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Australia, New Zealand, Canada, UK, and US representatives have come together in the Northern Territory to discuss future collaborative air defence partnerships.
Senior strategy and logistics representatives from Australia, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand attended the Five Eyes (FVEYS) A4 Collaboration Forum in the Northern Territory last month.
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This year’s forum, which provided air defence personnel with opportunities to strengthen partnerships and relationships with allies and advance logistical interoperability across the air domain, was themed around ‘Strength in Partnership – Agile, Integrated, Ready’, something demonstrated through the multi-national collaboration on display at the event.
Air Force Air Commodore Sandy Turner, who hosted the event, noted the value of the connections and conversations FVEYS sparked.
“The ability to meet face to face and have frank and honest conversations about the barriers and challenges facing each of our nations is incredibly important.”
“The forum ensures that we can operate together – both through competition and in times of conflict if we need to. We share the same values and goal, which is to ensure stability and peace in the region,” she said.
The five-day forum saw each nation’s representative present a national update of the current challenges and emerging threats they are facing. Major General Kenyon Bell (US) said this kind of discussion and update is helpful in centralising the readiness of allies and establishing logistical and competitive advantages.
“Logisitcs wins wars,” he said.
“[The forum] makes sure that we do not outpace our ability to sustain ourselves from an operational standpoint.”
Following these discussions, the outcome of previous FVEYS exercises were discussed to aid in the planning of future multi-national initiatives and exercises, all with aims of increasing collaborative defence capabilities and increasing interoperability.
“We need to understand where our logistics are most important, where we need to work more closely with our partners and the best way to maximise our interoperability,” said the UK’s Royal Air Force Head of Engineering and Logistics, Air Commodore Watson.
“The more we can exercise and operate together seamlessly, the more effective deterrence we can provide to potential adversaries.”
