Page 6 - Williams Foundation Air-Sea Integration Seminar

Shaping an Integrated Force in the Extended Battlespace

Another example is how the new LHDs are being looked at as “magnet” ships drawing together air-sea and
land integration.

At Williamtown Air base, the home of the E-7, the virtual Wedgetail system is being used to work with the
Army and Navy to prepare exercises this Fall to shape practical ways to work Wedgetail with the LHDs and
vice versa. This can then shape a co-modernization strategy for the two platforms, which reflects real joint
needs as opposed to an abstract requirements process setting those requirements.

It is also the case according to Brigadier General Chris Mills that the Army is working with Navy to shape a
common digital communications system to ensure greater integration between the ship and the ashore force.
Again, it is a case of the interactive modernization of capabilities, which is crucial to shaping effective force
integration.

With the latest seminar, the Williams Foundation addressed air-sea integration.

What was different about this seminar is that it was Navy-led rather than being primarily air force led.
Indeed, there was only one RAAF presentation.

It was clear that the senior Navy officers who presented were looking at the evolution of their capabilities
from the broader perspective of how to build more lethal and effective forces in the extended battlespace.

And this perspective was built around cross-modernization of platforms delivering joint effects in the
battlespace.

Obviously, exercises and training a key elements of shaping a new way ahead, a key point underscored by
Rear Admiral Mayer, Commander of the Australian Fleet.

The three closest allies in shaping new maritime capabilities were represented at the seminar – Australia, the
U.S. and the United Kingdom.

The lead speaker was Rear Admiral Manazir, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Warfare Systems
(OPNAV N9) who provided an overview of the key dynamics of change in the maritime warfare global
situation and discussing the U.S. Navy’s kill web concept.

It should be noted that the first allied force, which actually discussed the kill web concept, was the RAAF. Two
days after Rear Admiral Manazir had introduced the concept at a Mitchell Institute audience in Arlington
Virginia earlier this year, the Air Combat Commander in the RAAF was taking it onboard.

In that interview Air Commodore Roberton argued that there is a three-phase process underway and “we are
only at the first step.

“We need to be in the position where our maritime surface combatants are able to receive the information
that we’ve got airborne in the RAAF assets. Once they’ve got that, they’re going to actually be trying to be
able to do something with it.

That is the second level, namely where they can integrate with the C2 and ISR flowing from our air fleet.

But we need to get to the third level, where they too can provide information and weapons for us in the air
domain.

That is how you will turn a kill chain into a kill web. That’s something that we want in our fifth generation-
integrated force.

Second Line of Defense

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