It’s all about Air Power with the Avalon Air Show this week ⬇️

There will be some exquisite capability on show and there is no doubt our Air Force can make a substantial contribution should competition give way to conflict. But as Malcolm Davis made clear in his op-ed in The Strategist last year, our Air Force available should competition give way to conflict is largely delivered:

“The 2024 Integrated Investment Plan’s biggest effect on future air combat capability was cancellation of a fourth squadron of Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightnings—leaving the RAAF with just 72 aircraft of the type… It set out plans to keep the RAAF’s 24 F/A-18F Super Hornets and 12 E/A-18G Growlers until 2040, and it offered support for further development of the Ghost Bat… The IIP also made a vague statement on supporting development of ‘other uncrewed aerial systems.”

So even if a future Coalition Government brings the F35-A total to 100, in the Air we are boutique and many of the platforms we possess are not easy to scale or replace. Most of the consumables of combat for our Air Force are not yet able to be manufactured onshore and our war stocks could afford to be bolstered. As the Air Commander Australia said in his address to the Sir Richard Williams Foundation Seminar last year:

“We need to embrace the concept of more consumable capabilities that are more quickly adapted into the battle space and that can give us affordable and rapid mass if and when we need it.”

The last time we faced great power conflict in the Indo Pacific the RAAF was highly successful as scaling the force. From a pre World War II strength of less than 4,000 the RAAF grew to around 185k personnel in uniform during the War. The Australian Industrial base employed at one stage close to 40k personnel in aircraft manufacturing, repair and maintenance and produced close to 3,700 aircraft during the war.

A key reason that Australia was able to scale in aircraft manufacturing was a private sector led initiative to establish the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation in 1936. This company was the brain child of Essington Lewis and was a joint venture between BHP, GM Holden and Broken Hill Associated Smelters. This company manufactured all Boomerang and Wirraway trainers before shifting to manufacturing the legendary Mustang for the rest of the War.

So for those of you lucky enough to be watching the show or working the conference stand this week keep an eye out for ideas that can be leveraged to scale the Force in the Fight and generate Air Power and additional capability in innovative ways. It might be time to take a leaf out of Essington Lewis’ book and leverage private sector ingenuity to meet the nation’s need.

Food for thought (and enjoy the show!).

Please see here the link to our favourite Year Book Australia 1944-45.

📸 via Department of Defence.