Pacific Rim air force leaders come together to discuss similarities, challenges

  • Published
  • By Maj. Jillian Torango
  • 13th Air Force Public Affairs
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, HI --  It's not often that senior leaders from air forces throughout the Pacific Region get together, but that's just what happened at this year's Pacific Rim (PACRIM) Airpower Symposium held 6 to 9 September in Brisbane, Australia. Over four days senior leaders from 17 Pacific Rim countries participated in and took turns leading discussion about the similar challenges faced by their air forces.

Co-hosted this year by the U.S. and Royal Australian Air Forces, the 2011 PACRIM Airpower Symposium theme was "Flying Forward - Evolving Airpower" with a main focus area being how to successfully operate within constrained budgets.

"The issues we face today aren't any different between our air forces, but when an air force is small, those issues can be critical," Lt. Gen Stanley T. Kresge, 13th Air Force Commander and U.S. delegation lead for the symposium said. "This symposium provided opportunities for untraditional networking between our air forces to address those issues and challenges."

One issue facing today's Pacific Rim air forces is having limited budgets at a time of increased operational demand. This means finding efficiencies wherever possible while ensuring mission effectiveness is not compromised.

While the answers are not simple, one of the guiding principles for future success was continuously brought up throughout the symposium--air forces partnering for success.

"There are many ways to attack the overriding similarities between our air forces," said Air Vice-Marshal Mark Skidmore, Air Commander Australia, Royal Australian Air Force and Australian delegation lead for the symposium. "Using venues such as this symposium will be absolutely essential in the years to come so senior leaders can get together to see and understand how each nation is achieving their particular goals."

Events like the PACRIM Airpower Symposium also lay the foundation for participation by Pacific Rim nations in other events such as exercises, humanitarian assistance/disaster response (HA/DR) and peace support operations, subject matter expert exchanges and conferences.

"We train for normal operations and participate in disaster exercises, but in the future it is important that we prepare for the large scale disasters like the Great East Japan Earthquake that happened on March 11, 2011," said Maj. Gen. Tadashi Miyagawa, Director of Operations and Intelligence Department, Air Staff Office, Japan Air Self Defense Force.

"Each of our countries have had floods, fires and earthquakes and to have a better understanding in advance of how we can efficiently and effectively come together during these times of devastation is key to ensuring the right capability can be at the right place at the right time," said General Kresge. "What the disaster in Japan highlighted is that even the small contribution the U.S. Air Force was able to make would have been much faster and more effective if we could have planned ahead and prepared together for a large-scale disaster such as this."

Using lessons learned and finding efficiencies is one way for the Pacific Rim air forces to meet operational demand while being fiscally responsible.


"The only way we can continue to build a future for our air forces is to share our ideas and experiences," said Air Vice-Marshal Skidmore. "So we don't lose sight of what our air forces' requirements are even when operating under a constrained budget."

Countries with representatives attending this year's symposium were Australia, Cambodia, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Republic of Singapore, Thailand, Tonga, and the United States.

The PACRIM Airpower Symposium, formally known as the PACRIM Director of Operations conference, is an annual U.S. Pacific Air Forces-sponsored event. In 2008, 13th Air Force, the Pacific Air Forces organization responsible for U.S. participation in the PACRIM Airpower Symposium, began working with other Pacific Rim nations to plan and host the event. Last year, the Republic of Singapore Air Force hosted the event in Singapore and next year, the 13th Air Force will work with the Japan Air Self Defense Force to plan the symposium which will be held in Japan.