14 Silicon chip Australia’s electronics magazine siliconchip.com.au
tage by the use of computer networking
to distribute that information to one’s
own geographically dispersed forces.
The network-centric combat envi-
ronment of the fifth generation F-35A
and other current generation platforms
means that the entire Air Force (and in-
deed the entire military) must be op-
timised to take full advantage of this,
which culminates with Plan Jericho.
The Air Force was extensively pro-
moting this plan at the Avalon airshow.
Its purpose is to “protect Australia from
technologically sophisticated and rap-
idly morphing threats”.
It will use “augmented intelligence”
to shift the Air Force “from one that
uses people to operate machines and
cooperate with other people, to a force
in which people and machines oper-
ate together”.
This plan has four main prongs:
- the use of autonomous processing,
embedding machine processing
throughout the force, to improve the
speed and correctness of decisions
that need to be made during combat
2) the use of advanced sensors, to de-
tect and track enemy targets in dif-
ficult environments
3) a “combat cloud”, to integrate and
distribute resources from across the
fifth generation force, to further en-
hance decision-making
4) human-machine augmentation, to
optimise performance within an
ethical, moral, and legal framework
You can read more about Plan Jeri-
cho via siliconchip.com.au/link/aaolThe RAAF EA-18G Growler
The RAAF had on display its EA-
18G Growler. Australia has 11 of these,
based at RAAF Base Amberley, 40km
south-west of Brisbane (see Fig.5).
The Growler is an “electronic at-
tack aircraft”, designed to disrupt or
deny enemy radar, sensors and com-
munications. It can cause the enemy
to receive false radar returns or to fal-sify other data. The Growler is based
on the F/A-18F Super Hornet airframe
and has electronic equipment mounted
where the 20mm cannon would other-
wise be, plus wing-tip mounted elec-
tronics pods.
Nine weapons stations remain avail-
able for weapons or additional elec-
tronics pods.
Further upgrades for the Growler
are being developed for the US Navy,
known as REAM (Reactive Electronic
Attack Measures).
REAM will add machine learn-
ing and artificial intelligence to the
Growler system, and these upgrades
will probably be offered to the RAAF
eventually.
In addition to its electronic warfare
equipment, the Growler can carry the
AGM-88 anti-radiation missiles, de-
signed to home in on and destroy radar
systems. Plus it can also carry AIM-
medium-range air-to-air missiles and
AIM-9X “Sidewinder” advanced short-Fig.3: a recently delivered RAAF F-35A Lightning II flying
near RAAF Base Amberley in Queensland. It is a fifth-
generation fighter jet and an essential element of Plan
Jericho.
Fig.4: an Australian F-35A on the ground.Fig.7: the Boeing Insitu ScanEagle unmanned aerial
system, as used by the Royal Australian Navy.
Fig.8: a US Navy ScanEagle in flight.