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What is Air Force’s contribution to Joint Force Effects - both domestically and internationally?
Like all aspects of the ADF, the Air Force has the need to contribute and enable Australia’s larger national power strategies.
Beyond the Planned Air Force
Beyond the Planned Air Force (BPAF) expands Air Force’s perspective beyond the objective force envisioned in the Defence White Paper 2016 (DWP16) a
Development of an ADF Integrated Air and Missile Capability to Combat Advanced Air and Missile Threats - 2019 Wrigley Prize Winner
Access to foreign bases has long been a critical enabler of the ADF, and ongoing access will be key to Australia’s future security. In the past, these Forward Operating Bases (FOB) were considered relatively secure, however continual improvements to the range and accuracy of missiles acquired by adversarial militaries have made these bases attractive targets, being the seemingly soft underbelly of western militaries.
In order to continue utilisation of FOBs, and to guarantee the safety of deployed forces, the ADF cannot remain idle to the threat of advanced air and missile attacks. As such Australia must look to develop its Air and Missile Defence (AMD) capabilities in order to remain secure in future operations.
The aim of the essay is to discuss a range of AMD design and operating concepts to inform the development of an ADF Integrated AMD (IAMD) capability.
This essay will be structured into four key areas: western nations’ historical and future reliance on FOBs to project power; the emerging threat of powerful state and non-state actors; Australia’s response to emerging air and missile threats; and, IAMD design and operational concepts in an Australian context.
Rapid Force Projection - Conference Proceedings
Multiple challenges are coming fast and simultaneously creating a future operational environment of unprecedented complexity. For example:
Seven Perennial Challenges to Air Forces
This publication is out of print.
The Weaponisation of Toys and Implications for the Air Force
The 'poor man's air force' is a term for employing commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hobbyist drones or uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) to strategic level military effect, and that effect cannot be understated (Waters, 2018; Nadeau, 2022; Shift, 2023). The ability for terror organisations to coordinate multiple layers of effects, including using COTS drones, to destroy Command and Control (C2) nodes in Israel causes alarm. Couple this with the use of COTS drones for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, strike and battle-damage assessment missions, and the threat posed by what are essentially toys is alarmingly real.