Page 33 - Leverage and Learn

Leverage Allied Investments and Combat Learning Experience in Modernizing the U.S. Military

SPEAR was successfully deployed. SPEAR is carried upside down so at launch the missile must turn over, then
deploy its wings, start the jet engine and then navigate a course to target. All these operations were successfully
demonstrated during the trial.

http://ow.ly/Xae730dzsbz

Spear 3 is a natural for the USMC concepts of operations and its closest partner, the UK, will have already
done its integration. The new business model would suggest that the USMC and USN should seriously consider
acquiring this weapon for the relevant mission sets.

Recently, Defence Minister Fallon suggested that the UK’s openness to acquiring US weapon systems needs to
be reciprocated by the United States. But the new F-35 business model goes beyond the simple question of
classic protectionism or conducting costly but meaningless competition when an off the shelf allied solution is
already in play.

Put bluntly, the F-35 business model rests on leveraging joint investments and capabilities. For the United
States not to follow the F-35 business model would suggest that the business rules followed by DoD simply are
not capable of adjusting to the new 21st century realities of business.
And the Trump Administration can not really want to see such lack of innovation, an innovation generated by
the new combat capability which the US has invested so much in itself.

And the UK investments and operational efforts to integrate UK weapons onto the RAF/RN F-35s is clear and
significant. The UK will integrate Paveway 4, Meteor, SPEAR 3 and ASRAAM to the ‘B’ variant aircraft and
be operational with these weapons by c. 2023. It simply remains for the US to pursue the logic of the F-35
business model.

RESHAPING THE MARITIME DOMAIN AWARENESS STRIKE ENTERPRISE
Either through flying the P-8 or P-8 Triton combination or contributed significant upgrades to legacy
equipment and building the kinds of sensors crucial to maritime domain dominance, allies are contributing from
the ground up to the evolution of US new platforms or providing technology which could be adopted by US
forces as well, or certainly contributing to the data stream necessary to dominate the maritime battlespace.

Standing Up the P-8/Triton Maritime Domain Strike Enterprise in
Australia: Visiting RAAF Edinbourgh

2017-04-24 By Robbin Laird
During a visit to Australia last Spring, I had a chance to visit South Australia and RAAF Edinburgh, which is
near Adelaide.

At Adelaide, the Australian Navy will be building its new submarines and at RAAF Edinburgh the Aussies are
standing up the other key element of their 21st century ASW capabilities, namely, the core P-8/Triton base.

I visited RAF Lossiemouth where the Brits are standing up their P-8 base and both the Aussies and the Brits are
building 21st century infrastructure to support their new fleets of aircraft.

And certainly there will be cross learning between the two air forces as both face similar and large operating
areas working with the USN and other ASW partners.

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