The Royal Australian Air Force will be conducting its biennial Air Power Conference today and tomorrow at the National Convention Centre in Canberra. The RAAF’s Air Power Conferences have, since 1998, grown into regionally and internationally respected forums that have engaged a number of important and relevant air power themes reflective of the evolving international security environment and the developing role of air power within these contexts.
The theme for the 2016 Conference is Multi-Domain Integration: Enabling Future Joint Success. The Conference provides an opportunity for the military and security communities to come together to explore the idea of seamless joint effects through the lens of multi-domain integration and analyse how this, through Plan Jericho in the RAAF's context, will enable future joint success.
The concept of jointness in operations is not new and the ability to integrate the five defined domains (air, sea, land, space and cyber) has improved in operations over the last two decades. What has been missing, however, is seamless integration and delivery of joint effects at both the strategic and operational level, in the national, allied and coalition contexts.
Exploring and understanding the concept of multi-domain integration is essential to any military organisation that wants to evolve to be a truly joint force - able to fight and win in the information age. Military forces can no longer rely on any one Service or command to provide the necessary capabilities to ensure success. Instead the military must shift its perspective to recognise and implement the best national, allied or coalition solution rather than a single Service or even military solution.
In recognition of the increasingly complex environment in which military forces have to operate, and the pending acquisition of transformational air power systems, the RAAF has implemented Plan Jericho to deliver to Government a fully integrated fighting force that will continue to provide the most rapid, effective and responsive military options available. Plan Jericho has developed a plan of works that the RAAF will deliver over the next ten years, which will see it evolve as an effective, innovative and integrated joint force.
This can only be achieved by working in partnership with its sister Services, the broader security community, and its international and industry partners. This conference will explore what this means in today's complex operating environment, into an even more complex and contested future, and what Air Force has learned from recent operational experiences.
The presentations will be delivered by highly regarded international speakers, as well as Australian experts. A link to the current program and speakers can be found here.