Complex change

“The quality of an air force is really determined by the quality of that support organisation.”

In charge of managing that evolving complexity is new Chief of Air Force, Air Marshal Geoff Brown, an experienced airman who is widely respected as a deep thinker on air power and organisational issues. AIRMSHL Brown was officially appointed CAF on July 4 this year, after a stint as Deputy Chief of Air Force, succeeding now VCDF AIRMSHL Mark Binskin. Before that his appointments have included time as Director General Capability Planning for Air Force, Commander Air Combat Group, OC of the AEW&C program office, Australian Air Component Commander during the Iraq war (in charge of RAAF F/A-18 and C-130 ops), OC 82WG (F-111s), CO 3SQN (F/A-18s), leader of the Roulettes flight demonstration team, a stint as an instructor with 2FTS, and an initial posting off pilots course on RAAF CH-47C Chinooks in the early 1980s.

During that career, he says, the Air Force has “shaped and influenced” him.

“When you come in to flying training in the Air Force it’s got a long history and tradition in the way it does things, its expectations on how you fly aeroplanes, with the precision that you fly them, as well as with the professionalism that you approach it,” AIRMSHL Brown explained to Australian Aviation.

“And then you go to an operational squadron. My first operational squadron was a Chinook squadron, and a lot of the guys that I flew with, initially, had come back from Vietnam – flight engineers, load-masters, and crews that had all participated in the Vietnam War – and I think [their experiences] shapes your outlook to a certain extent as well. ” Now, as CAF, he has the opportunity in turn to “shape and influence” the RAAF.

“One of the things that I really want to communicate across the Air Force is an understanding of what its essential advantages are as an organisation. It has always produced very professional aircrew throughout its history. But I think one of the advantages we don’t talk a lot about is that engineering and logistics and support piece, which is critical to an air force.

“In all my speeches I tend to talk about being a complex engineering, logistics and support organisation, and that the quality of an air force is really determined by the quality of that support organisation. ” That quality was on display recently with the mass formation of Super Hornets the RAAF generated to welcome home the final four of the 24 jets now in service with 1 and 6 Squadrons at Amberley.

“One of the main reasons we flew 20 Super Hornets, 21 with the display aeroplane – and that took 23 of them to be serviceable [to have two spare jets on standby] – was to demonstrate the success of that program in terms of that engineering and logistics and support, and the training. ” It is, says CAF, the logistics and support structure that allows the Air Force to function as well as it does.

“We produce serviceable aeroplanes,” CAF notes. “If you need C-130s to go and do something, they’re always there. If you look at what we’re doing at the moment in the Middle East, we’ve had P-3s there continuously for the last eight years. ” Indeed, the high tempo of RAAF AP-3C Orions is highly illustrative of Air Force’s ability to generate and sustain aircraft for operations.

“At the moment I’ve got P-3s based in Darwin, I’m running them out of Learmonth, and they continue to operate out of Edinburgh. On any one day, there’s eight or nine P-3s doing operations around Australia. That is not an easy task to do, considering the size of the force. ” It’s evidence of why CAF sees the RAAF as one of the world’s “best” air forces.

The elements that make that claim stand up, CAF notes, are that “I firmly believe we produce leading edge aircrew. Number one. ” And then, “If you have a look at our recapitalisation program, . . . I don’t see anycapabilities that we’re not planning to get, or do not have already, that aren’t fundamentally leading edge capabilities.

“So you put both of those together, with a world class engineering and logistics system behind it.

“And when I say Air Force, I say Air Force in terms of its permanent members, reserves, public servants and contractors. ” Given CAF’s emphasis on the Air Force being a “complex engineering, logistics and support organisation”, it is both a fascinating and critical time to be leading it, as the RAAF contributes towards its share of the Strategic Reform Program (SRP), Defence’s plan to save $20 billion over 10 years for reinvestment back into equipment acquisitions.

For Air Force, much of its savings for SRP, delivered under the Air Force Improvement program, fall under the realm of ‘smart sustainment’ – in effect, more efficient maintenance processes and procedures and spare parts management.

Historically, says CAF, “Defence often develops very complex processes, and I say that because we’re lazy. Like any big government organisation, the fundamental thing that we don’t do is we don’t value people’s time, so that when something goes wrong, instead of looking at the process, we’ll just put in [more resources]. I use the analogy that if the belt breaks we put on a set of braces, and then if we still don’t like the solution we put on another set of braces.

“So we continually layer processes, which, when you fundamentally look at it, wastes a lot of time. So valuing people’s time is the message that we’ve tried to get out through Air Force, and that’s starting to gain traction. ” AIRMSHL Brown uses the example of a Hornet squadron at Williamtown to illustrate the types of changes to process and procedures now being made.

