Page 32 - Renorming of Airpower: The F-35 Enters the Combat Fleet

The Renorming of Airpower: The F-35 Arrives into the Combat Force

He saw the tiltrotar experience as a crucial baseline and saw the future of Marine Corps rotor wing as
tiltrotar. He saw the Cobras, Hueys, and Yankees replaced over time by a new generation tiltrotar aircraft.
He favored one, which would be two seaters, and able to be either manned or unmanned to provide for the
kind of flexibility which the Marines would want to reshape the capabilities and approach of the assault
force.

His version of the Plan Jericho approach to building a more integrated assault force was as follows:

Every platform a SENSOR, every platform a SHOOTER, every platform a SHARE/CONNECTOR, and every
platform an EW NODE.

And throughout he highlighted that the Marines were preparing for the high end fight and enhanced
capabilities to operate throughout an expanded maneuver space, and able to operate from land, and sea
sequentially, concurrently or jointly as the mission demanded.

With regard to equipping that force, he saw the need to build on fifth generation capabilities, multi-mission
everything, spiral develop everything and leverage bottom up combat innovation.

He concluded that he saw a great opportunity to work with an ADF in transformation as the Marines went
down a similar path.

(Note: Lt. General Davis made his presentation in Canberra at the Williams Foundation Conference on March
17, 2016. The Royal Australian Air Force is shaping an integrated 21st century air force built in part around
the F-35 and to open the aperature of change, the former Chief of Staff of the RAAF, Air Marshal Geoff
Brown, launched the Plan Jericho approach, which is about reducing barriers and leveraging assets like the F-
35 as a driving force for enhanced joint combat capability.

The Williams Foundation is pursuing a unique effort to look at the evolution of combat forces under the impact
of the coming of the F-35 to their force. This effort is unique in the world, namely, an advanced Air Force – in
a few years the oldest aircraft they will fly is the C-130J – preparing for the F-35 with integrated combat as
a key focus.

The first effort was focused largely on the F-35 and looked at air combat 2025, which provided a look at
fifth generation and its capabilities and how that could transform the force. The RAAF leadership has
maintained from the outset that without culture change, adding 5th generation, is just that, additive. They want
it to be transformative.

The second effort was the airpower Conference in Copenhagen, where the same theme was the focus of
attention, but with a broader set of actors. The only USAF folks there actually did not contribute to the
transformation conversation but just talked about airpower, but the RAF, the Dutch AF, the RAAR, and USMC
representatives certainly did, and Ed Timperlake and I talked to the broader transformation effort and what
it would take.

The third effort was the conference held on the heals of the RAAF’s big Airpower Conference where day 1
was an opportunity for the three service chiefs to speak, as well as foreigners such as PACAF.

The second day was focused specifically on providing an update on the RAAF’s Plan Jericho, and the co-
directors of the program started the day with several contributors talking about different aspects of recent
change efforts.

Second Line of Defense

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