Creating A Potent Joint Force: The Practical Evolution of Inter-Service Cooperation
Can the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) correctly prioritise jointness?
Decreasing Reliance on Fossil Fuels to Increase Defence Capability
Benjamin Cole
Australian Defence Force
When was the last time you were faced with a problem that no one in the history of humankind has ever been able to define a clear solution?
As humans venture further and further into space, we begin to encounter more and more challenges, with increasing levels of complexity. Just as the early explorers ventured past the horizon, we now attempt a similar adventure by reaching deeper and deeper into space. While there may be a myriad of unknown problems waiting ahead of us, we are called upon as professionals to solve the ones immediately ahead of us.
Limited by resources and size the F-35 was the best, and largely only, option available to the ADF that guaranteed long term defense interests.
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.
Air Marshal Chipman, former Chief of the Air Force, announced on the eve of the 2023 Avalon Air Show that Australia needs to consider and invest in low-cost mass-produced (LCMP) drones.
Considerable resources have so far been expended on the RAAF air power education program but few, if any, performance measures are in place to assess whether those resources are being effectively and efficiently employed.
The current RAAF organizational structure is top-heavy, unbalanced and too compartmentalized. This results in stove piped training, which inhibits high-end, networked and integrated joint collective training.
Deterrence existed long before nuclear weapons were invented and has been a feature of relations between antagonistic tribes and states since such relationships first existed. The concept of deterrence, convincing an adversary not to carry out an undesirable action by threatening them with harm, is widely understood and applied in military and nonmilitary contexts.
Criticism is equally applicable to political and military commander alike. The changing nature of military operations commensurate with the increased commitment to UN activities now requires that military commanders be well versed in ethnicity, history, and cultural factors.