“We’ve put the CAM (computer aided maintenance) terminals inside the hangar, we’ve got visual management systems, the F-18 used to be paper based maintenance manuals, now we’ve put it all on powerbooks, and really looked at where we’ve been wasting people’s time, in terms of servicing, and looked at the production planning. And that’s starting to gain traction right across Air Force. ” “You’re asking people to change, but they need to see the results for that change.

Now, they’ve got more time in their day, and they can plan their day better, they’re less reactive. ” And with Air Force Improvement starting to deliver results, CAF is confident that this momentum will continue.

“If you remove your focus from the dollar side of it, and you concentrate on the productivity side, what I’m seeing is I’m actually getting more serviceable jets.

My capability’s increasing while my costs are decreasing, which isn’t a bad equation.

And attitudes are changing inside the service, so there’s less, ‘we’ve always done it this way, right?’ And there’s a questioning of, ‘is there a better way to do it? Is there a more effective and efficient way to approach this problem?’ “So that’s the part I value, that cultural challenge that’s out there in the organisation at the moment. ” Still, observes CAF, “like any big organisation, [enthusiasm for change] varies from unit to unit. At the moment it’s still very dependent on unit leadership, so if the unit leadership is onboard and pushing hard, it works quite well. I still have areas out there that are a little more ambivalent about it, but, that just takes time, and we’ll work through those issues. ” And CAF concedes there are rub points. “There’s aspects of [SRP] that are pure money saving . . . especially in nonequipment procurement and in workforce and shared services, where it’s a little hard to demonstrate the improvements to the workforce, and that’s probably a bigger challenge than it is on the maintenance side. I think at the moment, there is still some friction within the enabling groups that support Air Force. ” But industry partners have shown a “fairly enthusiastic” approach to SRP and Air Force Improvement, CAF says, highlighting the work BAE Systems has done on Hawk support, BAE and Boeing on Hornet support, and Lockheed Martinand BAE Systems on the JORN over the horizon radar network.

Interestingly, it is the increasing role of industry in supporting Air Force platforms, particularly performance based logistics programs such as those the RAAF participates in for C-17, Super Hornet and eventually the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, that is behind another key item on CAF’s ‘to-do’ list.

“As we’ve gone from an organic support model to more performance based logistics and total system responsibility with the contractors, the thing we’ve got to be very careful about is that we can still produce the same quality of people from a smaller personnel base,” CAF explains. “So one of the things we’re looking at is that we actually need to grow our engineers and logisticians more carefully through this reduced personnel base.

“I think we also need to have a look at how the organisation can be a little bit more porous with our contractors, and maybe put some of our engineers into the contractors, and bring them out, so there are a series of discussions we’re having with the bigger companies at the moment. ” Again, that issue reaffirms AIRMSHL Brown’s notion of the importance of the RAAF as that “complex engineering, logistics and support organisation”.

Elaborates CAF, “the thing we really have to be careful about is that as we bring junior engineers in to Air Force, we need to be able to provide them with the same breadth of experience we did when we were a fully organic [maintenance] organisation. ” That will become increasingly important when the F-35 comes on line, which will be supported by Lockheed Martin’s Autonomic Logistics Information System, or ALIS.

“The advantage with some of the ideas behind the ALIS type model is not so much the communications between the aeroplane and the ground, because airlines have been doing that for quite a while.

But by giving the manufacturer a little bit more responsibility it means the parts that have lower reliability can be redesigned, so you probably don’t have to buy as many parts up front and you can buy them when you need them. So it lowers the logistics cost of the operation. ” Certainly in the fighter world, the “logistics cost of the operation” is a concern as the ‘classic’ F/A-18A/B Hornets approach the end of their service lives towards the end of the decade, and concerns over the timing availability of the aircraft slated to replace them, the F-35.

“At the moment, I’m comfortable with where we are with the classic F-18 fleet.

Again, out of Air Force Improvement, we’re seeing improvements in serviceability, but it is an ageing fleet,” CAF observes.

And of its replacement? “I look at the JSF program over the last 12 to 18 months and I’m pretty positive about how that’s going. ” When asked whether Air Force would recommend to the Defence Minister the acquisition of further Super Hornets to bridge any gap between retiring classic Hornets and the F-35, AIRMSHL Brown says, “I don’t rule that out, but at the moment the F-35 program seems to be progressing pretty well from everything I can see. ” And acquiring more Super Hornets is not the only option should there be any classic Hornet-JSF gap.

