F-35s expand ADF horizons: air chief

The arrival today of two operational joint strike fighters will be a key element in strengthening the ADF, says Air Marshal Leo Davies.

Royal Australian Air Force and US Air Force F-35A aircraft take off at Luke Base in Arizona. Picture: ADF

The arrival due today of two operational joint strike fighters will strengthen the deterrent effect of the whole Australian Defence Force, Air Marshal Leo Davies says.

The Royal Australian Air Force chief told The Australian that allies and potential enemies would look at the “fifth-generation”, stealthy, multi-role F-35A jets from the US as a key element for the ADF, and what the force was able to do.

“They’ll think we’d be a tough nut to crack,” Air Marshal Davies said. “That to me is the first part of having a defence force — deterrence.”

The RAAF must be able to provide options for the government that were reliable against any potential enemy, no matter how sophisticated, the air force chief said. “In our region and abroad, multiple countries are enhancing their air-combat capabilities,’’ he said.

“So we need to maintain a level of sophistication that allows us to do what we need to do when we need to do it. The F-35 brings that next step, which means we are able to confidently send men and women to do a job and have a better than even chance of survival — and of success.”

Air Marshal Davies said Australian pilots who had flown earlier jets and had since qualified on the F-35 had found the difference dramatic.

To explain the increase in situational awareness an F-35’s sensors bring, they had compared it to the difference between trying to drive in darkness with no lights and driving with very effective night-vision goggles.

“It’s that stark in their estimation. Night becomes day, so you can drive normally. But to try to drive without night-vision equipment or headlights would be impossible.”

Chief of Air Force, Air Marshal Leo Davies, speaks to RAAF enlisted leaders earlier this year. Picture: ADF

Air Marshal Davies said an F-35 pilot would be able to characterise an adversary’s aircraft, land forces and ships and then choose how to react to them.

Sometimes that would mean no reaction, just monitoring the enemy’s movements. Sometimes it would be to “queue” another asset such as such as one of the RAAF’s F/A-18 Hornets, or an air warfare destroyer or, in due course, a ground-based air-defence system.

The comparison had been made before, Air Marshal Davies said, but it worked well. Ordinary aircraft operated like instruments in a band — the F-35 became the conductor. “The F-35 won’t send a package of data and then forget about it. It will orchestrate the operation,” he said.

In doing that it would make aircraft such as the Hornet and Super Hornet fighters and electronic-warfare Growlers much more capable. An F-35 deep in enemy territory would be able to send information to a Super Hornet a safe distance from enemy defences to identify a target and provide a mass of information about it.

That would allow the Hornet pilot to launch a weapon at very long range with great precision and confidence about the target.

Air Marshall Davies said the F-35 channelled enhanced awareness into the cockpits of friendly aircraft and ships and army command vehicles. “It enhances their picture. It allows better and faster decision-making.”

The fidelity of the data the F-35 could pass to a commander on the ground was exquisite, the RAAF chief said.

In the battle to drive the Islamic State terror group out of the Iraqi city of Mosul, the RAAF’s Hornets were able to send back a lot of information about what was happening in the streets below but they were not able to bomb while they gathered and dispatched that intelligence.

The F-35 could maintain its air-to-air situational awareness, pass data to, for instance, a Wedgetail command and control aircraft, and provide data to the ground commander at the same time without reducing its own ability to fight.

The F-35 is not “invisible”, Air Marshal Davies said. “What the F-35 brings is a reduced signature available to the radars trying to find it, and a reduced heat signature.” That made it harder to find using infrared scanners.

“It also has communications systems with what we call ‘low probability of intercept’. Information is sent in short bursts using minimal energy and precisely targeted for whomever it’s intended for.” Davies said the aircraft was able to safely penetrate far deeper into hostile territory than other aircraft.

RAAF Squadron Leader Edwin “Red” Borrman has been flying the F-35 in the US for three years and training pilots from Australia, the US and other nations.

He flies one of the two new aircraft to Australia today.

A highly trained fighter pilot who has practised, and taught, everything from long-range attack to dogfighting, Squadron Leader Borrman said the F-35 was a very advanced and could do what other aircraft could not risk doing.

“The jet is built for the first couple of days of a mega-conflict, to go all the way down-range to a very high-threat environment and be able to find, locate, and hit its target — or to hand off targeting to other aircraft — and then get out of there alive. Any kind of fourth-generation aircraft will be shot up before they get in range to drop their bombs.”

Squadron Leader Borrman is often asked if the F-35 is much better than existing strike jets.

The best explanation he has heard is to compare the earliest-model Nokia to the latest mobile phones being produced now. “There’s just no comparison.”

Lieutenant Colonel “Chip” Berke is a retired US Marine Corps pilot who has flown many older jets as well as the F-22 Raptor fighter and the F-35. He has been a “top gun” instructor and, as the first operational pilot to fly the JSF, he possibly is the most knowledgeable practitioner on fifth-generation capability.

Lt Col Berke said past combat aircraft tended to operate in some isolation in a predefined airspace with a predefined role. “You might come back and pass on information you’d gathered to build up a picture.

“Fifth-gen airplanes are totally different,” he said.

They provided the pilot with an unmatched amount of information which could be shared immediately with other units in the air and on the ground and the sea.

“That’s information dominance which allows you to make really smart decisions on what to do and when to do it.”

Lt Col Berke said the F-35 was extraordinary and still evolving. “Ten years from now, it’s going to be so far more capable than we even imagined. There’s nothing like it out there. The potential of that airplane is barely being recognised right now. We’re in the infancy of what it’s going to do.”

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Brendan Nicholson is defence editor of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute site, The Strategist.