Air Chiefs: Allied Integration Essential as Threats Intensify

“The global security environment is arguably more complex and volatile today than we have seen in many decades, and we are watching security threats evolve at breakneck pace,” according to UK Air Chief Marshal Harv Smyth.

Speaking at London’s 10th annual Global Air and Space Chiefs Conference on July 15, Smith suggested that similarly rapid multinational technological responses will prove key in countering these. “The rate of technological change, supercharged by leaps in digital capability, artificial intelligence, and autonomy, is—I would argue—our greatest challenge, but also our greatest advantage and opportunity,” he said.

Pointing to lessons learned from Ukraine and current operations in the Middle East, particularly Iran’s recent retaliation with long-range ballistic missiles, Smyth added that “there really isn’t sanctuary in the home base anymore.” Acknowledging a “very broad range of threats, from tiny drones…right up to hypersonics, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles,” he said that “it’s very clear that we have to accelerate in a more meaningful way into AI, into autonomy, and where those capabilities can take us: they bring us affordable mass, and they bring us much better lethality.”

Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry Luke Pollard underscored that push at the conference, revealing the name of the Royal Air Force’s uncrewed Collaborative Combat Aircraft program: Storm Fighter, an autonomous “loyal wingman” designed to fly alongside the Typhoon, F-35, and future Tempest.

Alongside technological sovereign advancement comes a greater need for both national and international integration. Smyth explained how the UK’s recently published Strategic Defence Review perceives air and space power as “critical and integral parts of a much broader system,” with the integrated force “a transition from traditional siloed joint military branches to a fully integrated lethal and agile structure” designed to “continuously evolve at a wartime pace.” While Smyth admitted this “does blur the lines between some of the services,” his respective chief-of-staff counterparts—participating in the same panel—were in unanimous agreement as to the relevance of increased cross-service collaboration.

Streamlining and coordinating national sovereign capabilities is far from the end answer, added Lt. Gen. Jamie Speiser-Blanchet, commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force. With the global security landscape “being reshaped by forces that are moving at unprecedented speed,” this also “reflects the realization that defending our airspace can no longer rely solely on our traditional warning and control constructs designed for traditional high-end threats,” she said. And with the proliferation of advanced threats ranging from uncrewed aerial systems to hypersonic weapons, “we could see integration not simply as a force multiplier, but potentially as the capability itself,” she said.