Go Bold #50: Commodore Jonathan Lipps on Integrated Air and Missile Defense and Exercise Formidable Shield 2023

This episode is a special one for a few reasons. First, we are saluting the United States Navy which is celebrating its 248th birthday! In tribute of that anniversary, we thought it would be appropriate that this episode feature someone from the US Navy, so I am honored to introduce our guest, Captain Jonathan Lipps, Commander of Task Force SIX FOUR, and NATOs commander Task Group Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) which is assigned to Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO, otherwise known as STRIKFORNATO.As it happened, on the day of our interview in June, and down to the hour in fact, Commodore Lipps was celebrating 30 years of serving in the United States Navy. The timing of our interview and the Commodores work anniversary was pure happenstance, but I felt a sense of honor that we could mark that milestone together. Congratulations Sir! We at Go Bold are also celebrating an anniversary of sorts because this is our 50th episode! It's a great milestone, and it's all thanks to our team, to our amazing listeners, and to all the wonderful guests that we have had from allied militaries around the world! Thanks to you all, and GO BOLD!So that brings me to my guest for today's episode, Commodore Jonathan Lipps, whose career focus has been on Integrated Air and Missile Defense. The importance of IAMD cannot be understated because it is meant to protect territory, populations and forces against air and missile threat and attack; and it is meant to contribute to deterrence. It's an incredibly important topic, and one that is more topical today than perhaps ever before.In this episode you'll hear Commodore Lipps speak about his journey in the US Navy, including his perspective on the development of IAMD capability in the US Navy. This includes the first intercepts of ballistic missile targets with the Standard Missile-3 guided missile; his time at the Aegis Ashore Missile Defense Test Complex; and his time at the Aegis Ashore Missile Defense System in Romania.We also talk about multi-domain integration, and modern data-links which support real-time engagement of distributed weapons across the Joint Force. We then talk about Exercise Formidable Shield 2023 and why it is so important for NATO.Exercise Formidable Shield is Europe's largest and most complex IAMD Exercise. It is a biennial exercise which is meant to demonstrate Allied interoperability in a joint live-fire, Integrated Air and Missile Defense environment using NATO command and control reporting structures. The exercise took place over a 1,000 nautical mile area from the west coast of Scotland to Northern Norway -- so that's from the North Atlantic to the Arctic Circle -- and it brings together ships, aircraft and ground based units from throughout the NATO alliance.Commodore Lipps was the Task Group Commander of the exercise, and his command ship was the Spanish guided missile frigate, SPS Blas de Lezo (F103).A total of 20 surface ships from across NATO took part in the exercise, with ships from the United States, France, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands launching numerous missiles against subsonic, supersonic and ballistic missile targets. These missiles included the Aster-15, Aster-30, Standard Missile-2, and Evolved SeaSparrow Missiles (ESSM).Not only did ships fire missiles, but land units employing HIMARS and NASAMS also engaged targets during Formidable Shield.Integrated Air and Missile Defense is a fascinating topic, and even more so when you think of the maritime application of the capability, so you don't want to miss this front-seat perspective from a pioneer and expert in this capability -- our guest, Commodore Jonathan Lipps, of the United States Navy.Thank you, Commodore Lipps, for your time and kindness, and for your service!Go Bold!