JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii -- Gen. Lori J. Robinson, Pacific Air Forces commander, deepened ties with partner nations and reaffirmed PACAF’s commitment to the rebalance in the Pacific during a two-week trip to New Zealand and Australia March 3-17.
Robinson traveled to New Zealand and Australia to discuss current and future partnership engagements with the goal of improving interoperability among air forces, ensuring increased security and stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region, and honoring the men and women of the Royal New Zealand and Royal Australian Air Forces.
During her time in New Zealand, Robinson spoke with U.S. Embassy and New Zealand Defence Force leaders and discussed the importance of air force-to-air force interoperability and expanding security cooperation.
“We appreciate New Zealand’s strong leadership role in the Pacific as we all face challenges with security and stability, and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief,” Robinson said.
Robinson also visited RNZAF Base Ohakea, where she was the keynote speaker at the 75th Anniversary of Women Serving in the RNZAF Celebration, which preceded a two-day biennial RNZAF Women’s Development Forum.
The theme for the event was “Celebrating the past and embracing the opportunities of the future,” and Robinson honored the women in attendance by highlighting the importance of their service, and shared her personal experiences and how she’s seen the Air Force change during her time in service.
“Over time in my long career I watched things change, attitudes change, and I’ve watched our service become more and more inclusive with more diversity of thought, background, race and gender,” Robinson said. “All of these things make us a better institution.”
A key engagement while in Australia was the RAAF Airpower Conference in Canberra, where Robinson delivered a speech emphasizing the benefits of interoperability and highlighting the broad spectrum of U.S. capabilities relating to the challenges shared by Pacific Partner nations. During her speech, she addressed military and security leaders from across the Indo-Asia-Pacific region who assembled to discuss joint and multi-domain integration of security practices.
“I know that together, as a joint and coalition team – and together with our highly capable allies and partners - we can and will work through these challenges and prevail against the heavily contested environments of today and tomorrow,” Robinson said.
She also highlighted the importance of maintaining a strong and enduring presence in the region, to include humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations.
“In the past few years, Pacific Air Forces Airmen have participated alongside our joint and coalition partners in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations in Japan in 2011, the Philippines in 2013, and most recently in Nepal last year,” Robinson said. “These theater challenges highlight the requirement to effectively integrate multi-domain operations across the joint force and we do this by utilizing the air tasking cycle to connect strategic guidance with operational and tactical tasks.”