Doctrine delivers a view of the future

UNINHABITED platforms, hypersonic flights and space initiatives are the future of the Royal Australian Air Force, according to the latest Air Force doctrine.

Chief of Air Force Air Marshal Angus Houston recently launched Fundamentals of Australian Aerospace Power as the fourth edition of Air Force’s combat philosophy.

Future threats, according to the doctrine, will be meet by an Australian response that requires Air Force to adopt new technologies and procedures.

The role of aircrew in operations will remain necessary in the immediate future, however in the future, alternatives will involve uninhabited vehicles with traditional aircrew tasks being conducted by Air Force ground
personnel operating equipment to control platforms.

Key changes that will play an important part in Australia retaining a leading edge aerospace capability in the region include:

• stealth capabilities (with combined force enhancement capabilities of warning and control systems)
• Uninhabited Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAVs)
• uninhabited platforms
• hypersonic flight
• micro-electromechanical technologies (creation of new materials with superior strength, electrical conductivity, resistance to heat and other properties); and
• space initiatives (increased access to data)

  Australia does not yet possess an indigenous military space capability but increased reliance on space communication and intelligence systems will require the development of such a capability.
  
  Alliances have given Australia a technological advantage, however, Air Force will investigate a range of local options from high-altitude UAVs to geo-stationery satellites.
  
  The future will involve adaptation to provide a force that complements the existing aerospace capabilities of coalition partners on multinational and United Nations operations.
  
  The structure of Air Force, acquisitions and policies will be increasingly influenced by the need to work closely with these forces. Participation in the Joint Strike Fighter development project is an example of how Air Force development policy may evolve.
  
  Aerospace development may increase participation in joint and combined operations in order to achieve the greatest effect as opposed to conducting independent and unilateral action.
  
  Recent world events have demonstrated that aerospace power is likely to remain one of the major instruments of national military strength. The flexibility, coercive and destructive nature of aerospace forces ensures they are amongst the first instruments used by state authorities in any crisis.
  
  Aerospace power is the government’s most rapid form of credible combat power to distant theatres without forward basing or deploying standing naval forces.
  
  A major attack on Australia by a foreign state, aimed at seizing Australian territory, remains only a remote possibility in the near future so aerospace planning will consider other threats posed to national security. Australia faces greater threat from non-state entities and is likely to encounter these threats more regularly in the first quarter of the 21st century.
  
  Although coalition relationships are considered robust at present, Australia must be prepared to act unilaterally within Australia or further afield to deter and defeat hostile actions by such entities.

• By Shane Fairlie

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