Aviation Week & Space Technology January 27, 2003
Deployment of New Technology Continues
By DAVID A. FULGHUM, ROBERT WALL
The flow of exotic, advanced technologies out of U.S. workshops continues to ramp up in anticipation of conflict with Iraq.
Planners also are taking steps to ensure that critical information gathered by satellites and other intelligence assets is fed immediately to tactical commanders, rather than risk having it missed by national intelligence agencies.
For the past few months, the Air Force has had cryptologists and other specialists at the National Security Agency to monitor signals intelligence as it is collected to immediately judge its tactical relevance, said Lt. Gen. Bruce Carlson, commander of 8th Air Force, which is in charge of USAF information operations. Any critical information can then be shared immediately, via a secure chat room, with counterparts at the Combined Air Operations Center in the Middle East. USAF is looking to embed representatives in the National Imagery and Mapping Agency and National Reconnaissance Office. Ronald Sega, the Defense Dept.'s director of defense research and engineering, said efforts are underway to satisfy the services' demand to rapidly field new technologies, primarily airborne and ground robotic systems, improved communications and high-power microwave (HPM) devices.
To that end, Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles are expected to deploy as early as mid-February. The high-altitude UAV will likely return to the United Arab Emirates. It will be equipped with a payload that combines ground and maritime moving target surveillance as well as a signals intelligence (sigint) capability. Also scheduled to move soon are a number of smaller, unmanned aircraft that have been newly fitted with advanced sigint systems. These aircraft would penetrate Iraqi air defenses well before any conflict starts to flesh out the vital electronic order of battle. The EOB identifies what each electronic transmitter does and where it is located, and it is a critical planning tool for any plan to take apart Iraq's integrated system of anti-aircraft radars, missiles and guns in addition to the national command and control structure.
Those with insight into Pentagon war planning say any conflict with Iraq would also see existing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft carry an impressive array of new sensors designed to find stashes of chemical, biological and nuclear materials that either have been or could be turned into weapons.
''There are a lot of sensors that have been designed to look for WMD [weapons of mass destruction] products,'' the Navy official said. ''Some will work, some won't. Nor are there any firm techniques or tactics [for how to use some of them]. Some of it will be a very touchy-feely-type operation. You'll probably see robotic ground crawlers, some of them delivered by air, that will look for things and take soil samples.''
U.S. intelligence officials apparently know where some of the WMD sites are, but many remain undetected. ''It's a large country, and we have very good evidence that they practice aggressive denial and deception techniques,'' said Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in an interview last week. ''They've gone to extraordinary lengths to hide and cover up any of the chemical and biological or nuclear programs and the material. We have good intelligence on some of it, but not all.''
Also among the options are HPM weapons that fire large spikes of energy into headquarters and communications centers to scramble computer memories and damage electronic components. HPM also appears to be the weapon of choice for freezing Iraq's ability to store or deploy chemical and biological agents. ''I can't say much about [readying HPM weapons for use in Iraq],'' Sega said. ''We've worked in high-power microwave areas and continue [to improve it] in terms of power output.''
Information operations (IO) are slated to take a prominent position, as well. Pentagon officials note they have readied a host of new tools they could employ. Moreover, IO specialists are part of the theater's combined air operations center to ensure that commanders are aware of the new capabilities at their disposal.
Pentagon officials also are watching to see how commanders deal with the much improved communications they now have. ''This is the first time I have ever seen the command institutions have enough bandwidth to be able to collaboratively get data to almost anywhere they choose,'' said John Stenbit, the assistant secretary for command, control and communications. Nonetheless, Stenbit expects problems in using the information, noting that the military has ''abysmally failed'' in the past when trying to exploit new communications.
Meanwhile, manpower in the Middle East continues to grow. ''It's not slowing down,'' said a senior U.S. Air Force official. ''[The Bush administration's] not going to keep those troops there all summer. There's going to be a big push after Jan. 27 for a Security Council vote [to initiate action against Saddam Hussein]. If we start pulling troops back to allow for months of additional inspections, it will appear to the world that there was a confrontation and the U.S. blinked first. The White House is not going to let that happen.''
However, Myers said that hot weather will not stop operations and that the U.S. is prepared to sustain its expanding forces in the Middle East ''for some time -- several months.'' One way to ameliorate the effects of the region's ''brutally hot'' summer temperatures is to fight at night. URL: http://www.aviationnow.com
GRAPHIC: Table, Photograph: UAVs are expected to blanket Iraq gathering electronic intelligence. However, the low fliers may be vulnerable to mobile air defense systems such as the SA-6. GLOBAL SECURITY.ORG
Copyright © 2003, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
