Page 45 - Williams Foundation Integrated Force Design Seminar

Designing the Integrated Force: How to Define and Meet the Challenge?

In effect, we are training a network of operators who can shape high intensity air operations under the
impact of fifth generation warfighting concepts.

The technology is crucial; the platforms are important; but it is the training towards where we need to go
that is crucial, rather than simply training to the past.

Is that not where your experience with Wedgetail and working with allies comes in?

Group Captain Bellingham: That is a good way to set up the discussion.

I think the strength of everything we're doing at the moment only comes from a strong cooperation with our
allies. Obviously, we're a tiny force, and our relevance and real strength becomes fully apparent when we tie
our capabilities with those of our allies.

At Red Flag 17-1, we saw the US, the UK and Australia blending advanced assets together to make the
entire force more lethal and survivable in the high end threat environment.
Question: The F-35 plays a key role in shaping the battlespace and target identification for other air
assets.

What is the Wedgetail’s role in that context?

Group Captain Bellingham: As we evolve the capabilities of Wedgetail, we see key roles it can play as a
quarterback in a high-end fight. And as we upgrade the software and hardware capabilities, it is only by
interacting with the other assets in that air combat environment that we can truly evolve new ways of doing
things.

It's not just we've updated the software and now we've got a great radar. That's a continuous process, and
every time we go to these exercises and go, "You know, that was kind of neat. How do we make that
repeatable, and how do we embed that in our doctrine and TTPs?"

Our true strength comes from multiple nations working together and blending their capabilities for the fight,
because it is simply very difficult for any one nation to fund and deploy all the high-end capabilities we need.

Our Wedgetail contribution can be seen in this light.

st
Question: Let us return to the concept of shaping a network of operators for 21 century high-end
operations.
How do we best get this done?

Group Captain Bellingham: It is about deploying your new assets, and learning how to use them in an
interactive context. For us, it is starting with Wedgetail, and then moving to Growler, and then to F-35, to P-
8, to Triton and so on, how do we shape an effective team to dominate in an air combat environment?

The platforms and technology is crucial but training to where we need to go and cross learning to evolve the
combat force is absolutely essential for shaping the air force we need to deploy.

We see our new Air Warfare Centre as a key opportunity to do just that. One evolving aspect is that our Air
Force used to conduct Fighter Combat Instructor courses; and we would send a ground controller to the course
to participate. Now the focus is on the evolution of holistic air combat capabilities and as part of that, we
have a Wedgetail team participating in the Air Warfare Instructor course.

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