Page 15 - Williams Foundation Air-Sea Integration Seminar

Shaping an Integrated Force in the Extended Battlespace

FIGURE 6 CHIEF OF NAVY, VICE ADMIRAL TIM BARRETT, AO, CSC, DEPUTY CHIEF OF ARMY MAJOR GENERAL RICK BURR, DSC, AM, MVO AND
DEPUTY CHIEF OF ROYAL AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE AIR VICE-MARSHAL WARREN MCDONALD, AM, CSC, SALUTE AFTER LAYING WREATHS AT THE
STONE OF REMEMBRANCE. CREDIT: AUSTRALIAN MINISTRY OF DEFENCE

“We are reworking our relationship with industry because their effectiveness is a key part of the deterrence
process. If I have six submarines alongside the wharf because I can’t get them away, they are no longer lethal
and they are no longer a deterrent force.
“Again, as an example we have dramatically improved availability by building maintenance towers
alongside the submarine—rather than the previous way that it was done, where people arrived into that one
gangway under the submarine then dispersed to do their maintenance work—is an example of how we need
to work.
Question: In your presentation, you mentioned working with various air systems.
Could you discuss, Navy’s role in Wedgetail?
Vice Admiral Barrett: “We have Navy officers onboard who already provide a key communication role to the
Air Force officers onboard the Wedgetail. They can inform those officers of the decision process on the ship
and, conversely, explain later to those onboard the ships, what Wedgetail can do for them.
“Put in other terms, by such a work flow, augmented by the growing engagement of Virtual Wedgetail in
navy training, Wedgetail becomes part of the maritime warfare system within the ADF.
“Wedgetail is an example of the way ahead for air-naval integration.”

THE NETWORK AS A WEAPON SYSTEM: THE PERSPECTIVE OF REAR ADMIRAL
MAYER, COMMANDER AUSTRALIAN FLEET

During the Williams Foundation seminar on evolving approaches to air-sea integration, Rear Admiral Mayer,
the Commander of the Australian Fleet, focused on the concrete and specific challenges facing the evolution of
the Royal Australian Navy as a key element of the joint force. He argued that the Army, Navy and Air forces
were evolving in the context of tapping shared networks to empower their platforms to form an extended
battlespace.
But the challenge, he observed, was to work through how to most effectively shape, coordinate and execute
effects from the networked force while retaining decision authorities at the lowest practical level to achieve
speed of decision.

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