Page 4 - May 2019

Cover Story

The Challenges of Fifth-

Generation Transformation

Wing Commander André Adamson, UK Royal Air Force
Colonel Matthew Snyder, US Air Force

Introduction that the networked force is capable of a hard-nosed evaluation and decision
working effectively with them. will need to be made on where they
Plan Jericho, published in 2015, The Australian plan has given many want to be as an air force in the next
outlined a strategy that would air forces pause for thought. That 10–15 years. The choice is tactical,
transform the Royal Australian Air an air force comprising fewer than strategic and political.
Force (RAAF) into a fifth-generation 15,000 regular personnel is seeking to This article analyses some of the
air force by 2025 which, if delivered transition to an entirely fifth-generation stakes involved as the introduction of
on schedule, would make it the world’s the F-35 increasingly acts as a driver
first. The transformation is not based air force within the next decade to meet for fifth-generation transformation. It will
on merely the possession of the next its strategic and security objectives also consider some of the implications
generation of aircraft technology demonstrates an undertaking to conduct for air forces that have committed
including the F-35A, P-8 Poseidon, future air operations in a conceptually to fifth-generation programmes and,
EA-18G Growler and E-7A Wedgetail, different way. The commitment to a perhaps more significantly, for those
but on a reconceptualization of the similar transformation among other F-35 that have not.
RAAF as an integrated, networked partners is firmly underway – both the
force. Significantly, this new operating US Air Force and the UK Royal Air Force
(RAF) have pledged to transition to The Partners and Why
concept is based on working in a highly
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collaborative manner with the army, fifth-generation air forces. In contrast, They Joined the F-35
navy, industry and allies – especially for air forces that are not committed to Programme
partners in the F-35 programme – in a fifth-generation programme, or the
order to achieve the full potential of transformational concepts that underpin Nine countries originally signed up as
the new technologies, and to ensure it, the time is rapidly approaching where partners to the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF)

5th Generation transformation is not based merely on possession of next generation
aircraft technology which includes the E-7A Wedgetail. Photo SGT Shane Gidall.

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