The commander of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force, Lt Gen Liu Shunyau, will reveal his plans for the future of air power and China's air force ambitions during the Asian Aerospace 2000 show in Singapore later this month. Advanced details of his planned speech obtained by Flight International reveal his plans for an "active defence strategy" and China's commitment to "endeavour to build the people's air force into a strong and modern one, combining defence with offence", alongside China's commitment not to "invade and threaten any other country".
According to Liu, "air wars in the early 21st century will feature characteristics such as the integration of air and space operations, fierce competition for information superiority, and the employment of revolutionary operational systems and weapons".
Liu will be joined by air chiefs from Australia, Chile, France, Israel, Singapore and the chief of the US Pacific Air Forces at the Millennium Air Power Conference, to be held on 21 February before the formal start of the show, to openly debate the future of air power and its usage. The debate is timely given the accelerated modernisation of air force fleets around the world and after a 12-month period conspicuously marked by high-profile air power operations, including over Iraq, Kosovo, Kashmir, Angola and other parts of Africa and in Chechnya.
Apart from the unprecedented appearance at such a forum by the PLA Air Force chief, also certain to be a focus of attention will be the presentation on Indonesian air power by Indonesia's air force chief of staff, ACM Hanafie Asnan. At a time of political uncertainty and separatist violence in Indonesia, and amid simmering tension between the civilian and military authorities, Asnan says he will be discussing the "Indonesian Air Force's experience of using air power in preserving the unity and integrity of Indonesia" in past actions against armed separatist movements. This is likely to stir debate, especially with BAE Systems now poised to restart Hawk 200 fighter deliveries to Indonesia, suspended as a result of the military's actions in breakaway East Timor. The second part of Asnan's presentation will look at the future development of Indonesia's air power.
The lessons learned from another recent military operation - the international intervention in the Balkans - will be the subject of the presentation by Gen Jean Rannou, the French Air Force's chief of staff. He will underline which of France's recent military choices have been vindicated by its Balkan experience, and new acquisition priorities which have since been identified as a result of operational experience.
The development of unmanned systems and their deployment in air operations will be the focus of a speech by Maj Gen Eitan Ben-Eliahu, commander of the Israeli Air Force, who will present the air force's experience in operating unmanned air vehicles, as well as the technology's development potential. From an industrial standpoint, Serge Dassault, chairman and chief executive of Dassault Aviation, will discuss the unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) flight leader concept - a manned combat aircraft configured to act as a "mothership" to a number of UCAVs to provide operational control and near man-in-the-loop overview of the operation.
Other industry speakers include Dain Hancock, president of Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems, Boon Swan Foo, president and chief executive of Singapore Technologies Engineering and Sir Charles Masefield, group marketing director for BAE.
Masefield will discuss future air defence systems, their dependence on C4I (Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence) support, and the threats they are likely to face, while US Pacific Air Forces commander Gen Patrick Gamble will focus on the integration and protection of vital information in future warfare. Gamble says "air power planning must change from a focus on weapons and platforms, to a focus incorporating the fused information products to achieve a credible offensive and defensive capability."
He adds: "Information management, from acquisition and distribution to the warrior, is the umbrella connecting it all together to be effective at the right time, in the right place, with minimum collateral damage."
Source: Flight International
