“Capable, agile and potent”

“More emphasis will be placed on the joint force,” it promises.

Strengthening intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities will ensure “comprehensive situational awareness”.

Thanks to the F-35, Growler and Super Hornet, “The ADF will be equipped with a potent air combat strike capability. . . ” And performing “at the highest levels of effectiveness, the Government will fix the underinvestment in the vital enabling capabilities that bind military capabilities together. ” Flicking through the Defence White Paper it is pretty easy to drown in a sea of ‘defence speak’, and if you only read the introduction it would be easy to dismiss a lot of it with the observation, “well, they would say that”.

But a deeper read of the White Paper, and in particular the Integrated Investment Program (IIP) that sets out the capability projects that will enable that “capable, agile and potent” ADF, shows a maturity of thinking and an ambition for a highly-capable, flexible military able to successful operate in, and leverage the opportunities off, the information age.

Because the IIP is not just about guns, ships and planes (well, a lot of it is about ships – thanks to new submarines, frigates, offshore patrol vessels and replenishment ships), but so much of it is about the “enablers” that maximise the potential of expensive capabilities like F-35 fighters and Air Warfare Destroyers.

Indeed there is a much more holistic consideration of, and hence planning for, what goes into generating a military capability in this White Paper than perhaps ever before. So not just the platforms themselves, and not just the weapons they carry, but how those capabilities are provided situational awareness of the battlespace they are operating in, and indeed how situational awareness is denied a combatant, either through stealth or electronic attack. More prosaically, is the right physical infrastructure provided for, like, in the case of an aircraft, hangars, hardstands and ground support equipment? What about ranges, logistics, training and simulation? So for every project to acquire, for example, C-17s and KC-30s, there is a project to upgrade base infrastructure at Amberley. For every F-35 acquisition there are accompanying weapons programs and base upgrades for Williamtown and Tindal.

Indeed the IIP forecasts that 25 per cent of the project spending it outlines will be for the ‘key enablers’ capability stream. Everything from a rail spur to RAAF Tindal to an “enterprise-wide simulation capability” to upgrading the airfield at Cocos Island to allow the P-8 maritime surveillance aircraft to operate from there are provided for.

Then there is the ‘intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, electronic warfare, space and cyber stream’.

Now we are talking “enablers”. How about Gulfstream business jets modified with undisclosed electronic trickery that will “substantially enhance electronic warfare support to naval, air and land forces for operations in electromagnetic environments manipulated by hostile forces”? Or the seven MQ-4C Triton high altitude long endurance (HALE) maritime surveillance unmanned aircraft that will allow the RAAF to stand two continuous surveillance orbits, giving the ADF unparalleled maritime situational awareness? And while there is no mention of the term “drone” anywhere in the White Paper or IIP, there are programs for a new, armed UAV like the Predator, and a new, presumably vertical takeoff and landing, UAV to operate off the Navy’s surface ships, from the AWDs to the OPVs.

Then there are the more traditional “force multipliers” like the consideration for yet another two KC-30 tanker transports and upgrades for the Wedgetail AEW&C platform and the JORN over-the-horizon radar system.

If all these acquisitions come to fruition – and remember, this is meant to be a “fully-costed”, and budgeted for, 10-year “investment” plan, we will have an ADF, and certainly a RAAF, that is indeed “capable, agile and potent”.

And indeed how situational awareness is denied a combatant.