A fifth-gen force

Chief of Air Force Air Marshal Leo Davies on his ambitious 10-year plan to transform the RAAF.

For some years now the RAAF has been talking about its ‘fifth gen’ future. A fifth generation Air Force is, according to the RAAF’s new strategy document, “a fully-networked force that exploits the combat-multiplier effects of a readily available, integrated and shared battlespace picture to deliver lethal and non-lethal air power”.

That is, in effect, an Air Force for the information age, a future where aircraft and sensors not only generate vast amounts of surveillance and targeting data, but a future where that data is shared, in near real-time, with any other ADF or allied aircraft, ship or ground unit when and where that information is needed.