78 AIR POWER 201721 ST CENTURY CAPABILITIES
21 ST CENTURY PARTNERSHIPSwill allow us to do what we’re doing today in
tomorrow’s environment,” says Air Cdre Andrew.
As for the future, Air Cdre Andrew considers one
of his biggest challenges to be the rapid evolution
of technology and the cheapness of ‘high-tech’
to potential adversaries, who have proved most
adaptive. “The capabilities that we’re up against
are often very short-lived,” he says. “Once we find
a capability to match the adversary’s we find that
they’ve moved on... so we have to stay flexible, stay
dynamic, and we always have to be thinking ahead.”
The rapid rate of technology enhancement
required to stay relevant in the battlefield does
not come cheaply, Air Cdre Andrew admits: “It is
a very expensive place to operate and fight.”
Nevertheless, he is adamant that he has a balanced
fleet that allows ‘eyes and ears’ across the whole
spectrum, alongside the ability to fuse the product
with everything else that is out there. In his own words,
“The RAF has a world-leading capability, because the
people – the operators and analysts – that we have
involved in our enterprise are the best in the world.
This means that we provide our commanders and our
coalition partners with the best product in the world.”An additional two
Shadow R1 aircraft
are due to join the
existing fleet of six
aircraft (PHOTO:
© CROWN COPYRIGHT)advantage to the commander; we’re investing in
capability. We look at what we expect the future
characteristics of combat to be – we tie in with
what our doctrine centre thinks the nature of the
world will look like in the 2025-35 timeframe.”
These enhancements cover the arrival of the
third and final RC-135 Airseeker aircraft before the
year’s end; upgrades to the E-3D Sentry and Sentinel
aircraft; acquisition of further Shadow aircraft;
and procurement of 20 Protector RPAS (to replace
Reaper). In addition, the Project Athena ISTAR force
integration programme will bring all UK ISTAR assets
into one integrated force. “These enhancements
“The capabilities that we’re
up against are often very
short-lived... We have to stay
flexible, stay dynamic ”