Global News Wire March 26, 2003
War on Iraq: The Offensive: Day 6
Day 6
Tuesday
NORTHERN IRAQ:
* Blasts hit Iraqi positions towards Kirkuk.
* Mosul comes under two waves of bombardment.
* Attack helicopters and 150 combat troops are transported to Bakrajo airstrip, 15km west of Sulaymaniyah.
BAGHDAD:
* New explosions rock the south of Baghdad early Tuesday afternoon. There is no sign of warplanes or anti-aircraft fire and no air raid sirens sound. CENTRAL IRAQ:
On one road in central Iraq, US forces reach Karbala, about 8Okm south-west of Baghdad; 30 AH-64 Apache attack helicopters battle Republican Guard units. One US helicopter is downed. US forces then pound military targets with howitzers and rockets in all-night artillery barrage. US-led forces were to take up initial positions around the city yesterday and then pause while support lines are strengthened.
* Along another main road, US forces reached al Kut, about 16Okm south-east of the capital.
SOUTHERN IRAQ:
* A big convoy of US Marines finally crosses the Euphrates river and Saddam Canal at the southern city of Nassiriya, resuming an advance toward Baghdad after three days of fighting that cost them 10 dead, 12 wounded and 16 missing.
* US artillery fired towards Samawa, 27Okm south of Baghdad.
* Polish special forces join operations in Unim Qasr. Later, the port town, where US and British forces have faced Iraqi resistance for days, is declared "safe and open". A British commander says he hopes the first ship bringing aid to Iraq Will arrive within 48 hours.
* Armed Iraqis surface in Iraq's southern Rumaila oilfields, forcing the US military to declare it a no-go zone.
* British forces declare Basra a "military target"; they have the city and secured its airport. A second British officer was reported killed overnight near the town of Az Zubayr, close to Basra. Yesterday afternoon, British forces south of Basra block an attempted breakout by up to 50 Iraqi tanks. British light tanks, helped by small helicopter gunships and surveillance helicopters, destroy five to seven Iraqi tanks.
US infantry digital war The US Army's 4th Infantry Division is the most forward-looking unit in the US Army, nicknamed the "Digital Division" because it has been the proving ground for the most advanced high technology weaponry in America's arsenal. The Digital Division's weapons are so modern that they were only fully tested in a combat exercise within the last two years, and signed-off just 16 months ago. One of the new systems, the digital command and control system - awkwardly known in military jargon as "Force 21 Battle Command Brigade and Below", or FBCB2 - is an integral feature of the Ivy Division's M1A2 Abrams tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and Apache longbow attack helicopters.
FBCB2 is a tactical Internet system which works in the same way as the world wide web to integrate all the weapons systems into one great database, giving combatants the ability to see the tentire battleground on a computer screen.
"It allows a soldier to know where he is, where his buddy is, and know where the enemy is," said Leonardo Rodriguez, an Abrams tank driver.
"In the past, we had a lot of 'friendly fire' accidents because we weren't always in sync with each other. We didn't always know where everyone else was, and sometimes mistook one another for the enemy. But with this system, everyone is on the same page. The FBCB2 lets everyone communicate and know who's who."
It is this battlefield awareness that is arguably the most significant change since the 1991 Gulf War. That conflict saw one in four US fatalities and most British casualties caused by friendly fire. FBCB2 should make such accidental attacks virtually impossible.
Another advantage of FBCB2 is a large increase of the "battlefield box" that a commander can control. Since the commander knows where the enemy is, he can operate with smaller groups over a much greater area. Being internetted, tanks in the same brigade can keep track of each other even though they are not in visual contact, and the groups can mass their fires to greater destructive effect against an enemy. During a 14-day exercise in April 2001 the 4th Infantry Division's troops, tanks and helicopters doubled the box they controlled to just over 1400 sq km.
The network, which is driven by the powerful Linux operating system" relies on a fortified nternet server located some 19km behind the front line. Each tank or helicopter is identified by a unique IP (internet protocol) address which pinpoints its exact position within the box. Voice communication - considered prone to cross talk in the fog of war has also been replaced by chat-room-style instant messaging.
With Britain providing the only other substantial ground force in the Gulf, the three UK brigades are set to to receive 50 FBCB2 systems. The tanks of the 7th Armoured Brigade, the "Desert Rats", are expected to receive the bulk of the equipment with others going to vehicles in the 1 (UK) Armoured Division HQ and Assault Brigade.
Sources: Jane's Defence Weekly, GlobalSecurity.org
US forces first for Internet war
An $ 800 million battlefield "tactical Internet" system known as FBCB2 takes data collected from thousands of Global Positioning Satellite sensors aboard vehicles and aircraft and integrates them with military intelligence from aerial spycraft, roving special forces and CIA agents.
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