Page 35 - F-35 and Transformation

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

Lt. General Davis highlighted at the beginning of his presentation that when he attended the Avalon Air Show
and then head of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) introduced Plan Jericho, it was clear that the Marines
and the RAAF were on the same page.

“I went back to the Commandant and said that we need to work more closely with the RAAF because with
Plan Jericho they are onto something big with regard to innovation.”

The presentation was hard hitting, comprehensive and clearly on target for the Australian audience.

As Air Commodore Steve Roberton, Commander Air Combat Group and a former exchange officer with the
USMC, commented, “If you think this was hard hitting, it was mild compared to some Marines.

The Marines are gung ho about the future and shaping new combat capabilities.

They do no like to lose.”

This theme was central to Davis’s presentation – the entire point about combat innovation was to be the best
force, which America could deliver to any global crises at any time.

“We want to be the best partner to our friends; and the most feared enemy of our foes.”

Technology is important to this effort, and he highlighted that the Osprey being brought into the force was a
generator of “disruptive change,” but the kind crucial to real combat innovation.

“But change is difficult; and the critics prevalent.”

He noted that if we held this conference 12 years ago, and the room was filled with Marines we would hear
about all the things the Osprey could not do and why we should not go ahead. “If we brought those same
Marines into the conference room now, they would have amnesia about what they thought then and press me
to get more Ospreys and leverage it even more.”

But it is not just about technology – it is about “equipping Marines, not manning the equipment.”

His point was that you needed to get the new equipment into the hands of the Marines at the earliest possible
moment, because the young Marines innovate in ways not anticipated when the senior leadership gets that
equipment to them.

The Marines like at risk differently from the cubical commandos.

I recall a conversation I had with a well-known and oft quoted aviation analyst who told me that the Marines
should have waited few years before using the F-35B because doing so now was “risky.”

I pointed out that it was inherently risky flying legacy aircraft into ever more challenging conditions than
getting new equipment into the hands of Marines who would innovate rapidly in ways that could not be
imagined in the chat corridors Inside the Beltway.

Davis provided several examples of innovation, but one was about the F-35.

He argued that there was no doubt that the F-35 is the right plane for the USMC.

Now that it is in the hands of Marines, they are innovating in ways which the leadership really did not
anticipate and much more rapidly than might be imagined.

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