Florida Today (Brevard County, FL) March 20, 2003
Military employing new; improved weapons
Stealth aircraft, smart bombs aim to limit casualties
By John McCarthy
This battle with Iraq will feature an array of high-tech weapons not seen during the 1991 Gulf War.
Military planners hope improved weapons combined with better surveillance and communication systems will give the average foot soldier more "lethality" and information than at any other time in history. The ultimate goal: Cut down causalities, both among Americans and Iraqis, and end the war as quickly as possible.
The most notable is the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber. While the F-117 stealth fighter was one of the stars of the Persian Gulf War, the first B-2 wasn't delivered to the Air Force until 1993. It saw its first combat in Kosovo in 1999.
Like the B-52 and the B-1 bombers, the B-2 can carry a variety of nuclear and conventional weapons. But the Spirit can carry much greater payloads than either of the other two bombers. During Kosovo, for instance, the B-2 flew only about 50 of the 30,000 missions, but delivered more than 10 percent of the bombs.
The plane's stealth capabilities -- which make it hard to track by radar or infrared sensors -- make it less vulnerable to such things as surface-to-air missiles.
But until recently, the B-2 also had a significant drawback. Because its stealth capabilities are hindered by heat, humidity and water, the planes had to return to their home base in Missouri following each mission.
New portable hangars now allow the aircraft to be "forward- deployed" to air bases in the Middle East to be closer to the action. Qatar has been cited as a possible B-2 base for an attack on Iraq.
The Navy, too, has added a new aircraft to its armada. The "Super Hornet" is a significant upgrade of the F/A-18 Hornet, capable of carrying more bombs and dropping them more accurately.
And all the aircraft flying bombing missions over Iraq will carry the latest generation of "smart bombs." Such guided bombs were first seen in large-scale use during Desert Storm. But those bombs were laser-guided, requiring a laser to be pointed at the target from either an aircraft or ground troops.
Since the lasers could not penetrate cloud cover, the bombs could only be used in fair weather. Even battlefield smoke could degrade the bomb's abilities to locate and hit targets.
Guided bombs
The newer generation of bombs now being used are guided by global-positioning satellites. Before launching, a GPS bomb is programmed to hit a certain latitude/longitude coordinate.
After being dropped in the vicinity, the bomb's guidance computer constantly monitors its position by beaming radio waves to the satellites. If the bomb isn't on the proper track, the computer can adjust its flight path.
Because cloud cover doesn't block radio waves, GPS bombs can be used in all weather conditions
GPS bombs aren't perfect, though. They are only accurate to within 35 to 50 feet. That's plenty accurate for many targets, but might not destroy a heavily armored one.
The brains of satellite-guided bombs for the Air Force and the Navy is a guidance tail kit attached to conventional "dumb bombs."
At $20,000 each, the Joint Direct Attack Munition, or J-DAM, kits are much cheaper than laser-guided bombs. The bombs saw limited action during Kosovo, but were more widely used in Afghanistan.
Unmanned drones
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, also known as UAVs or drones, will very likely play a significant role in the war with Iraq. Predator and Global Hawk drones likely will be used to scour the countryside in search of Scud missile launchers.
Some versions of the Predator are now equipped with missiles capable of attacking ground targets. "That's a dramatic step forward," said Patrick Garrett, an associate analyst with GlobalSecurity.org.
Ground troops also have improved weaponry. Most notable is the M1A2 Abrams tank. The M1A2 is a significantly upgraded version the M1A1 that was used in the Gulf War.
The newer versions have increased firepower and protective armor. Some have been further equipped with a "Systems Enhancement Package" that allows tank commanders to better receive the latest intelligence reports as well as giving them a better view of the battlefield through improved imaging systems.
"They will know exactly what is going on and in nearly real time," Garrett said. "That's unprecedented."
Iraq could also be the combat debut of the Army's Stryker combat infantry vehicle. Part Humvee, part tank, the Stryker can carry 11 soldiers up to 300 miles at speeds as high as 60 mph. It is capable of carrying a variety of weapons including .50 caliber machine guns and 105 mm cannon.
One drawback, though, is lack of an effective air-conditioning system, which could hamper its usefulness in desert fighting.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has hinted some weapon systems still under development could be rushed into service in Iraq, **especially if any urban conflict in Baghdad does not end quickly.
"I've heard rumors, and that's all they are, rumors, that the Pentagon has 'stuff' that they'll use," said Charles Pena, director of defense studies at the Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
Among the "stuff" being discussed are such things as "mini-drones" capable of flying inside building and relaying video to nearby troops and small reconnaissance robots that could be sent down streets and alleys ahead of troops.
Electronic bomb
The one possible new weapon system that has gotten the most attention is the "E-bomb." The E-bomb could be used to disable Iraqi command-and-control systems without killing anyone or destroying a single building.
Various published reports about the weapon describe it as a Tomahawk cruise missile with a special warhead. Rather than exploding when it reaches its target, it releases a high-energy pulse that would fry any nearby electronic devices such as radar or radio transmitters, much like a lightning bolt traveling through power lines can disable TV sets and computers.
The fact that the E-bomb destroys only electronic gear with damaging buildings or hurting people has two benefits. One, it limits civilian casualties, a big concern since the administration is billing the war as the "liberation" of Iraq rather than an invasion of the country.
And since the United States will almost certainly be involved in the long-term rebuilding of Iraq, such weapons lower the eventual cost of reconstruction.
"If you do this kind of strike, no one is going to die, but they are still combat-ineffective," Garrett said.
Much of the military's improvements have been in things other than weapons, such as command-and-control systems. "The real change is not in things that go bang and blow up," Pena said.
Sharing data
Everyone from the senior commanders down to infantry troops will have much better information about what is actually happening in battle areas, and they will get the information much more quickly, sometimes in real time.
That's a big improvement from the first Gulf War. The various branches of the military, as well as the CIA, collected incredible amounts of intelligence during that war. But no effective mechanisms were in place to share the information with other services, or with the troops in combat.
Now the U.S. troops in the area will operate under what is effectively its own intranet, allowing the rapid dissemination of information to the people who need it most.
The military hopes the rapid dispersal of information to the troops will for the first time in history lift the "fog of war" from an army -- the fog of uncertainty that makes the troops less effective, yet at the same time increases deaths from friendly fire.
But all the new technology has yet to be tested under the fog of war. One worry, Garrett said, is that the military may lack the "bandwidth" to get all the information to the troops.
New threats
One wild card exists that could change how any other weapons are used: chemical or biological weapons.
The military has improved its "NBC" -- nuclear, biological and chemical -- gear since the first Gulf War. But even with the improvements, they still hamper troops ability to fight, especially in the desert heat. **
GRAPHIC: Symetrics photo; Symetrics Industries Inc. of Melbourne provides Air Force aircraft with devices that launch pieces of metal to decoy radar-guided missiles and flares, such as these raining from a C-17 cargo plane. Note: This is the text from the Palm Bay and Sebastian River editions. The story was shorter on page A07 in the Brevard, Final editions. Text between the double asterisks did not run in the Brevard, Final editions.
Copyright © 2003, Florida Today (Brevard County, FL)
