The Air Force Interoperability Council or AFIC is an organisation tasked with enhancing
coalition
A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces.
Formation
According to ''A Gui ...
military aviation amongst the "
Five Eyes" countries, which consist of
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
,
Canada,
New Zealand, the
United Kingdom and
United States. The organisation has a permanent management committee based in
Washington DC.
[The Management Committee consists of five members, one from each member nation and a small admin staff. The MC members are both an international representative of the AFIC secretariat (thus with no national executive authority) and also act as Chair for at least one Working Group, managing and co-ordinating that WGs actions and progress both during and between meetings. Each MC member is also assigned a secretarial function for another WG.]
AFIC focuses on improved war-fighting capabilities, by maximizing
interoperability, such as the capability for particular aircraft types to be cross-serviced.
AFIC's primary publication outputs are Air Standards, Advisory Publications and Information Publications, which seek to increase operational effectiveness by describing common technical specifications, interoperability objectives and/or
Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTPs).
History
In 1942, Captain Frank T. McCoy, a USAAF intelligence officer attached to
Technical Air Intelligence Unit–
South West Pacific, invented a
system of reporting names for Japanese aircraft, to improve and speed-up secure communications and intelligence-sharing. The system was eventually adopted by the
Western Allied air forces throughout Asia and the Pacific.
Following the end of World War II, the Air Standards Coordination Committee (ASCC) was formed in 1948 by the air force chiefs of staff of Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. ASCC was expanded to include the US Navy in 1951, the RAAF in 1964 and RNZAF in 1965.
During the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
, the most prominent task assigned to ASCC was the creation of
reporting names – sometimes known, erroneously, as "NATO reporting names" – for aircraft originating in the
Soviet Union, other
Warsaw Pact countries and the
People's Republic of China.
An external review of the ASCC was undertaken in 2004 to examine the organisational processes and structures. As a result of this review in 2005 the ASCC was restructured, downsized and renamed Air and Space Interoperability Council (ASIC).
In 2016, the Air Chiefs of the Five Eyes nations recommended that in order to increase ASIC’s operational relevance. As a result, in 2017 ASIC reviewed and amended its operating concepts and procedures, refocused its activities to concentrate on interoperability, and changed its name to Air Force Interoperability Council. AFIC consists of representatives from the
Royal Air Force (RAF),
Royal Australian Air Force
"Through Adversity to the Stars"
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(RAAF),
Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF),
Royal New Zealand Air Force
The Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) ( mi, Te Tauaarangi o Aotearoa, "The Warriors of the Sky of New Zealand"; previously ', "War Party of the Blue") is the aerial service branch of the New Zealand Defence Force. It was formed from New Zeala ...
(RNZAF),
United States Air Force (USAF) and the
United States Navy (USN).
Related organisations
AFIC maintains close links with other interoperability fora, harmonizing activities and working in collaboration on major projects. These include:
*
ABCANZ Armies
*
AUSCANNZUKUS AUSCANNZUKUS is an abbreviation for the naval Command, Control, Communications and Computers (C4) interoperability organization involving the Anglosphere nations of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It is als ...
(navies)
*
Combined Communications Electronics Board (communication-electronics)
*
Five Eyes (intelligence)
*
The Technical Cooperation Program (technology and science)
*
UKUSA Agreement (signal intelligence)
As three of the member nations also belong to
NATO, cross functional networking with this organisation is ongoing.
See also
*
CANZUK
Notes and references
{{Reflist
External links
* http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/history/q0070.shtml - Soviet aircraft codenames
Anglosphere
Space science organizations
Royal Air Force
Royal Australian Air Force
Royal Canadian Air Force
Royal New Zealand Air Force
United States Air Force
Military standardization