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Home » Exercise Programs » Royal Air Force Preparing For Long-Term Battle Against COVID-19 – Aviation Week

Britains Royal Air Force is stepping into a period of major transformation as it prepares to introduce the Boeing E-7 Wedgetail airborne early warning platform, Protector unmanned air systems and a more networked approach to operations. But it also faces challenges: The novel coronavirus is affecting the daily lives of personnel and also threatens the international order, while an upcoming wholesale review of UK foreign policy could reshape the countrys defense capabilities. Air Chief Marshal Mike Wigston sat down virtually with Aviation Weeks London Bureau Chief Tony Osborne to discuss the way ahead.

AW&ST: How has the RAF risen to the COVID-19 challenge?We are fortunate because day in, day out we do dangerous, dirty and difficult things. From a national perspective, we have had to make sure that we were contributing to the essential national effort to slow down the spread of the virus. Also essential is our Quick Reaction Alert in the UK and overseas territories, ongoing operations in the Middle East, humanitarian operations and NATO air policing. My eye is also on the future health of the forcein six months, one year, two years. Another essential consideration is depth aircraft maintenance. Having serviceable aircraft tomorrow is separate from depth maintenance. Aircraft go into depth [maintenance] for a year sometimes, but I really do need that aircraft out in a year. So for me, that is as essential as training or recruiting.

The government guidelines apply to us as much as to any organization. Different units have had to take stock and pause for days or weeks to work through the government guidelines to ensure as low as practicable risk, and then pick themselves up and get on with it. By and large, I am incredibly pleased with the way the force has responded. Im very comfortable we are doing this in a safe way but still delivering air and space power to protect the nation. I am not saying that were at 100% of our capacitythere have been areas where our throughput is slowed, or our capacity is limitedbut we are in the 60-80% sphere rather than 20-30%.

I have told the team that if anyone is sitting waiting until September for this to end, you should just forget it. This could be the situation for the next 18 months to four years. So for all of you that are at 70% of full capacity, you need to work out how you make back that final 30% because this is going to be our working environment. This is a long-term game now.

Has COVID-19 affected the exercise program and deployments?The most significant impact has been on our international exercise program because we have not been able to move large numbers of people for training exercises. What we have done is continue to meet our NATO commitments: In April, we deployed a Typhoon squadron to Lithuania for Baltic Air Policing, which sends an absolutely crystal clear message to our NATO partners and allies around the Baltic that it is a region that matters to the UK and that our collective security matters to the UK. I think doing that in a COVID environment really reinforces that message.

We have also moved some exercises onto a virtual plane. In some respects, weve probably accelerated our plans around network exercising, less so with squadrons and front-line pilots, but more for our headquarters organization.

We have done that recently with the French Air Force. We must also not lose sight of the fact that our operational commitments around the world have continuedour support helicopters are in Afghanistan and Mali. And of course, the full range of air power platforms and capabilities are at work in the Middle East.

In recent years, we have seen deployments to Japan and Korea, but more recently that attention has been focused on the Euro-Atlantic region. Are you looking again at the Far East?I can say without a shadow of a doubt that were going to be continuing that drumbeat of deployments out into the Indo-Pacific region. This year, we have observers on the Five Power Defense Arrangement exercises, like Bersama Padu and Bersama Lima. And next year, because it is the 50th anniversary of the signing of that arrangement between Malaysia, Singapore, the UK, Australia and New Zealand, we are going to deploy Voyager and Typhoon, and I know that there will be warships involved as well. While it is not yet decided, we have high ambitions for where HMS Queen Elizabeth and Carrier Strike Group 21 will go, too.

What threats/challenges will face the RAF post-COVID? How do you characterize them?I think the consensus is the pandemic has accelerated trends that we were already observing. When you think about everything, from digitalization and automation all the way through to the Great Power rivalry between China and the U.S., it holds true that COVID has accelerated things by three, five or up to 10 years. For us, that will be something of a key theme for the integrated review when that gets going again.

The other big strategic factor is, of course, economies. The global economic impact from COVID will prompt governments to reassess their spending. Also, it will mean that already-fragile states will probably become even more fragile, and regions will become more insecure. So there will be a greater role for like-minded countries like the UK in protecting global security and helping it back into prosperity.

