The aviators of Carrier Air Wing Three—just back from the
Persian Gulf—found that, when it comes to flying close-air
support missions, there is no substitute to spending time on the
ground.
During a six-month deployment consumed by long hours flying over
Iraq, fighter pilots who typically stay airborne until they land
back on the carrier deck decided that, in this conflict, they needed
to interact more closely with U.S. soldiers and Marines on the ground,
said Navy Capt. Patrick F. Rainey, air wing commander.
Although they were not threatened by enemy surface-to-air missiles,
the pilots had to contend with a much-dreaded urban landscape, where
friends and foes mix together. The cluttered environment of cities
like Fallujah and Mosul can be nightmarish for a pilot trying to
pinpoint small groups of insurgents scurrying in and out of buildings,
and darting down dark alleys.
“Urban close-air support is an extremely difficult mission,”
Rainey said in a telephone interview from the USS Truman as it returned
to the United States.
Rainey concluded that the best way to tackle the problem was to
spend time on the ground, face-to-face with the “joint tactical
air controllers,” whose job is to spot a target and guide
the pilots to it. These JTAC teams often are composed of Marines,
Army soldiers or Air Force special operations troops.
While supporting Army troops in Mosul, for example, aviators familiarized
themselves with the tactics and patrol routes of the Stryker brigade
of the Army’s 25th Infantry Division. They also figured out
techniques to recognize friendly vehicles, based on their physical
characteristics and tactical maneuvers.
“We became fairly confident, within a matter of weeks, that
we knew where their forward-operating bases were, their patrol routes
… We could very easily identify their Stryker vehicles on
the ground, even in the urban environment in Mosul,” Rainey
said. “We went to great lengths to ensure we would not drop
weapons on friendly forces.”
Despite improvements in sensor technologies and precision weapons,
there is no easy way to fight, from the air, a dispersed enemy that
blends with civilians. “That was our most difficult challenge—to
find the people on the ground they asked us to look at,” he
added.
Strike aviation duties in Iraq also come with a lot of “dead
time” flying over an area, waiting in case a call comes in
from the ground for air support. But to make better use of those
hours, the pilots under Rainey’s command engaged in training
drills with the JTACs.
“While peacekeeping and nation-building are going on, we
are also training,” said Rainey. “We don’t just
fly around Iraq for hours. We get training out of it.”
On-the-job training helps make up for shortfalls in pre-combat
exercises, Rainey noted. “We felt we could have done more
preparation back in the United States in urban close-air support.”
The experience flying over Iraq also reinforced the importance of
having the right type of munitions and targeting sensors, he said.
Patience can be a great asset, Rainey explained. “It takes
a lot of time to do urban close-air support … When we left
the theater, we knew the cities in and out.”
A key technology is the so-called fourth-generation targeting pod,
which allows pilots to spot targets at night. Most aircraft in Carrier
Air Wing Three, however, still are equipped with older systems that
don’t work at night, Rainey said.
The weapons-of-choice were the 500-pound joint direct attack munitions,
also known as GBU-38, he said. Unlike the larger versions of the
JDAM, the GBU-38 causes less “collateral damage,” Rainey
said. “We arrived in theater with no training on the 500-pound
bomb. It had just been released to the Navy.” After a short
time, they were dropping two to three a week.
A more desirable alternative to the GBU-38 would be a laser-guided
version. The current JDAM is programmed with a target’s Global
Positioning System coordinates, making the weapon invaluable in
bad weather. In clear weather conditions, however, pilots prefer
laser-guided munitions, which home in on targets that are illuminated
by a ground-based laser and tend to be more precise. Rainey said
he hopes to see a laser-guided 500-pound JDAM in the inventory one
day.
“I see the relevance of that weapon in a small class,”
he noted. The JDAM manufacturer, the Boeing Co., has designed a
laser-guided version, but the technology is only in the early stages
of development. A company spokesman said a 500-pound laser JDAM
could be in production as early as fiscal year 2006.
During its October through March deployment, Carrier Air Wing Three
flew 2,577 sorties. The wing’s 70 aircraft include four strike-fighter
squadrons (three Navy and one Marine), an S-3 Viking squadron, an
E-2 Hawkeye early-warning aircraft squadron, an electronic-warfare
EA-6B squadron and a helicopter squadron.
Upon its return, the air wing was scheduled to take a week off
and then go back to flying, in preparation for a possible deployment
this summer, Rainey said. Under the Navy’s new readiness posture,
called “fleet response plan,” units are expected to
be on call, prepared to take off on short notice. “I have
a requirement to keep our readiness levels as high as they are right
now,” said Rainey.
The aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman led a battle group that
included the USS Barry (DDG 52), USS Monterey (CG 61), USNS Arctic
(T-AOE 8) and USS Albuquerque (SSN 706).