AFM September Editorial

Every month I intend putting the Editorial that I write in AFM on the forum; so if you have any comments to make please join feel free to respond on this thread!

Forewarned is forearmed. When it comes to matters of national security it is essential to know your enemy, their strengths and their weaknesses, just in case you ever have to go to war with them. This is partly why ‘eavesdropping’ has been – and is still – a vital component of military planning. Most air forces have an airborne surveillance unit because most countries have someone they want to keep a close watch on. The size of their surveillance fleet will depends on how many enemies they have.
In the case of the US, its huge ISTAR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance) community must be working non-stop as it tries to keep up with developments in Afghanistan, China, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Russia as well as South American countries – and they’re just the obvious places.
Often an ISTAR aircraft will try to glean information from a friendly country if it is operating equipment that a future enemy might have in its inventory. When the unified German Air Force inherited the MiG-29s from the East German Air Force, a whole host of air forces wanted to carry out Dissimilar Air Combat Training with them, particularly the USAF. The training was so exhaustive that it effectively ended the threat of the MiG-29; however since undergoing subsequent upgrades that advantage has been lessened.
A similar situation arose when the Indian Air Force brought some of its Su-30s to the UK for Exercise Indradhanush in July. Of course the UK and US would want to find out sensitive radar information that might help them deal with a future threat.
I know from talking to American personnel that the US works regularly with a couple of air forces whose members spend a lot of their time trying to “find out stuff they shouldn’t be interested in”.
You just have to remember – it’s not personal!

Alan Warnes
Editor, AFM