Air power

[jrcar]

Thanks Sabre, I have limited experiance in close air support (tactical F-111 and FA-18 strikes and Hueys with mini-guns).

When ever battle drills comes up a big smile comes to my face. In training, and in many publications, the SOVIETS penchant/reliance for drills is frequently derided as an example of their backwardness an inflexibility... and then the next day we launch into section - coy battle drills like quick ambush etc...

Battle drills are a very important part of war, and these are behavours that can be easily programmed. But as always the terrain impacts on how the drill is executed.

Cheers

Rob

[Sabre21]

Byron

You are right in the sense that this takes some practice to really get down to a fine art. That's why the AF assigns FAC's to maneuver Brigades and lead battalions. Us poor guys in the Cav are usually left on our own, athough I noticed an AF Fac asigned to the 3/7 Cav as they charged across Iraq.

When I was at Ft Polk, we had the luxury to have 2 entire A10 wings to work with, one at Barksdale and the other at England AFB (the latter was closed down several years ago). We worked with them guys probably on live fire missions every other month.

When in Germany, I probaly did this only annually. So depending on where you were based would affect the kind of training you focused in.

At Ft Campbell, we did a lot of air assaults (101st Airborne Div), and we practiced lots of long range night time navigation and performing escort, where as in Germany we did a lot of work with heavy armored forces, and in Korea...well...we frequented many of the "juice" bars:)

Sabre21

[Golf33]

Couple of random observations from someone reading the thread purely because I was curious to see what jrcar was up to now

- arty fire continues as a strike is inbound, with last rounds and the mark round impacting generally around 60 sec before the TOT (ie bomb impact). Fires can resume as soon as the aircraft has egressed, generally about the same timeframe.

- arty will specifically be used to target any identified AD threats as close to the TOT as possible - again the barrage would lift 60 sec or so before TOT, although if the FAC is being clever he may even be able to continue SEAD fire throughout by routing the aircraft away from the line of fire. This is preferred as it avoids the 'pregnant pause' caused by all guns in the area stopping while the strike occurs.

- the strike itself is conducted in conjunction with the FAC, who is in radio contact with both the guns and the aircraft. When the air comes on station, they contact the FAC, who sends the threat and target briefs (including target loc and description). The FAC coordinates the aircraft and arty, assigning TOT to each and talking the aircraft on to target using either a mark or just a target description. If the target moves during the aircraft run in, the FAC can talk the pilot on without aborting depending on the terrain and distance - I would think any more than a couple of hundred metres from the briefed coordinates, or maybe up to half a kilometre if there is clear visibility and a very distinctive mark (like BE or WP smoke).

- the FAC may abort the strike at any time; if the aircraft have fuel endurance, he may direct them back out to a marshalling area and call them in again. This could be used to change the target location if required.

- low and medium level pop-up attacks (ingress low, climbing to around 2000' to 10000' AGL to acquire and roll in) are generally flown between 480 and 540 knots for fast air like F-16s or F/A-18s (figures from a USMC Hornet trainee, accompanied by HUD tape). A-10s will be a lot slower, I don't have figures for them, but generally it's in multiples of 60kt to make the mental math easier for the pilot (nautical miles/minute etc). If there is a low-threat environment, the pilots may choose to conduct a wagon-wheel attack where they will circle the target at over 10000' AGL, and will then roll in when they are satisfied with target ID and attack geometry.

The practical upshot is that arty will fire pretty much right up until the strike; will recommence immediately after; the Battalion Commander will find out from his FAC if the air is available, usually 10-15 minutes before TOT; and the FAC can change the timing and target of a strike, up to a couple of minutes before TOT, within the limits of aircraft fuel endurance. This last would almost never occur, because as discussed above the majority of tac air is used as part of a fireplan and there are a lot of interdependencies and timings that go out the window if the strike gets cocked up. The whole thing happens bloody fast, especially if you're trying to coordinate it as the FAC (or in my case, half-baked ACO with much less training ).

Regards
33

[jrcar]

Thanks Steve! I'm up to lots

I knew the arty stopped before and after, but I've always seen larger time seperations on HQ's, but as you were an FO you have the good goss

The 60 knot thing is interesting, never thought of that before! I will file that one away... I keep meaning to talk to a few fighter types in Canberra... but I generally prefer to keep as far from them as possible

This game is going well, and as it has PBEM I can actually play it, unlike AA

Cheers

Rob

[Tbird3]

I just felt the need to throw my measly two cents in this discussion. Overall, I think most of the key areas of CAS planning was addressed. However, I would like to stress that US CAS was and is extremely flexible in comparision to many of the other nations in this scenario. In reference to artillery it is not necessary to "turn it off" during CAS operations. Especially if this was a preplanned air request. Through the use of establishing certain air coordination measures you can easily keep the artillery firing during CAS support. As long as the gun target line is identified and the issue of the artillery max altitude is addressed you can coordinate the airspace management to allow artillery to continue to fire. When I say that you can continue to fire the artillery I mean you can continue to engage other targets in the vicinty of planned CAS Target. Additionally, even during the 80's you would find combat air controllers all the way down to the battalion level. If there was a critical point on the battlefield you could even move a team down to the company level. It should also be noted that all US artillery officers and fire support teams were also trained to provide terminal guidance to inbound CAS. The key problem then, as well as now however is that you must ensure you have the communications ability to talk to the aircraft. It is interesting to note that that Airforce has been very slow on equipping their aircraft with FM communications to allow direct coordination with troops on the ground. If I remember correctly, in the 80's only the A-10 and A-7 had FM communications ability. Lastly, the key issue with air coordination is that the Airforce tends to be time oriented versus "event" oriented. This makes planned CAS a difficult proprosal for the ground commander. The key phrase that we use around our shop is that unfortnately, the enemy gets a vote in every operation. Bottom-line, this sounds like a great game with a lot great potential! Good Luck!

Tbird-3

Trust is good.........control is better!