Page 63 - Australian Defence Magazine November 2021

ADVERTORIAL
SHAPING, DETERRENCE AND RESPONSE: THE CONTRIBUTION OF DISTRIBUTED LETHALITY
TNeale Prescott, Director of Business Development, Lockheed Martin Australia Rotary and Mission Systems
his year’s centenary of the Royal Australian Air Nowhere was that more on display than Exercise Tal- Force (RAAF) is reason to acknowledge the con- isman Sabre 2021 (TS21). TS21 was a training activity tribution and sacrifice of those who served and between the ADF and United States military, designed to the freedoms we enjoy today. test Combined and Joint Task Force operations, improve
Since 1921 the RAAF has answered the call wherever Australia’s interests and those of our allies needed de- fending by human endeavour, evolving tactics and apply- ing new technology.
Maintaining stability and security in the Indo-Pacific
requires “credible deterrence” as detailed in the Strategic Update; a vital contributor is distributed lethality.
A fundamental pillar of Australia’s security posture in the region over the past 70 years has been the ANZUS Alliance, the closeness and success of this deep partnership has sharper focus with the announcement of Australia’s alliance with the US and the UK.
While a foundation stone of that alliance is sharing state-of-the- art defence technologies, the fundamentals of our collective de- fence requirements are reasonably orthodox.
To protect the interests of Australia and our allies, we need to detect, identify and monitor threats at the greatest possible range to maximise decision making and response time.
The contemporary challenge we face, and must surmount, is the rapid reduction in the time to detect and counter advanced threat technologies.
An appropriate and necessary response to address these new technologies are strengthened alliances to integrate Australia’s technologically advanced capabilities and interoperate with our allied forces to the point they are interchangeable.
Deemed “distributed lethality” by the US Navy’s VADM Rowden, RADMs Gumataotao and Fanta, that “by distributing power across a larger number of more geographically spaced units, adversary targeting is complicated and attack density is diluted”.
The strength of Australia’s defence is not size, the Australian De- fence Force (ADF) has consciously structured itself to be first and foremost an integrated joint force with technological superiority.
Australia has developed our air force, army and navy capabili- ties to adapt quickly to threats. Defence industry partners includ- ing Lockheed Martin Australia work alongside the ADF to develop innovative technologies in pursuit of this objective.
Australia has acquired the most advanced individual platforms as demonstrated by its choice of surface vessels, aircraft and satellites – achieving integration of these systems is the logical next step.
With its Integrated Air and Missile Defence (IAMD) Program, the leaders of the RAAF identified that integrating those platforms to be- come a collective rather than a collection would be critical to main- taining their technological superiority in the region.
Australian platforms equipped with advanced sensors, net- worked communications to assure the passage of friendly force, with battlespace awareness are on the cusp achieving distributed lethality.
combat readiness and interoperability.
During TS21 Lockheed Martin and the ADF demon-
strated for the first time outside of the US the ability to exchange real-time F-35 sensor data with the Virtualised Aegis, via the F-35’s multifunction advanced data link.
The ability to exchange real-time F-35 sensor data halfway around the globe – from Fort Worth, Texas, to Honolulu, Hawaii – and on to Australia represents a new benchmark in joint all-domain informa- tion sharing. It confirms the F-35 as the most advanced node in the 21st century warfare network-centric architecture.
Put simply, the best IAMD command and control system, in com- bination with the best aerospace combat system, provides even greater deterrence and distributed lethality.
It should also be acknowledged that this was the first such demonstration by a non-U.S. F-35 operator and reinforces the ADF’s emergence as an interoperable, fifth-generation force.
The final dimension to achieving a sustained, resilient deter- rence in the Indo Pacific is the realisation of allied platform inter- changeability.
Consider that by 2035 there will be more than 300 F-35s oper- ating in the Indo-Pacific from allied land bases, carriers and am- phibious assault ships.
Meanwhile, dozens of Aegis-enabled allied surface vessels will likely be stationed across the region.
These air and maritime capabilities integrated with surveillance satellites, gathering and fusing data provide Australian and allies unprecedented situational awareness.
This is important because, to deal effectively with the complex threats that are emerging, we must be able to rapidly share infor- mation between allied platforms.
Interchangeability is the point at which, in the event a threat is detected, command and control of the response is determined objectively and assigned to the most appropriate element of the force, whether it is Australian or one of our allies’.
The implications for commanders of this degree of all-domain connectivity will represent a gamechanger in their ability to make time critical decisions to apply effects from a distributed force.
As the designer of platforms critical to our allies realising re- gional deterrence, including the F35, Aegis and space-based infra- red systems, Lockheed Martin’s differentiator is our ability to ex- amine new and emerging threats and connect capabilities across all domains to deliver maximum effect.
Lockheed Martin Australia is proud to be the capability partner of choice to the RAAF for over 70 years and supporting Austra- lia’s security environment through the strengthening of sovereign self-reliance and platform interchangeability.