Editorial Notes - Winter/Spring 2006/2007

By Bill Kincaid
22 Feb 2007

Bill Kincaid CBE With the run-up to this year’s defence budget exercise and the rumours of yet more swingeing cuts, particularly to the surface fleet, it is difficult to see how the UK can afford a coherent equipment programme (EP) to support the military operations that the Government wishes its armed forces to undertake – as Prime Minister Tony Blair said in his speech in Plymouth last month: The combination of “hard” and “soft” power is still the right course’. This will mean, as he acknowledged, increased expenditure. But will he, or his successor, pump a lot more money into defence when that is not generally seen as a vote-winner?

If not, something will have to give. Should this be a reduction in the UK’s highintensity warfare capability? Or reduced frequency of counter-insurgency operations? Our ‘contention’ section looks at the balance between quantity and quality but there are no easy answers as our contributors from UK, France and Italy suggest. The RUSI Acquisition Focus, in its third paper, takes the subject further and examines how coherence in the EP should be recovered.

Similar questions are being asked in other countries. Many nations are reluctant to increase their operational support to NATO, one factor no doubt being the cost and public indifference. But we should make sure that, as Europeans, we do not
become ‘paper tigers’. One of the major issues, as the RUSI Acquisition Focus makes clear, is the inefficient acquisition process. Despite many recent initiatives, there is still much to be done as Philip Pugh points out, although authors from the UK’s Defence Academy warn against burying the real progress that has been made with overwhelming criticism. Another major issue is the interface between governments and the defence industry. Robert Bell of SAIC believes that there is greater predictability in the US defence programme, but the UK’s Defence Industrial Strategy with its emphasis on
strategic partnering may alter this. The French MoD, too, is looking for change in its relationship with industry, as Major General Verna and Vice Admiral Desclèves discuss. There is change, too, in Russia where a return to state control seems to be under way. We also report on the defence industry in China, South Korea and Japan.

It often takes governments a long time to embrace new capabilities. Unmanned air vehicle programmes got under way a quarter of a century ago (the UK Phoenix programme started life in 1979), but it is only now, with the recent experience of intensive operations, that European nations are finally convinced of the need to bring them into their mainstream equipment programmes, as described by the Chief of the Luftwaffe, the Deputy Chief of the Italian Air Force, and the Chief Test Pilot of Alenia Aeronautica. Technology levels have matured but, as James Masey says, unmanned systems may need Disruptive Innovation if they are to realise their full potential.

The control of unmanned systems in busy airspace is a major issue, but this is only one issue of many in the field of air command and control (C2). The Chiefs of the UK and of the Netherlands air forces discuss the fundamentals of air C2 and consider whether its principles are any different today from those in the first half of the twentieth century, while the Deputy Director of the European Air Group concludes that nations must build mutual trust if they are to reduce deployed
footprints.

Logistics today is also about reducing footprint size on the ground, not least by basing it at sea. Roger Ireland describes the UK’s Joint Sea-Based Logistics capability and the Commander of Joint Logistics in Australia looks at the logistic lessons learned from recent operations. The US Transport Command stations prepositioned, loaded ships strategically around the world to support future operations, both foreseen and unforeseen. But other nations are having to transform their logistics concepts and organisations more radically. Germany is having to change its logistic concept from the in-country, Host Nation support of Cold War days to the support of expeditionary operations outside Europe.

The Czech Army, in addition to making a similar conversion, is also having to make the change from Warsaw Pact to NATO standards. Finally, in this edition, the UK’s Chief of the Naval Staff and the Australian Chief of Navy discuss maritime issues, including sea-based support, unmanned vehicles and the quantity/quality balance. Maritime Security Operations loom large and implementation of the US initiative for a ‘1000-ship navy’, now entitled Global Maritime Partnerships, will be important, particularly the C4ISTAR aspects.

Add your comments

Index