Page 7 - Williams Foundaiton Air-Land Integration April 15

New Approaches to Air-Land Integration

He argued for the increasingly important role of the small, mobile unit within the ground forces, which can
leverage the joint assets and, in turn, can contribute to the other joint forces in shaping more effective fire or
situational awareness solutions.

He argued that the evolution of software was a key element in the joint space, and that ways needed to be
found to more rapidly evolve software in the joint space to provide for the joint effect.

And the “T” or transformation factor was crucial. Rapidity of operations was a key element of the way
ahead, and it was important for the joint land force to be able to function more rapidly, with greater effect
and in a variety of situations in which connectivity would be degraded.

“The small group needs to train to operate in degraded situations and to operate with as great a capability
to not be detected as possible.”

The integration of air, naval and ground power was crucial to the way ahead, and the Australian Army’s
battle management lab had RAAF officers involved on the ground floor shaping the way ahead.

Clearly, for the Australian Army chief, the Army is an embedded joint force, and with the new RAAF and
Royal Australian Navy capabilities coming on line, would become more so.

THE PERSPECTIVE OF BRIGADIER GENERAL MILLS, DIRECTOR GENERAL,
MODERNISATION, AUSTRALIAN ARMY

The reshaping of Army modernization to achieve the force envisaged by the Army Chief of Staff was
provided as well by Brigadier General Mills in his presentation. He provided a hard hitting look at the Army
and how the evolving force could shape a more distributed operational and decision-making force, one which
he saw as providing for 21st century ground maneuver forces.

It was clear from Mills presentation that he was thinking beyond the experience of the past decade towards
where the technology and new concepts of operations could take the Australian Defense Force.

He emphasized that his background of the past decade was important, but he did not want to be captured
by it. We have argued that the approach, which makes sense, is “Harvest the Best and Leave the Rest,” which
clearly is his approach.

He highlighted both in the seminar and in the interview after the seminar, the importance of empowering the
smaller maneuver group with technology and decision-making capabilities so that the effect, which can be
created from joint fires and empowerment, can flow up and down the kill web.

During the briefing, Mills included a slide which would not appear in a typical U.S. Army briefing, for in this
slide, the F-35 and naval fire support were prominently highlighted.

Question: You put up a slide, which highlighted a very comprehensive look at joint fires and support to
the ground maneuver forces.

How do you view the way ahead?

BG Mills: We need to move beyond the label of air land integration and look at joint integration or multi-
domain integration.

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