Page 63 - Williams Foundation Integrated Force Design Seminar

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

This therefore results in the overall mission risk being lower and chance of survival and victory, being
considerably higher.

In a fourth generation world, we would always deploy a minimum of two aircraft in relatively close proximity
to each other.

That was because our radars were simply not powerful enough as a single entity to cover the entire airspace.

I’d have one radar effectively looking low, the wingman’s radar looking high, and we combine our data there
to build the picture.

RAAF Tindal F-35 facilities in process of construction. Credit: RAAF

Basically, there’ll be times where I didn’t necessarily see a particular contact until I was about to employ a
weapon against that contact.

The big difference now is, with F-35, I see virtually everything in the airspace.

It’s positively identified as a friend, foe, or neutral, which allows me to put myself into a more advantageous
position earlier on in the fight.

That’s the part where people don’t quite understand the true capabilities of the F-35.

I know exactly what’s going on in the battlespace all of the time.
The critics will often fail to take into consideration the evolution of the threats as well, some on a very, very
rapid timeline.

Page 62