In late November 2013, Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake discussed their new book (with Richard Weitz) on Rebuilding American Power in the Pacific: A 21st Century Strategy. 

 The F-35 strike fighter will be a lynchpin of security in the Asia-Pacific region in the coming years for the United States and its allies, said Robbin Laird, military and security analyst. "This is not your mother's jet," he told AFA's Pacific Air & Space Symposium in Los Angeles last month in emphasizing how "radically different" the F-35 will be. In addition to the F-35's sophisticated technology, it's also significant that regional allies are acquiring the jet at the same time as the United States and will be establishing operations hubs and training ranges, said Laird. "You will end up with more F-35s in the Pacific being allied than American," he said during his Nov. 22 presentation. The airplane's capabilities will help to usher in new concepts of operation built around robust, distributed assets, he said. "We usually think of technology as the driver . . . but in fact we are entering a decade where the CONOPs changes are as important as the technologies," he said. Appearing with Laird, Ed Timperlake, senior fellow with Technology Assessment and Security, said the F-35's sensors and ability to share data would give each pilot access to unprecedented levels of real-time information in the cockpit. By Michael C. Sirak http://www.airforcemag.com/DRArchive/Pages/2013/December%202013/December%2002%202013/Not-Your-Mother%27s-Jet.aspx For the audio of the presentation as delivered to the Pacific Forum see the following: http://www.afa.org/PacAirSpace/PASS2013Symposium/audiorecordings An interview with AFPAC commander Hawk Carlisle was generated during the time at the Pacific Forum of the American Air Force Association as well as an interview Col. James on the role of the USAF in the initial response to the Philippine’s relief effort.

1. Rebuilding Military Power in the
Pacific: Crafting a 21st Century
Strategy
Shaping a Way Ahead
Updated December 2, 2013

2. Shaping an Approach
• Build Upon the Central Impact of the “ReNorming of Air Power” and re-shaping the conops or use of legacy systems;
• Understand the Impact of a “Few Great
Captains”;
• Focus on the Operational Geography of the
Pacific;
• Deep Dive on the Impact of New Technologies on
Concepts of Operations;
• Always Remember the Reactive Enemy.

3. Interactive Drivers of Change
Technology, Con-Ops and Coalition Airpower
Weapons
Revolution
F-35
Fleet
Air Combat Cloud
21st Cty
Bomber
Robotic Dynamics
Distributed
Ops
Shaping an Attack and
Defense Enterprise
C5ISR D
Dynamics
Key Role for
Partnership
Engagement and
Execution

4. Shaping an Approach (2)
• With Regard to the Past Decade of War, Harvest the
Best, and Leave the Rest;
• Shape an Understanding of the Crises and Challenges
Ahead which are Likely to Reshape Military Operations;
• Focus on the Shifting Relationship among the US, Allies
and Adversaries;
• Understand the Impact of the F-35 fleet, global
manufacturing and sustainment system on global
coalition operations;
• If you do not have a Military Strategy to Deal with the
PRC, You Simply do not have a Grand Strategy to deal
with the PRC.

5. The Strategic Setting
Shaping a 21st Century Pacific Strategy
Key Forces
Managing the Dynamics of the Chinese
Colossus
Deterrence in a Second Nuclear Age
The Arctic Opening and Russia as a
Maritime Power and Canada on the
Front Line of Defense
Synergy Between Security and Defense:
Securing the Conveyer Belt of Goods
and Services by Sea with SLOC Defense
Tokyo
Shanghai

6. Strategic Geogrpahy
SOUTH
KOREA
JAPAN
639 mi
4,099 mi
1,630 mi
2,809 mi
3,895 mi
3,686 mi
SINGAPORE
2,353 mi
AUSTRALIA
GUAM
Hawaiian
Islands (USA)

7. Pacific Dynamics: The PRC ADIZ
SOUTH
KOREA
JAPAN
Japan Air Defence
Identification Zone
639 mi
China’s
Territorial
Waters
4,099 mi
1,630 mi
2,809 mi
East China Sea
Air Defence
Identification Zone
3,895 mi
GUAM
3,686 mi
SINGAPORE
2,353 mi
AUSTRALIA
Hawaiian
Islands (USA)

8. Shaping a 21st Century Force
•
•
•
•
Distributed;
Presence; Reachback; Honeycomb Enabled;
Allies are Always Forward Deployed;
Shaping a 21st Century Version of the Big Blue Blanket
for the U.S. Joint Force;
– Allied and Joint Fleet of F-35s as a key piece of the
transition;
– F-35s understood as stealth-enabled distributed fleet of
combat systems honeycombing the battlespace;
• Leveraging Coalition Investments to Craft More
Effective Pacific Defense Capabilities;
• Rethink Basing Strategies.

9. F-35 as Allied Pacific
Lynchpin
Hubs and
Training Ranges
Australia
Canada
Hubs
Japan
Singapore
South Korea
Pacific Dynamic Distances Covered
Hawaii
Guam
Alaska
Approximately 25 Thousand
Miles of Perimeter Coverage

11. Some Key Elements of the Way Ahead
• The F-35 School Houses as Drivers for Change
(Eglin, Luke, Yuma, Beaufort etc.);
• The Salience of the S Cubed Dynamic to Con-Ops
Innovations:
– Sensors, Combined with Stealth Combined with Speed
can provide a new Paradigm for Shaping the Pacific
Force Necessary for the U.S. in 21st Century Ops.
• Meeting the Challenge of the Second Nuclear Age

12. The Way Ahead
• This decade of technological development, conops evolution and partnership engagements and
re-set of airpower lays the foundation for the
next
– And the determination of the role and impacts of new
platforms.
• Three Key Cases in Point:
– The USS Ford and the Airwing After Next;
– The Impact of the USS America and the Littoral
Engagement Fleet;
– The Bomber and the Role of Long Range Strike.