How we will wage war in future

By WGCDR David Thiele

CDF released the latest of three concept papers, The Future Warfighting Concept (FWC), earlier this year.

The FWC builds on CDF’s vision and conceptually describes how the ADF will fight together in the future. It contains an innovative new concept for operations; Multi-Dimensional Manoeuvre. Put simply, Multi-Dimensional Manoeuvre is our unique Australian concept of warfighting.

It sees conflict as a clash of wills as opposed to a clash of military forces and adopts the indirect approach of defeating an adversary’s will to oppose us.

This means that the ADF is not going to try to defeat an enemy by directly engaging and destroying its armed force, rather we are going to consider different and smarter ways of resolving the conflict. By matching our strengths against an enemy’s vulnerability, we aim to achieve our goals with the minimal use of force.

Historically, Australia considered protecting the northern approaches as being the key to our security. Recent events have shown that threats to our nation and people are global.

For the Air Force this means that we must possess the capability to package, deploy and sustain operations anywhere in the world as, and when, the Government directs. We need to work to find and keep the right balance between our ability to contribute to the defence of Australia, homeland defence, the security of our immediate neighbourhood and wider global commitments.

Our nation’s security is not just the responsibility of the armed forces. Every government department and citizen can play a role in helping to maintain our security.

For the Air Force this means that we must be able to work closely with other, non-military agencies to provide integrated support for our home-based and deployed forces.

The Air Force cannot expect to have the breadth of capability needed to meet every type of potential threat. Our force is relatively small, yet must remain adaptable and responsive to the Government’s needs.

Technology has always been a key feature of aerospace power and our need to retain high-end capability continues. However, our true strength comes from our people. Our professional mastery of aerospace power, our knowledge and doctrine create an advantage that is not easily eroded.

Our role in future warfighting will not be much different than today. We will apply aerospace power as effectively as we can to contribute to the achievement of our national objectives. Our force will be fully expeditionary and able to sustain operations anywhere in the world.

Some aspects of the FWC are not immediately achievable but this should not mean we simply put the document aside for our successors. We can and should begin to work toward new ways of warfighting. The lead-time for developing capability is long but we need to begin thinking of the future now. Through our education programs, our doctrine and procedures, we can create the foundation to make the future warfighting concept a reality.
CAF is developing the Future Aerospace Warfare Concept that will address the way in which we see our capabilities developing to meet the CDF vision in FWC.

• WGCDR David Thiele is Deputy Director Aerospace Concepts at AeC.

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