Air Staff Gen. Antoine Creux, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force Gen. Mark A. Welsh III,
British Royal Air Force Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshall Sir Andrew Pulford, and U.S. Air Force Gen.
Frank Gorenc, commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe (USAFE), answer questions during a press conference
hosted during the Trilateral Exercise at Langley Air Force Base, Va., Dec. 15, 2015. As part of the exercise,
Pulford, Welsh, Creux and Gorenc hosted a press conference to discuss the importance of working together as
coalition forces. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Katie Gar Ward)
Second Line of Defense

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