By Craig Hoyle in London
The UK Royal Air Force has published a strategy document underlining its growing need to participate in expeditionary warfighting and peacekeeping missions as part of a multinational coalition.
Providing first details of the new document on 6 July, chief of the air staff Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy said: "There is an acknowledgement that the USA will be the only superpower for the foreseeable future. We must make sure that we can interoperate with the US armed forces…but not to the exclusion of other coalition partners.
"Our strategic vision is to be an agile, adaptable and capable air force that can make a decisive contribution to joint force operations," says Torpy. Acknowledging that current operations in Afghanistan and Iraq are "about the limit", he says the introduction of additional intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (ISTAR) assets capable of serving as airborne command and control nodes are a leading priority for the service. "We're very good at the kinetic end of the spectrum," he says. "We can drop a weapon within a couple of metres anywhere in the world. But do we know where to drop it?"
The exploitation of unmanned air vehicle and unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) technologies is another key priority for the RAF, Torpy says, with these to potentially undertake a range of future ISTAR, strike and other missions under high threat conditions. "We are still 10-15 years away from UCAVs, but we will have UAVs within the near future," he believes.
Source: Flight International
