Air Chief Marshal Harv Smyth will use his tenure as chief of the air staff (CAS) to further hone the Royal Air Force’s (RAF’s) capabilities, the service’s newly appointed senior officer says.

Referring to global factors including an “enduring and bloody war in Europe, [and] the return of great power competition”, he says: “My prime focus as the new CAS is to meet this pace of change head on, by putting more AIR in the air: more Agile, more Integrated, more Ready, to fly and fight, today, tomorrow and together.”

Speaking at the DSEI exhibition in London on 11 September – just one week into the post – he identified three areas of activity for the near-term. These are: “The reintroduction of an RAF nuclear capability; integrated air and missile defence [IAMD]; and our approach to space,” he says.

“A nuclear-capable [Lockheed Martin F-35A] Lightning presents the UK with a mechanism to provide considerable support to our NATO-first approach and NATO’s nuclear mission,” he says. He describes the step as to add an “important rung to our escalation ladder”, while adding: “I would expect potential adversaries to take note of this change.”

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) earlier this year confirmed plans to buy an initial 12 conventional take-off and landing F-35As, to be made available in support of NATO’s dual-capable aircraft mission. The RAF has lacked such a capability since the retirement of its air-launched WE177 weapon almost 30 years ago.

The UK currently flies the F-35 in its B-model short take-off and vertical landing guise.

Addressing a future multi-domain IAMD capability, Smyth says the pending introduction of the RAF’s Boeing E-7A Wedgetail fleet “will be vital to this, providing a core element of a broader system of updated ground-based radars and space capabilities, as part of an agile, integrated, and distributed sense and warn system”.

“Space underpins deterrence in all domains, and is the keystone to our ambition of delivering an integrated force,” says Smyth – who in a previous role was the MoD’s inaugural Director Space. “Our investment priority areas are space control and decision advantage, as well as ‘sense’, to enable ‘understand’ and ‘strike’ functions,” he adds.

“Our potential adversaries are not standing still – in fact, they are approaching a sprint – their military industrial complex is in full swing, and it oftentimes feels like ours is still in peace mode,” he observes.

“The RAF remains the nation’s first responder. We have a proud legacy, but must never be distracted or complacent,” the former BAE Systems Harrier pilot says. “We must relentlessly pursue the excellence demanded by our leaders, our nation, and our allies.”