Page 50 - Renorming of Airpower: The F-35 Enters the Combat Fleet

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

There are two key issues, which need to be addressed.

First, one needs to optimize delivery through a global supply chain vertically, if you want to put it that way.
And then for the national force, you’re going to look horizontally across each of those supply chains, and so
how does the joint logistics area manage that?

Do you order supplies only through that vertical global supply chain or do you rationalize across your force
and your force holdings by the national joint supply chain?

We have to understand that you are going to end up optimizing platforms to the global supply chain such as
the JSF for very good reasons. How that integrates and interfaces in a country-by-country case into a cross
capability logistics system, I don’t think is understood as yet.

This is a critical issue to understand so that we can deploy as effectively as possible, and operate across a
range of capabilities in a more complex logistics environment in the future.

Addressing both the national and global F-35 approaches are important because they are at the cutting
edge of an approach which may well be repeated with regard to other systems to be supported globally in
the future by US and allied militaries.

In other words, the F-35 system is a pathfinder effort for squaring the circle between a global supply chain
and supply chains for a transformed joint force towards which Australia is clearly working.”

Question: To put it into your words, the challenge is squaring the dynamics of a global vertical supply
chain with a nationally based ability to supply your force?

Air Vice Marshal (Retired) Blackburn: “The challenge you face now is a far more complicated logistics
information system that needs to not only work in that vertical axis but in the horizontal axis country-by-
country, and then you have to make some hard decisions because you’re not a just-in-time civil supply system.
You need a resilient supply base, and not just depend on just-in-time deliveries from a global supply chain.

Cost is a critical factor as well.

If I quote from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute defense budget report of this year, they are projecting
a 5.2 percent real growth per annum – real growth – in sustainment costs. When you look at the scale of that
operating cost for a force like ours, that’s something that’s got to have to be managed very carefully to make
sure that our force remains affordable.

I think the sustainable logistics part is going to be a very, very important factor in supporting a transformation
effort.”

Question: What are your thoughts on the cross-cutting of the training and logistics challenges for
transformation?

Air Vice Marshal (Retired) Blackburn: “They are cross-cutting. It is important in the training of pilots to operate
for the joint force to understand that an airplane without sustaining capability is a museum piece. It’s nice to
look at but not much use.

We have to educate our people from day one. There’s a bigger world out there, and yes in the first part of
your career, you focus on your specific skillsets, in being a pilot, an air combat officer, or logistician, or an air
traffic controller or a battle manager for example. But, if you don’t understand how it works as a system, then
you’re not going to be much use as you progress in your career.

Second Line of Defense

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