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SECTION XVIII

PLANNING LESSON LEARNED: CLOSE AIR SUPPORT AND ARMY AVIATION REQUIRE WELL-DESIGNED CONTROL MEASURES

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CAS and Army aviation are usually planned and integrated at brigade-level due to the intensity of the TF fight. Both Army aviation and tactical aircraft should operate within maneuver control measures (air corridors, battle positions, boundaries, etc.) and standard fire support coordination measures. Airspace Coordination measures should be used to integrate CAS with other indirect fire assets.

An effective technique for minimizing the risk to friendly air is for the brigade FSE to establish ingress and egress routes to get aircraft into the target area, and establish or direct a subordinate TF FSE to establish airspace coordination measures in the target area. The purpose of an airspace coordinating measure is to deconflict the airspace over the target area, thus minimizing the risk to friendly aircraft from each other, and/or indirect fires of the field artillery and mortars. Authority to implement and approve exceptions to an Airspace Coordination Area must be explicitly stated in either orders or SOPs.

Effective Airspace coordinating measures meet eight requirements:

• They are easily identifiable from the air.

• They are large enough to give aircraft room to maneuver.

• They give aircraft access to the target area from the initial point.

• They permit aircraft to engage targets with the ordnance they have on board.

• They include terrain that masks aircraft from hostile air defense systems.

• They separate aircraft from friendly surface fires in time or space.

• They permit surface systems to suppress enemy air defenses and mark targets.

• They are defined in terms that can be briefed quickly to both pilots and surface systems.

FM 6-20-40 and FM 6-20-50 provide detailed discussion of four separation plans used to establish informal an ACA.

Although the majority of CAS and Army aviation missions will be planned and coordinated at the brigade level mission execution authority must be passed to the FSO, Commander, or agency best capable of controlling target attack.

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Table of Contents
Section XVII: FOs and FSOs Must Know Maneuver Boundaries and Other Control Measures
Section XIX: Know and Report the Location of the Maneuver Force