Welcome to 2018! As forecast in our 2017 wrap-up post, The Central Blue is collaborating with From Balloons to Drones on a series of posts on high intensity warfare, ahead of a Sir Richard Williams Foundation seminar on 'The Requirements of High Intensity Warfare' on 22 March 2018. Keen to get involved? Read on... [...]
The integration of manned and unmanned systems may be the next step in the evolution of air operations. In this post, Donald Woldhuis and Michael Spencer describe the US Army's approach to integrating tactical unmanned systems with the AH-64 Apache, referred to as Manned-Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T). Is this a capability that smaller forces should [...]
The last few months have seen a flurry of announcements relating to Australia's space industry. In July 2017, the Government commenced a review of the Australian space industry, and on 29 September they announced the intention to create an Australian space agency. On the same day, the RAAF and the University of New South [...]
Peter Layton's series on other peoples' air power has included an examination of Islamic State's use of unmanned aircraft and the employment of air power in the Ukraine campaign. In this third post, Dr Layton considers the varied influences on China's approach to air power and it's focus on multi-domain 'firepower warfare'. In late [...]
. This is the third in a series of posts by Air Vice-Marshal Brian Weston (Retd.) describing the RAAF’s transition through five generations of fighter aircraft. In this post, Weston outlines how the RAAF plans to transition from the F/A-18A to the F-35A without the loss of combat capability. Australias first Lockheed Martin, F-35A Lightning II [...]
In this post, S.C. Collective assumes the role of the 'devil’s advocate' and challenges the military's beatification of the Common Operational Picture (COP) as a concept and technology. The Advocatus Diaboli (Latin for Devil's Advocate) was formerly an official position within the Catholic Church: one who "argued against the canonization (sainthood) of a candidate [...]
In his previous post, Brian Weston described the RAAF's transition from the Avon Sabre to the Mirage IIIO during the 1960s. The Mirage IIIO remained in operational RAAF service from 1965 to 1988. The transition from the second generation Mirage to the fourth generation Hornet began with the Government's selection of the Hornet in October [...]
All too often air forces tend to associate solutions to capability problems with the use of high-tech, often expensive, fixes. In this post, Squadron Leader Michael Spencer uses the story of Beatrice Shilling to highlight that this should not be the case. Shilling's simple yet effective solution to an engine design flaw that limited [...]
On Wednesday 23 August, the Williams Foundation hosted a seminar exploring A New Approach and Attitude to Electronic Warfare in Australia. In this post, Wing Commander Travis Hallen reflects on the seminar presentations, outlines the history of electronic attack in the RAAF, and proposes what a new attitude to electronic warfare in Australia may look like. [...]
In this post, our first serving Australian Army contributor — Captain David Caligari — argues collaboration across the Australian Defence Force (ADF) is imperative if we are to have the edge to fight and win future conflicts. Collaboration is built into our people — can we harness the potential this offers? The barriers to [...]
