By
SQNLDR David Jeffcoat
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Watch
this Aerospace
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MY
journey to a CAF Aerospace Fellowship began with an interest in
national cultures and how culture influences the way other nations
operate their combat aircraft.
The genesis of this interest lay in the numerous exercises and
operations I had been involved in throughout SE Asia and the SW
Pacific on P-3C Orions and my time as a student on the Indonesian
Air Force Command and Staff Course.
The fellowship has provided me with the opportunity to study the
influence culture has on air power in an academically disciplined
environment.
As part of the application process for the fellowship I submitted
a brief proposal of my chosen topic then was interviewed at the
Aerospace Centre.
During the 12-month fellowship I was required to study a number
of subjects at the University of UNSW at ADFA, including an air
power course recognised by the university but presented by the
centre.
All the subjects that I enrolled for at the university related
to my topic of research. I have decided to enrol for two more
subjects through ADFA after the fellowship that will meet the
requirements for the award of a Master of Defence Studies.
My 30,000-word paper on my chosen topic is part of this degree
and will form the basis of a book – entitled Winning With
Australian Air Power in Diverse Cultures – to be published
in early 2004 by the Aerospace Centre.
The CAF Aerospace Fellowship helped to open all doors during my
research here and abroad. I strongly recommend the Fellowship
to any member who wants to further develop their own and the Air
Force’s knowledge of an aspect of aerospace power doctrine.
Summary
of paper
My
paper seeks to analyse how culture influences the fundamental
principles that guide all air forces, their air power doctrine,
and how this understanding can be applied in both coalition operations
and operations against an adversary.
Air power doctrine is not universal across nations but all air
power doctrine does have the common element of the use of aircraft
to defend the nation’s interests.
The national beliefs and values that influence this common element
can be divided into strategic culture for defending the nation’s
interest and aviation culture for the use of aircraft.
These national beliefs and values are assessed as influencing
air power doctrine through a set of broad air power themes, or
air power doctrine drivers. Conceptual models are provided that
show how these concepts interact with each other.
The Australian approach to warfare requires commanders and their
staff to have a good understanding of their coalition partners
and adversaries.
Interoperability is the key issue within coalition operations
where issues relating to national culture will most likely arise.
This paper provides an Air Force Coalition Interoperability Model
that will enable airmen, especially at the strategic level, to
better understand and assess the issues associated with human
interoperability between air forces from differing national cultures
required to work together in a coalition operation.
Effects-based operations offer the best way to demonstrate how
considerations of adversary national culture can be applied by
air forces conducting operations against adversaries.
Understanding the beliefs and values within an adversary’s
national culture is an essential first step in understanding the
essential linkages between the mostly physical effects of target
engagement and the cognitive domain of desired effects.
This paper presents a conceptual model showing these linkages
within conceptual models developed earlier in this paper.
A case study on the Republic of Indonesia is presented that identifies
the strategic and aviation cultures of this nation using the frameworks
presented earlier in this paper. Indonesia’s air power doctrine
drivers are then identified and compared with Indonesia’s
basic air power doctrine and capabilities.