What are your hopes for the ASTRA initiative?ASTRA is the campaign plan for building the next-generation Royal Air Force. It covers everything from big equipment programs and infrastructure to the way we look after our people and the conceptual component, all the way through to grassroots initiatives where people can identify ways to change the way they go about their business and the way they work. I am focused on the Future Combat Air System, the replacement for Typhoon, and how that will operate as a system, some elements piloted, some expendable, as well as swarming drones and loyal wingmen. There is also a significant investment program for our infrastructure and our domestic infrastructure so we can look after our people better. It matters now, and we need to get on with it now. If we were to talk about big reshaping themes, the air force must become data-driven.

We have talked for long enough about an information-enabled air force. This is the point where weve got to take that step, and that means every part of the enterprise should be network-linked. We currently have too many separate systems on too many separate networks, so there is an absolute pressing need to become that network-enabled force that we have been speaking about for a long time. We must also step properly into the synthetic environment and utilize what the world of gaming now offers for the training of not just aircrew but for all of our people, all the way [from] mission planning and mission rehearsal through to augmenting the actual live missions. The final big shift where we will look different is in space. With significant growth in threats to our national interests in space, we are already monitoring what is going on. And there is more we can do to build our situational awareness, but there is no doubt in my mind that in a few years time we will be working actively to protect our national interests in space and defend them.

Like many air forces, the RAF has had a challenge with recruitment. How is this being addressed?I would challenge your question because the one thing that weve been remarkably successful at in the last few years is recruiting. We were on track for 100% of officer recruiting and high 90% for other ranks.

Where I have always got my eye is on retention. The RAF is victim to the ebb and flow of the external employment market, and over the last 10 years it has been a pretty tough environment for us to retain the talent we need. By and large we have, but I would rather see my retention figures improve a little.

Is the air force facing a capability gap in its ISTAR fleet with the early retirement of the Sentinel radar reconnaissance platform in March 2021 and the E-3D Sentry in 2022? On Sentinel, there are challenges in upgrading the system as it is becoming increasingly obsolescent and has a level of technology that is making it difficult to keep it going. It is still operationally relevant today, but we are reluctantly sticking to that 2015 decision. There were several factors to that, and the capability gap was one of those. It is a unique capability, given the platform that it is on, but there are other ways that we can achieve the same effectsbut nothing quite matches that airframe.

On E-3D, we have a phased reduction of the fleet, drawing it down over the next couple of years as we build up the [E-7] Wedgetail. If there is a [capability] gap, it will be where we are just moving crews and technicians across. And we havent yet finalized the plan because we have not gotten the absolute detail on the Wedgetail delivery. The people who will be operating and maintaining Wedgetail are largely the same people who are operating and maintaining the Sentry, so at some point were going to have to switch off Sentry and move people across to Wedgetail, with a training element in that.

What capabilities/systems soon to be introduced are you most looking forward to getting into service?Tempest is a really important program because it is replacing Typhoon, but it is also important because it under-pins the future of the British defense and aerospace industries. The UK is world-leading: We are one of a tiny handful of nations that can still bring together all elements to build a sixth-generation combat aircraft. So when we get to that point, the decision to go ahead with building that Future Combat Air System is a national strategic decision.

From what Ive seen, the early work on some of the technology that were going to be fielding is world-beating. In concert with that will be autonomous wingmen and the swarming-drones work that we are doing. Some of the results of those swarming trials are quite remarkable and are exceeding our early expectations. We have been able to demonstrate that what was a very rudimentary early capability is not something we are going to leave on the shelf until Tempest comes along. Im going to be augmenting Typhoon and [F-35] Lightning [aircraft] with these [capabilities] this decade. And if I can, Ill have them fly off the Queen Elizabeth alongside the F-35s, too.

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Royal Air Force Preparing For Long-Term Battle Against COVID-19 - Aviation Week

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Home » Exercise Programs » Royal Air Force Preparing For Long-Term Battle Against COVID-19 – Aviation Week