“We still need to get the JSF in about that [late decade] time, because of the way we’ve calculated the fatigue life on the Hornet. We have a certain rampdown rate there. Now there is some flexibility in that, but it would require shifting rate of effort from the classic onto the Super Hornet. So there is a backup plan, to actually drive the Super Hornets harder. ” “But I’d rather not do that, and I don’t see it being a factor. I actually think the JSF program is pretty close to becoming a fairly normal program from here-on in. ” If more Super Hornets are less likely at the moment, an acquisition of some EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft, or upgrading some of the F/A-18F Super Hornets that Australia has had pre-wired for easy conversion to Growler configuration, seems more likely.

“As we go through the Defence Capability Plan, it [a Growler acquisition] has to fit within an entire joint context. I certainly believe that we could [operate a Growler subfleet], and I believe it’s a great strategic opportunity. But it has to be measured against everything else that goes into a Defence Capability Plan. ” AIRMSHL Brown has long been an advocate for a Growler capability for the RAAF – “You’d have to say that I was probably a little biased,” he notes, observing that his fellow Army and Navy service chiefs would be “enthusiastic” for such a capability too, at least as long as it didn’t come at the expense of their own longer term capability requirements.

Another Air Force capability up for current consideration is the battlefield airlifter, the long term replacement for the now retired Caribou tactical transports.

“I actually think the JSF program is pretty close to becoming a fairly normal program from here-on in. ”

“We don’t [currently] have a battlefield airlift capability, which I think puts an additional load on the Chinooks. When you look at the fact that we have Chinooks deployed to Afghanistan, Army doesn’t have a lot of airlift capability in its helicopters just at the moment,” CAF said ofthe argument for acquiring a new transport to slot between Army Chinooks and Air Force C-130s. “The key thing for me is the battlefield airlifter gets us into twice as many airfields in the region as a C-130, and I think that’s a vulnerability we have to address. ” In addressing that vulnerability, says CAF, “one of the things you can make a mistake with [in considering the battlefield airlifter] . . . is what’s its prime job? Its prime job is to move Army around the battlefield.

So I think when we look at what sort of aeroplane we select, we have to make sure that it can do that job adequately. ” That means being able move Army vehicles.

“I think that’s a fundamental capability that the battlefield airlifter has to be able to do. Because Australia’s such a remote place it’s difficult to drive vehicles where the Army sometimes needs them, or it takes too long. So I think the ability to carry something like a G-Wagon is one of those fundamental requirements. ” Should Growlers and battlefield airlifters, plus the F-35 and new training aircraft under the Air 5428 program all be acquired in the near future, they will join a long list of new platforms the Air Force has introduced into service of late.

“If you look at what we’re doing right now, we introduced five new systems last year, Super Hornet, Wedgetail, the Heron UAV direct into theatre, we replaced the Caribous with the King Airs, and Vigilare came up to IOC. And I now have KC-30 tankers sitting on the ramp at Amberley, the fifth C-17 which came in pretty rapidly and pretty seamlessly, JASSM which is very close to declaring IOC, and the HUG program on the Hornets, which is pretty much finished,” AIRMSHL Brown notes.

So in the context of key capabilities still to come on line, “There’s still some big muscle moves to go, Air 5428, the battlefield airlifter, and JSF, but I think we’ve proven over the last couple of years that we can do it, in the required timeframe. ” One capability for Air Force that is not in the current Defence Capability Plan that CAF would like to see would be a medium altitude long endurance UAV that would in effect replace the leased Heron capability currently in service in Afghanistan, and sit between the Army’s forthcoming Shadow UAV and the high altitude long endurance UAV likely to be acquired for maritime surveillance under Air 7000, such as the Global Hawk.

“I think if you look at some of the things we might have to do in the region. . . having a smaller niche capability might work well, but again, I’m going to have to argue that inside the Force Structure Review. ” (The Force Structure Review will inform the next Defence White Paper, which in turn will set the framework for subsequent Defence Capability Plans. ) As for the Force Posture Review currently underway into ADF bases, CAF doesn’t foresee it recommending major changes to where RAAF units and bases are situated.

Richmond, for example, is one base is occasionally mooted that could be shut down, and its resident 37SQN with its C-130s moved further north. But, “it would probably cost us in excess of $400 million to replicate that infrastructure at another base,” CAF says. “So when you get down to the hard nuts and bolts of it, the only time to think about the future of Richmond is when you’re thinking about the future of the C-130J. ” And as for how the barebones bases across the north of Australia are utilised, “I think Air Force is pretty well postured with our northern bases anyway. One of the things that I think may come out of it is to look at some of those northern bases, and whether we need to put extra infrastructure in there. The reality is, I can stand up any of those northern bases in probably less than 24 hours, through airlift, so we can be there very rapidly, for example, to protect the North West Shelf. ” But with so much other change to manage, the prospect that major basing changes aren’t expected is no bad thing.

With ongoing operations, Air Force Improvement/SRP, and major capability changes to manage, as CAF notes, “The organisation is busy. ”