Page 44 - Williams Foundation Air-Sea Integration Seminar

Shaping an Integrated Force in the Extended Battlespace

A key issue is that of information sharing among national or coalition forces.

Here Air Marshal (Retired) Geoff Brown asked Rear Admiral Manazir if we were making progress in this
area.

Rear Admiral Manazir highlighted that in the evolving machine-to-machine relationships, technology was
providing a way ahead. For example, targets could be identified and shared without disclosing the source of
that information or the classification level.

The practical problem is to move classified data around the battlespace to empower the war fighters without
compromising classification methods.

According to Rear Admiral Manazir:

“Machines talking at multi-level and multi-channel encrypted security levels can exchange data without
compromising the sources and methods whereby the data has been generated.

“Thereby an F-35 with US markings and an F-35 with Australian markings can share data effectively in the
combat space.”

In effect, the broad problem is one of parsing information and solving the problem posed by Air Vice Marshal
Gavin Turnbull at the last Williams Foundation Seminar:

“How do we get the right information to the right people at the right time?”

The Perspective of John Conway, Raytheon Australia: Reshaping the
Industrial-Government Working Relationship to Support 21st Century
Force Integration

John Conway focused on what he sees as a key role for industry in Australia, namely working with the
Commonwealth to ensure that the ADF has sovereign control over its combat technologies.

“Integration should be viewed from the outset as an essential force multiplier in the air-sea domain, with the
Australian defence industry playing a fundamental role in supporting the design, building and sustainment of
a potent and agile joint force capability.”

Clearly, the latest Defence White Paper and associated documents called for a new working relationship with
industry and throughout his remarks Conway underscored the importance of reworking the relationship to
achieve greater force integration and cohesion.

“With Australian industry now formally acknowledged as a fundamental input to capability, this places a
significant responsibility upon us to synchronize with Commonwealth intent, contribute to the development of
effective and efficient time-sensitive solutions, and act as a cooperative and value-adding partner within the
emerging framework of the first principles review.”

He highlighted that the addition of the new platforms provides key opportunities for working the partnership
towards greater force integration.

“The possibility of adding complementary networked sensors, targeting systems, kinetic and non-kinetic
weapons to as many of these new platforms as possible adds significant density and resilience to the ‘kill
web’ described earlier by Admiral Manazir.

Second Line of Defense

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