Page 108 - Maritime Services and the Kill Web

The Maritime Services, the Allies and Shaping the Kill Web

“Being overly tied to our kinetic and lethal effects targeting mindsets will not give you the Growler you need
on the day.

“New thinking in terms of dynamic targeting, particularly of non-lethal effects, many of which may be
temporary in nature, will be a key to success.

“Delegating these engagement authorities forward will be essential.”

Fourth, training to ensure that EW becomes part of the force, rather than a stove piped on call capability is a
major challenge.

“We have invested heavily in training and rightly so; we are not there yet but the future is positive.

“Importantly, the rapidly evolving Electronic Warfare capabilities across the ADF need new ways of thinking
to get the most from our family of systems.

“New training areas that test our ability to find, fix, track, target and engage adaptive threats are
fundamental to our force.

“Of course, with the constraints already mentioned, live virtual and constructive environments are being
enhanced and expanded to serve our needs.

“Ultimately fifth generation forces need fifth generation training.”

Fifth, the Group Captain emphasized the importance of what he called commonality both across the ADF and
the allied forces using Growler.

“We have made changes to these jets (RAAF Growerls) based on Australian needs but they have changed the
US Navy common baseline.

“Careful investment has given our Growlers targeting pods and Infra-red missiles.

“Not because it’s a fighter but because they help our active and passive kill chains.

“The US Navy is joining this path; it’s a team effort and our differences bring useful diversity to shape the
growth of this aircraft.”

And the final challenge he addressed really flowed from how he saw the introduction of Growler as part of
the broader evolution of the RAAF to support a payload revolution.

“Our thinking needs to cover payloads not just platforms and be driven by creative technical thinkers,
connected with operators.”

Group Captain Braz ended on a very forceful note – don’t built a community of Growler operators; build a
joint force within which EW is a core distributed competence.

“Our true challenge, as swimmers in the mainstream, is to acknowledge the currently niche players in EW,
assist their real and important growth and to drag them into our swim lane; to roll their input and concepts into
every plan, to seek to understand more and engage better.

“Our new thinking must be beyond labels like EW operators but that this expertise permeates our business as
an assumed skill.

“So, as a strike fighter native, I am happy to wear an EW tag but I want it to be a temporary one.
Second Line of Defense

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