Volume 48, No. 22, November 30, 2006
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KEEP
ON TURNING: Just as 11SQN’s LACW Riyani Duhigg
(pictured above) helps to keep our AP-3Cs operational, the
Rebalance and Reshape projects will help to keep our workforce
running effectively as Air Force faces significant changes
into the future.
Photo by LACW Melina Mancus
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By
GPCAPT Mike Bennett
EARLIER
AIR FORCE News articles and the DVD by our Air Force Commanders
have outlined plans to ‘Rebalance Our Air Force’.
The initial focus of Rebalance was to reprioritise our workforce
to address shorter term issues, such as sustaining the operational
tempo that has been ongoing since we first went to Timor-Leste
in 1999.
What has Rebalance done?
Rebalance started with the formation of Air Force Training Group
(AFTG) on July 1, 2006, to better align Air Force training with
our operational requirements. The restructure will improve the
relationship between the training organisation and Air Command,
the organisation tasked with ensuring the preparedness of our
force. This change formalised the responsibility of ACAUST as
the Air Force commander responsible for the preparedness of all
Air Force operational capability, and was initiated with the proposal
to develop an integrated Headquarters Joint Operations Command
(HQJOC), near Bungendore, NSW.
Created in two phases, the first phase includes the establishment
of a temporary headquarters in January 2007, with branches located
in Sydney and Canberra. The formation of this transitional headquarters,
HQJOC (T), required Air Force to provide an additional 50 new
positions. The permanent headquarters near Bungendore, (HQJOC
(B)), will require a further 30 new Air Force positions. A key
impact on Air Force will be the relocation of the Air Operations
Centre from Glenbrook to Canberra early next year.
Air Force has created an extra 150 positions in 86 and 92WGs to
help sustain the great outcomes those wings continue to deliver.
Our expectation is that we will need to sustain the current operational
tempo for some time yet.
Other Rebalance activities include: the restructuring of Intermediate
Level Maintenance for the F/A-18 force, and restructuring of CSG,
HQAC and AFHQ.
The focus of Rebalance early in 2007 will be to examine the Air
Force personnel embedded in non-Service groups, such as DSG, to
ensure that our uniformed personnel are being optimally trained
and are available for operations.
A new global airlifter and more new capabilities
At the same time, Air Force is standing up 36SQN at Amberley with
our new C-17 Globemaster aircraft. A delay in the delivery of
the Wedgetail aircraft has relieved some of the pressure on staffing
in 2007 but is a major blow to the stand-up of the new AEW&C
capability. As one measure to further assist in reducing some
workforce pressures, the Services are reducing the number of officers
attending our Staff College next year. This is an undesirable
long-term outcome and we will be making further changes to our
organisation and processes in 2007 to balance our available staff
with the number of positions required to sustain capability.
Air Force is facing the largest change-over of major systems with
the transition of 11 systems over the next decade or so. Normally,
we transition one or two major systems per decade. While a few
transitions will cause challenges, they can be managed through
the holistic management of resources. However, with 11 transitions
during the next decade, our Rebalance activities will not be sufficient.
We therefore need to do something different, so a project to reshape
our Air Force is being developed.
Reshape is coming
The Reshape project has completed the first process redesign activity,
with CAFAC endorsing the framework for the Air Force Plan that
included five fundamental strategic frameworks catering for risk
management, governance, accountabilities, planning and reporting.
DGPERS-AF has a design for revised officer categories and is now
implementing that design. The plans take into account the remuneration
review project and provide a framework for generating command
and control, operational effectiveness and support effectiveness
for the future force. An airman workforce redesign is in progress
and more information will be available when complete.
An exciting new category
An example of the new workforce structure is the formation of
the Air Combat Officer (ACO) category, which combines the navigator,
air electronics, air defence and fighter controller categories
into a single category. The ACO category requires a new training
paradigm, so the School of Air Navigation will close at the end
of 2007, to be replaced with a new school and a new curriculum
in January 2008.
In addition, Air Force also intends to change the CLKSPLY and
SPLY musterings to better cater for the introduction of the C-17
Globemaster and KC-30B Multi-Role Tanker Transport. Air Force
has also recently introduced a permanent OPSO category to ensure
Air Force can continue to sustain operations in the future.
Guiding our Air Force
It is estimated that the Air Force workforce will need to be resized
in order to operate the new systems being delivered.
This workforce adjustment will enable operations in an integrated
and Coalition environment, provide enhanced safety and airworthiness
systems, assess operational capability in a robust fashion, sustain
airbase security in a less certain future, sustain a high operational
tempo, manage the new network-centric systems being introduced
through the Defence Capability Plan and provide the enhanced electronic
warfare support that we will need for the future battlefield.
Contact the Rebalance team at airforce.rebalanceteam@defence.gov.au
if you have good ideas about how to improve our Air Force so that
we can meet the challenges ahead.
