A
soft spot for pigs
Redefining categorisation of members is essential
for Members With Dependants (Separated) in de facto relationships,
argues Graham Howatt, of the Armed Forces Federation.
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A
crowd looks on as an F-111, piloted by FLTLT Craig Whiting,
taxies after landing at the end of a flying display at the
Australian International Air Show.
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Photo
by PTE John Wellfare
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THANK
you for the special “Amazing Avalon” in the April
7 edition of Air Force. We enjoyed the coverage.
What particularly struck our fancy were the photographs of the
F-111 on the first
and following pages,
together with the article “Pig’s
fiery performance wins hearts and minds”.
We first saw and heard F-111s when several visited RAAF Base East
Sale during my four-year stint as deputy principal at Gippsland
Grammar School, 1978-81.
I still remember having to stop mid-sentence whenever one of the
fighter-bombers took off over the school campus in ear-splitting
decibels. All of us in the family were very impressed – and
remain so.
When our son, Jeremy, decided that a career as a RAAF pilot was
what he wanted, it was as an F-111 pilot. He reached that ambition
in 1992, after having graduated from ADFA, gained his wings at
Pearce and progressed through [Nos.] 34, 25 and 76 Squadrons.
He completed his “fast jets” training with [No.] 6 Squadron
and was posted to [No.] 1 Squadron.
Jeremy loved that aeroplane – and because he did, we did.
The tragedy, of course, was that in September 1993, both he and
Mark Cairns-Cowan were killed in A8-127 during a low-flying night
exercise near Guyra in New South Wales.
[My wife] Jan and I have attended all but one of the Australian
International Air Shows at Avalon. Our principal motivation is
to see and hear the F-111, and, hopefully, to meet up with some
Air Force personnel who knew Jeremy. This year, unfortunately,
we met none. However, we did see what for us formed the highlights
of the show.
After the F-111 took off in front of us in a steep climb, roaring,
with afterburners blazing, Jan and I looked at each other and
said (in response to an earlier US commentator extolling all things
American), “Now, that’s a plane!”.
Later that evening we waited for the famous dump and burn which,
as always, enthralled and impressed the crowd, sending them home
excited and in awe of the formidable power and capabilities of
an ageing aircraft.
Our family still maintains a love affair with the F-111, despite
the tragedy involved. We agree with Squadron Leader Mark Neasmith,
reported in the story as saying, “The F-111’s got a
lot of admirers I guess. People come up, with all the press they’ve
seen and obviously with the spectacular display it can do at an
air show; they love the aircraft and they’d hate to see it
retired.”
Your readers would recognise that we have a special connection
to that plane and we will hate it when the time comes that it
is retired.
Norm McNess
Belmont, Victoria
Flexible
fighters win war and peace
The versatility of the modern combatant is
paramount for the ADF says the Minister for Defence, Robert Hill,
who spoke at the Joint Future Warfighting Conference.
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A
combat-focussed military has deployable capabilities that
can adapt to peacekeeping and disaster relief missions as
well as war. Aircraft operations is one of those capabilities,
performed here by FLGOFF Paul Lummins at Baghdad International
Airport in 2003 as tower supervisor FLTLT Charles Robinson
looks on.
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Photo
by CPL Darren Hilder.
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THERE
is no doubt that we are living in a time where there has been
a blurring between traditional military “warfighting”
and broader national security issues.
Today’s threats primarily relate to terrorism and extremism,
the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, missile systems
and other unconventional and asymmetric capabilities, transnational
crime, piracy and illegality, including people smuggling, resource
extraction, money transfers and biological threats.
Warfighting capabilities are one of the assets we can use to combat
these threats – but more often than not the response will
also require other resources.
Thus the warfighter is seen as a part of the solution but not
the whole. This is not to downplay the importance of the warfighter.
Defeating terrorism required us to send special forces to Afghanistan
to take on the enemy at source – to destroy its command,
training camps and weapon caches but it also required a multi-agency,
multi-functioned and multi-national response to build capability
in friendly states closer to home in South East Asia.
With peacekeeping, nation building or nation salvaging and border
protection, warfighting skills and particularly the training and
discipline that lie behind them are part of the solution. And
the ADF has had much experience and considerable success in all
these tasks in recent years.
And I don’t think the demand is about to change.
But there is also always the possibility of conventional threat.
While we don’t see a conventional threat to Australia or
Australian interests now or in the foreseeable future, today’s
strategic environment is one of uncertainty and unpredictability.
Herein lies the distinction. While there is an important role
for the warfighter in helping defeat the threats we do face today,
it is only the warfighter that can effectively respond to a conventional
threat.
And we know that a strong military capability takes years to build.
In fact our warfighting capability lies in the legacy of the generations
that have gone before – to the doctrine and culture that
has stood the test of time, to a willingness to adapt and meet
new military challenges, and a constant upgrading of military
capability.
So we don’t develop a war fighting capacity in order to provide
humanitarian relief. But we do know that well-trained warfighters
can respond in ways no other agency can. We saw it in the first
response to the recent tsunami – the speed of deployment,
the command structure, the logistics support, the appropriate
platforms in the air and the sea, the discipline and, in the case
of the ADF, the goodwill as well. All contributed to a remarkable
response and considerable success.
So while we expect calls upon the ADF to be other than a response
to a conventional military threat, we still see our first responsibility
to be to continue to build the warfighting capability of a nation.
That is the capability which can’t be substituted.
That’s why we are committed to new generations of aircraft,
ships, tanks and other fighting platforms. That is why the primary
focus of our training will remain war fighting. That is why we
choose commanders and not managers.
And in doctrine, training and equipment we accept that military
capacity everywhere is on the rise. Globalisation is having an
equalising effect. It is much harder to maintain a technological
edge than it once was.
We recognise that jointness within the force has a multiplier
effect. For maximum output the force must be seen as a whole.
And as we’ve seen, most warfighting of the future will be
in coalitions. So we must be interoperable – in form and
in practice.
And this does not just apply to high end warfighting – our
response in Bougainville, in East Timor, in the Solomon Islands
and to the tsunami were all in collaboration with friends and
allies. I have no doubt that this situation will continue.
In Darwin last Sunday [April 17], we farewelled our warfighters
who are off to Al Muthanna province in Iraq. They have been trained
to fight. They are equipped to fight. But their job is to defend
and provide training. In the former case, if called upon to defend
they can apply significant military force. They will do that in
the capable, disciplined and professional way of the war fighter.
In training the Iraqi security forces they will also instill military
values and responsibility. In their contribution to nation building
they might encounter criminals, insurgents or even Jihad. Their
training will allow them deal with all such threats and, like
previous generations of warfighters, they will do Australia proud.
This
is an edited version of the Minister’s keynote speech made
on April 20 at the Joint Future Warfighting Conference at the
National Convention Centre in Canberra.
