War Is Boring

Combat Aircraft: The “New” Close Air Support

31.01.10

Categorie: Afghanistan, Air, David Axe |
Tags: Afghanistan, Air Force

A-10s in Afghanistan. Photo by David Axe.

by DAVID AXE

It was the bloodiest battle for U.S. forces in Afghanistan in more than a year. On the morning of October 3, 2009, reportedly hundreds of Taliban fighters assaulted a combined American and Afghan outpost in Kamdesh, in eastern Afghanistan on the border with Pakistan. In six hours of furious fighting, the Taliban managed to briefly penetrate the base’s outer defenses. Ultimately, superior U.S. training and firepower won the day. As the sun fell over the ruined outpost, eight Americans, three Afghan soldiers and as many as 100 Taliban lay dead.

U.S. Air Force fighters flying from Bagram air base, outside Kabul, played a big part in repelling the attack. The 335th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, deployed to Bagram from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, in North Carolina, had two Boeing F-15E Strike Eagles airborne when the fighting broke out. Those two aircraft quickly diverted to support the ground troops, while four more F-15Es launched to join them.

The Kamdesh fighting “would have been so much worse” if not for the Air Force’s efforts, said one Air Force officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The same officer complained that the Air Force never fully claimed credit for its role in the battle. But the absence of boastful press releases reflects changing attitudes towards the still-vital practice of Close Air Support (CAS). A “softer” NATO counter-insurgency strategy and new, more precise technology has forced CAS to recede into the background.

Eyes in the Sky
“I would estimate 90 to 95 percent of our missions on any given day are spent primarily being a manned intelligence platform,” said Capt. Jerimy Maclellan, a pilot with the 335th. “We show up with bombs if required, but it’s tertiary.” Targeting pods like the Strike Eagle’s Sniper represent the fighter fleet’s most important weapon system. “My challenge is to put the aircraft in such a place where my back-seater can focus the sensors to provide that support,” Maclellan said.

The emphasis on intelligence over ordnance resulted from what NATO perceived as an over-reliance on firepower earlier in the conflict — and the commensurate civilian casualties resulting from that approach. In 2006, 116 Afghan civilians died accidentally in NATO air strikes, according to Human Rights Watch, a New York-based nonprofit organization. As the pace of air operations accelerated in 2007, 321 civilians died in air attacks, the group reported. “Mistakes by the US and NATO have dramatically decreased public support for the Afghan government and the presence of international forces providing security to Afghans,” said Human Rights Watch official Brad Adams.

The new top NATO commander, U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal, agreed with that assessment. “Air power contains the seeds of our own destruction. A guy with a long-barrel rifle runs into a compound, and we drop a 500-pound bomb on it?” McChrystal told his senior officers, according to The New York Times. “If we use air power irresponsibly, we can lose this fight,” McChrystal reportedly added.

For the U.S. Air Force, new, stricter rules of engagement and gentler mindset have had a cultural effect. Everyone from the top brass down to junior fighter pilots has become more reluctant to talk about the increasingly infrequent occasions when CAS practitioners are actually cleared to fire weapons. And they’ve been forced to find new ways to contribute to the fight.

Show of Force
To continue supporting the ground troops even in situations where the use of major ordnance is prohibited, fighter pilots have turned to two surprising tactics: the unarmed “show of force,” and traditional gun strafing.

F-16C pilot 1st Lt. Michael Pacini, from the 421st Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, deployed to Bagram from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, described using a low-level pass to literally scare away Taliban fighters who had just detonated an Improvised Explosive Device. “An IED went off where I was watching — a whole platoon was hit,” Pacini said. “I went down … to let the bad guys know we’re here, now stop what you’re doing or we’re going to kill you. Our show of presence made them leave.”

New technology has helped enable this more restrained, more precise form of air power. U.S. squadrons use a new type of bomb fuse that delays the explosion a few milliseconds longer than usual, allowing the weapon to bury itself deeper in the ground and thus limiting its blast radius. The proliferation of datalink-equipped targeting pods keeps fighters pilots in closer contact with Joint Terminal Air Controllers on the ground. A JTAC “speaks Army as well as Air Force,” said Lt. Col. Mike Millen, commander of the 354th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, an A-10 unit from Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska, deployed to Kandahar. Using the latest model of the Remotely Operated Video-Enhanced Receiver terminal, a JTAC can view a live video feed from a fighter’s targeting pods, helping him guide the fighter onto the right target.

However necessary and justified, the new CAS rules make a pilot’s job harder. Even with a JTAC’s help, it can be tough to positively identify an enemy. And with bullets flying and NATO troops in danger, as was the case in Kamdesh in September, the pressure is on to fix the Taliban and take action. “It’s very difficult to break out the bad guys, the insurgents, and try to separate them from local Afghanis and try to prosecute attacks,” Millen said. “Every building looks basically the same.”

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