Page 8 - Williams Foundation Air-Sea Integration Seminar

Shaping an Integrated Force in the Extended Battlespace

Indeed, Rear Admiral Stuart Mayer, Commander of the Australian Fleet, made it very clear both in his
presentation and his interview, that a key way to understand the way ahead is shaping variable task force
concepts and capabilities.

He was clearly looking at a range of ways to operate the force with mix and match capabilities to provide
for the kind of maritime power, which was crucial to 21st century operations.

Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Tim Barrett, made it very clear that he was taking the long view on the
development of Australian maritime power and saw the goal as shaping not a joint force but an integrated
force.

And in the interview with him, we discussed how he saw the development of the new Australian submarine in
the context of shaping an effective way ahead, in terms of an ability to not just to build hulls, but integrated
support and effective software upgrades to keep the fleet effective and modern on an ongoing basis.

Indeed, the “one ship” concept is crucial to Barrett whereby 21st century infrastructure was being built to
shape the fleet in a way in which sustainment, ongoing modernization and operations would be more
effectively conjoined in shaping a 21st century fleet.

Even though this was a Navy led discussion, the Air Force and Army were key elements in discussing the
evolution of maritime operations.

Major General McLachlan, head of Australian Army Modernization, discussed and analyzed the evolving role
of the Aussie Army in the defense of Australia through what the U.S. Army would call Air Defense Artillery
(ADA) or shaping the lower tier to a missile defense system engaged with the power projection forces.

From his perspective, the more effective the territory of Australia could be used to shape effective defenses,
the more the Air Force and Navy could focus on extended operations. He characterized this as shaping an
Australian anti-access and area denial force.

The key air force presentation was by Group Captain Hombsch, Chief of Staff of the Headquarters of the
Surveillance and Response Group. The SRG provides a number of key assets for the joint force to operate in
an integrated maritime domain space, such as the Wedgetail and the P-8/Triton dyad coming to the force.

The SRG includes a number of capabilities that in the U.S. would be owned variously by the US Army, Navy
or Air Force. But with the co-ownership of a diversity of assets, the SRG is well positioned to be a key element
for the force transformation underway in Australia.

It is clear that significant integration is underway, largely driven by service approaches reaching out to the
other services.

A key example of this is Wedgetail.

The Wedgetail is often referred to as an Aussie AWACS, but clearly is not. The AWACs is an AIR battle
managements system with the customers being largely the fighter community.

The Wedgetail is evolving towards a ground and naval engagement capability with naval and army officers
onboard and with virtual Wedgetail becoming part of the officer training for the Army and Navy this process
will deepen in the years ahead.

In many ways, what is being experienced with Wedgetail is what the ADF hopes to bring to the process of
overall force design and greater operational integration.

Second Line of Defense

Page 7