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North European and North Atlantic Defense: The Challenges Return

Leveraging the F-35 as Part of Danish Defense Transformation: The
Perspective of the New Chief of Staff of the Royal Danish Air Force

2017-10-15 By Robbin Laird

I first met Col. Anders Rex at the Danish Airpower Conference in 2015. There he provided a significant
presentation on the key focus within the Danish Air Force on how to work effectively within coalitions.

Being a good coalition partner takes practice.

We have a core group in the Danish Air Force, which has done several coalition operations, and when
we are not doing that we participate in multinational exercises.

This is a core competence that the Danish Air Force has developed, and as we do so we work to find
the gold in each coalition operation….

A key focus of effort among the Allied air forces is clearly upon how to make the most of a coalition
and to work more effectively together.

He coined the term “coalitionability” and set a goal for allied and partner Air Forces ways to shape
higher levels of “coalitionability.”

http://www.sldinfo.com/coalition-operations-are-in-the-danish-dna-finding-the-gold-in-coalitions/

He is becoming Chief of Staff of the Royal Danish Air Force as they prepare for the introduction of the F-35
and as core allies in the region are doing so as well, notably, the UK (onboard the Queen Elizabeth), the
Dutch and the Norwegians. The coalition opportunity clearly is right in front of these partners, and in the UK
case, the UK has not flown the same aircraft with the Nordic Air Forces for a long time indeed.

At the earlier seminar, Col. Anders noted that the USAF being as large as it was had less opportunity to work
“coalitionability.”

Of course, the USAF is a much larger force than that of Denmark’s.

But Col. Rex underscored that “it’s so big that if you look at the rate of coalition training opportunities
per airman I’m sure it’s a lot lower than an air force like the Danish one.”

For the operations which we undertake “It’s really important to know and understand how to make the
most out of a coalition, how to dig out the gold.”

In an interview I did last year with then head of the USAF at RAF Lakenheath, Col. and now General Novotny
underscored how important he saw the coalition aspect of the standup of the F-35 in the region, notably the
UK and the US based at Marham and Lakenheath, respectively:

“I see there is great potential for two countries to develop in concert, side-by-side, and to set, set the
model for joint operations.

Second Line of Defense

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