[iwar] [fc:Instantaneous.Attack.Capability.Near.For.U.S.]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2002-01-07 17:01:13


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Date: Mon, 7 Jan 2002 17:01:13 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [iwar] [fc:Instantaneous.Attack.Capability.Near.For.U.S.]
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Defense News
January 7-13, 2001
Instantaneous Attack Capability Near For U.S.
Continuous Surveillance Gives Leaders, Pilots Immediate Picture 
By Frank Tiboni, Washington
Afghanistan's most important military lesson is that the United States can
monitor the battlefield for long periods of time, sending a continuous flow
of information to air, space and ground weapon systems, say senior Pentagon
officials.
For the first time in combat, live imagery flew from Predator unmanned
aerial vehicles (UAVs) to U.S. F-16 fighters, AC-130 gunships and F/A-18
strike fighters, allowing them to attack Taliban and al-Qaeda targets almost
immediately. 
Meanwhile, E-8, RC-135 and E-3 surveillance aircraft and the developmental
Global Hawk UAV continued to scrutinize the battlefield, constantly updating
the picture for searchers, troops and decision-makers.
The Pentagon's chief information officer calls this persistent ISR -
intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance - and hails it as a
significant step forward in the Pentagon's information gathering
capabilities. 
"We are taking what is, in effect, television pictures and staring at the
same place and deciding where to move the camera based on what we see," John
Stenbit, assistant secretary of defense, command, control, communications
and intelligence, told Defense News Dec. 18. 
Speeding Up the Flow
The military services' ability to quickly gather and distribute information
has come far in the past decade, officials say. During the 1991 Persian Gulf
War, it took hours to get a Pioneer UAV over an area of interest, and hours,
even days, more to get the information to commanders and troops, Stenbit
said. 
By 1999's Operation Allied Force in Kosovo, the Pentagon had added the
Hunter and Predator UAVs, but the information still was not flowing quickly
to those who needed it, he said. Although UAVs provided continuous coverage
of critical targets in Kosovo, the U.S. military recognized that UAV
operations needed to be better integrated into overall campaign plans,
according to a January 2000 report to Congress, "Kosovo/Allied Force After
Action Report." 
Pentagon analysts listed some of the problems that needed fixing:
streamlining the targeting process; increasing the number of ISR assets in a
theater; and rapidly finding and destroying mobile targets in poor weather
and dense foliage.
"Persistent ISR is letting us find a target in Afghanistan, combine it with
a weapon, shoot a weapon and watch what happens," said Stenbit. "If we see
that they try to escape in that truck, we can then shoot that truck."
Sending live video from UAV sensors to fighter cockpits is one of the
biggest recent changes in the way the U.S. fights its wars, said an industry
intelligence analyst.
"There were regular complaints in the Gulf War of imagery not moving. In
some cases, imagery was not getting in the hands of our military leaders.
And if it was, it was days old. Whatever was wrong has been corrected in
large part," Steven Aftergood, a senior research intelligence analyst for
the Washington-based watchdog Federation of American Scientists, told
Defense News Jan. 4.
The new UAVs' ability to loiter for hours over a battlefield is the main
reason this became possible, said retired Air Force Gen. Richard Hawley,
former commander of Air Combat Command.
"Persistent ISR is a concept that has arisen solely because of the ability
of a UAV to stay on station for very long periods of time," Hawley told
Defense News Jan. 4.
Several years after Kosovo, Air Force Secretary James Roche says Operation
Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan is proving that persistent ISR is moving the
U.S. military a step closer to its long-sought goal of time-critical
targeting.
"We are heading toward a goal of instantaneous attack. I think we're almost
there," said Roche in a Dec. 21 interview. "Once the commander says that
it's a legitimate target, we want to be able to attack now. Not three hours
from now."
Roche praised the flexibility of operation commander Army Gen. Tommy Franks,
commander in chief of U.S. Central Command, MacDill Air Force Base, Fla.,
who allowed the Air Force to experiment with its young weapon systems. 
"We are now learning an enormous amount by having all these systems in
there," Roche said. 
Persistent ISR is not just about finding and engaging targets quickly. It is
also about receiving a constant picture of a region in order to make sure
troops know where to camp and how the enemy is arranged, said an Air Force
official. 
"The only way to make sure you didn't miss anything is to have an eyeball on
it all the time," the official said.
Even more important is making it easier for personnel to decipher what it
all means.
"The real key to persistent ISR is assessing the battlefield before the
fight begins," a congressional analyst told Defense News Jan. 3. 
The Air Force will use these lessons to try and develop a multisensor
command-and-control system within the decade, Roche said. The system would
tie together manned and unmanned sensors in the air, on the ground and in
space, allowing it to focus on an area with pinpoint accuracy continuously
in all weather conditions, he said.
"We're using up enormous bandwidth," said Roche. "If we're going to try to
do 24-7, we need a portfolio of sensors because no one [sensor] is going to
do it," Roche said.
Gail Kaufman contributed to this report.

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