JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii -- Royal Australian Air Force Air Vice-Marshal Carl Newman, Pacific Air Forces deputy commander, delivered the keynote address at TechNet Indo-Pacific 2023 in Honolulu, Nov. 8.
The theme of the conference was “Accelerate Indo-Pacific Innovation” where Newman talked about pacing challenges, technological capabilities and the innovation ecosystem.
“We're in an era of great power competition,” said Newman. “That brings us to a heightened risk of conflict and conflict that can occur within an operational timeline that may be outside of our control. If we find ourselves in conflict, we face complex threats in all domains. We face threats to our installations and infrastructure that we have not had to deal with for decades. We face a contested environment and operations at great distances. We will need to operate in an environment that is increasingly digitizing with a greater demand for data, information, and analysis for generating useful knowledge and at volume.”
The conference focuses on regional military issues, including full spectrum cyber operations as adversaries leverage cyberspace to conduct operations below the threshold of conflict.
“How do we do more than just compete with these threats and the pacing challenge? How do we maintain the advantage? Start with the PACAF Strategy 2030,” continued Newman. “Enhance the warfighting advantage with Capability Modernization, Agile Combat Employment, Air Domain Awareness, JADC2. Advance our Theater Posture by ensuring we have the right force at the right place at the right time to deter and if necessary win. Strengthen or alliances and partnerships – working with likeminded partners for common security outcomes is our key strength. Finally ensure we shape the information environment by remaining transparent in calling our bad behaviors and amplifying the good. We must continually move beyond current efforts – I want to focus on evolving to grow our advantages across these realms and into the future.”