Page 25 - Williams Foundation Air-Sea Integration Seminar

Shaping an Integrated Force in the Extended Battlespace

Much like the leadership of the Royal Australian Navy focused on in their presentations at the seminar,
Walker emphasized new approaches to task forces as key part of their transformation approach.
Clearly, the UK is looking at the evolving impact of introducing carrier strike upon the overall change in the
RAF and Royal Navy as well. And a key aspect of this transformation is working the evolving integration of
fifth gen upon legacy capabilities.
Captain Walker highlighted the shift from a legacy mindset, which focused on thinking of maritime versus air
environments to an integrated information dominance environment.
“A key cultural change is that we are looking at air and maritime as an integrated domain; and we are
looking at the interaction among the environmental seams of our forces driven by a kill web approach and
capability.”
A clear challenge is reworking C2.
“We need to shape a more mission order vice a directive Air Tasking Order approach to the use of an
integrated air-maritime force.”
Putting the new carriers in play completely integrated with the F-35 will provide the foundation for shaping
the way ahead for the UK power projection forces.

FIGURE 11 SLIDE FROM PRESENTATION BY CAPTAIN WALKER TO THE SEMINAR.

Put bluntly, shaping the way ahead will be defined by the operational experiences entailed in operating and
deploying the new carrier strike force and leveraging that capability will be crucial in thinking through future
procurement decisions as well.
“We are focused on being more platform agnostic; and ironically, the F-35 can be looked at as a new
platform an keep in the old platform-centric approach but we are looking at it as lever of change for next
generation thinking and capabilities.
“We are taking the kill web concept very seriously, and examining how best to shape the desired outcome
from nodes in the operational force, rather than focusing on specialized platforms.

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