Jericho

Otherwise, there is a real risk the potential of the enhanced battlespace awareness that will be provided by these new systems with their greatly enhanced sensors and communications capabilities may never be realised.

Further work on Jericho in 2015 wil further develop three themes: harnessing the combat potential of an integrated force; developing an innovative and empowered workforce; and changing the way the RAAF acquires and sustains capability.

In launching Jericho, CAF described it as being about much more than the F-35 or about aircraft and platforms. “It is about root and branch transformation,” he said.

“It will affect the way we train, the way we fight, and the way we sustain ourselves. We must alsotransform our relationship with industry to ensure we procure and innovate in alignment with the breathtaking speed at which that technological change is occurring in the information age. ” “We understand that our technological edge must also deliver superior situational awareness,” CAF added. “We also understand that we must share this situational awareness and operate as an integrated team across the services, Defence, our national agencies, and our coalition partners. This is the only way we win in the information age. This will demand pervasive change in the way we acquire, share and store the massive amount of information that is now available in the battlespace. “Each of our new platforms will give us a formidable amount of ISR and lethality,” he said. “But the real challenge is to link them in real time so that the copious amounts of information they can gather can be available across our entire force. When that happens – and it will – Air Force can truly claim to be a ‘system of systems’ – a fifth generation-enabled force with vastly improved situational awareness and the ability to operate as an integrated team. That must be our goal. ” CAF cited recent operations in Iraq, in the southern Indian Ocean, in the Ukraine as examples of where lessons on not just interoperability but true force integration have been learned.

“Our recent operations have burnished the proud history of the Royal Australian Air Force,” he said. “Moreover, they have given us an insight into the challenges facing air forces in a period of heightened great power tensions; of hybrid wars against non-state actors with the backing of states; of the demands of rapid deployment to provide humanitarian aid to distressed populations; or to repatriate dead or injured Australians from trouble spots overseas. In the past year, Air Force has constituted the long arm of Australian policy.

“In so doing, we exemplified all of the distinctive attributes of air power: speed, reach, agility, lethality, precision and discrimination, as well as allowing the government to calibrate our involvement in distant conflicts to a degree that is commensurate with our interests. ” CAF initially flagged his intent to launch Plan Jericho in June last year, and has since been in consultation with senior members of Navy and Army, and with industry on how best to implement the plan. To thisend, he has established a dedicated Jericho team comprised initially of two Group Captains who will report to the Deputy Chief of Air Force (DCAF) and the Air Commander Australia (ACAUST).

“Previous large-scale changes experienced varying degrees of success,” CAF said in closing. “One lesson that we learned from our past experience is that plans such as Jericho only succeed if there is widely-shared, persistent ownership of the plan. So, rather than take a traditional approach of a top down designed and owned change program, I have decided to empower the future leaders and innovators across the Air Force to design and then implement the Jericho transformation program. ”

Enabling Plan Jericho

Fortunately for the Chief of Air Force, many of the key enabling capabilities for his Plan Jericho are either already in place or have been committed to.

Chief among these of course if the F-35, the first two of which first flew last year and in December were inducted into the USAF’s integrated training center at Luke AFB in Arizona.

In the past year, Air Force has constituted the long arm of Australian policy.

CAFThe E-7A Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft has been a long time coming for the ADF, but in recent months has well and truly proved itself in Operation Okra in Iraq, and according to CAF has become the “command and control (C2) platform of choice” in that theatre since being deployed last September.

Although not in the same class as the F-35, the F/A-18F Super Hornet offers a significant improvement over previous generation fighters in its ability to integrate its advanced sensors and communications systems to employ weapons or to enhance the battlespace picture.

To a lesser extent, the improvements made to the F/A-18A/B classic Hornet fleet under the Hornet Upgrade Program (HUG) have given it more capable and secure communications and enhanced sensors that also allow it to operate as a node within a larger system.

Coming in 2017 will be the EA- 18G Growler electronic attack aircraft which will add significantly to situational awareness of the electronic spectrum, while the P-8A Poseidon manned and MQ-4C Triton unmanned systems which will replace the AP‑3C Orion maritime reconnaissance aircraft will carry vastly enhanced communications and sensor systems in the maritime domain.

Not to be forgotten is the RAAF’s much enhanced transport fleet, with the C-17s, KC-30As, C-130Js and the new C-27Js slated to receive secure Link-16, satellite and mIRC Chat communications systems to provide greater mission flexibility and a dynamic retasking capability.

Other ADF capabilities are also expected to slot into a new integrated ADF picture. The Navy’s recently upgraded Anzac class ASMD frigates feature new CEA CEAFAR p

hased array radar sensors and Saab 9LV combatsystems; the two new Canberra class LHD amphibious ships will also have a C2 role with their own 9LV systems; and new Hobart class air warfare destroyers will feature the Aegis combat system with the SPY-1D radar and the voiceless Naval Integrated Fire Control-Counter Air (NIFC-CA) capability. NIFC-CA is an advanced sensor network which will significantly increase battlespace awareness through the integration of data from multiple sensors and platforms such as F-35 or the MH-60R Romeo into a real-time composite track picture.

CAF envisages new acquisition and sustainment paradigm

AIRMSHL Brown has called on the RAAF to improve its working relationships with industry as part of an effort to change the way capabilities are acquired and sustained under Plan Jericho. One of the three foundational themes of the RAAF transformational plan is seeking to change how the service acquires and sustains each new capability so as to keep pace with the latest technological developments.

“We have to align our acquisition times to the rate of technological innovation in the real economy,” Air Marshal Brown said as he formally launched Plan Jericho.

“We must develop new ways to sustain capabilities. I want to use our sustainment funds to solve immediate problems; to stay abreast of changes to software and enabling capabilities. Too often we allocate capital acquisition funds over timeframes that simply cannot keep pace with technological change. ” CAF declared that “unglamorous but essential” enablers must be given priority, particularly joint-service capability projects that areintended to facilitate the sharing of information across the entire deployed force.

Air Marshal Brown said that the RAAF has recently engaged with industry as part of the development of Plan Jericho, and specifically canvassed ideas from defence companies in mid-2014.

“Their response to date has been outstanding,” CAF said in his speech. “I intend to build a partnership with industry above the project level so that we might take advantage of the agility and innovation which the pressures of profitability and shareholder accountability demand. ”