By Adam J. Hebert, Senior Editor

The Air Force wants to be able to strike mobile and emerging targets in fewer than 10 minutes so

that such targets will have no sanctuary from US airpower. Cutting the time needed to strike

such targets, known as time critical or time sensitive targets, has been one of Chief of Staff Gen. John P.

Jumper’s top priorities. It factored into the decisions to arm Predator unmanned aerial vehicles with Army

Hellfire missiles and to establish a high-level warfighting integration office at the Pentagon. Three years

ago, while still commander of Air Combat Command, Jumper raised the bar for destruction of emerging

targets when he said, "I would challenge us to do it in single-digit minutes." The need to act quickly is proven

and may be growing. In the Persian Gulf War, Air Force and Navy pilots were frustrated in attempts to destroy mobile Scud

launchers before the vehicles fired their missiles. US aircraft had an extremely small window of opportunity

to destroy the missiles on the ground, and allied aircraft were unable to take advantage of that limited

opening. The time it took to locate the launchers simply exceeded the time it took for the Iraqis to

“shoot and scoot.” This failure stood in stark contrast to the success US aircraft had in destroying fixed targets

with new precision weapons. In the years since, the Air Force’s arsenal of laser- and satellite-guided

weapons has expanded, making fixed targets highly vulnerable. Consequently, adversaries have taken a

page from Saddam Hussein’s Gulf War playbook and attempted to conceal targets or keep them on the move,

under the assumption that anything in the open is vulnerable. When not in action, Serb tanks hid under trees

during Operation Allied Force in Serbia, and al Qaeda and Taliban forces hid in caves during Operation

Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. Because enemies have learned to limit the amount of time they and

their weapons are in sight and thus vulnerable, these mobile targets require a different approach. The Air

Force must compress its six-stage target cycle of Find, Fix, Track, Target, Engage, and Assess, also known

as F2T2EA, or, more simply, the "kill chain". The service has been working to field systems and techniques

that yield a vast improvement in effectiveness. Time can be cut from each of the six stages in the kill chain, as well as

from the "seams" between stages.

Gains in Precision Engagement

Through recent operations, USAF has gained experience in this area. Officials say there have been many

successful attacks on time sensitive targets during Operations Northern and Southern Watch over Iraq, Allied

Force over Serbia and Kosovo, and Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. Though attacking such targets is

not easy, those who claim it’s impossible "would be pretty shortsighted," said Maj. Gen. Daniel P.

Leaf, USAF director of operational capability requirements. He acknowledged that emerging targets are "a challenge at night

and ... even more of a challenge when there is significant weather between you and the target". However, the

proliferation of satellite-guided Joint Direct Attack Munitions and other all-weather precision munitions means such targets are no longer

vulnerable only in daylight. Precision weapons are much more common today than they were in 1991, allowing a greater number of

aircraft to hit targets that require exact placement. JDAM, the Air Force’s current weapon of choice, did not exist during the Gulf War

and could be used only with the B-2 stealth bomber during Operation Allied Force in 1999. Today, JDAMs are available to a wider range of

combat aircraft and have been shown in experiments to be capable of destroying targets on the move.

Officials report that USAF needs to improve JDAMs and other coordinate-seeking weapons that use Global Positioning System satellites

for guidance. Because GPS-guided weapons need precise aim points for accuracy, the processing times can be too long for the bombs to be of

use against fleeting targets.

Can GPS-aided weapons hit time critical targets in fewer than 10 minutes? "Absolutely", Leaf said. "What’skey to that is eliminating time that is

administrative in nature."

Machine to Machine

Leaf noted, "All that administrative data that we can [transmit from] machine to machine leaves the human in the loop free to do much more

important things that the machines can’t do - like not get shot". He called a high-quality data link "an exquisite efficiency". It is a central feature

in compression of the kill chain. USAF has had a long-term plan to equip all its combat aircraft with a secure data link system that provides

command and control information via a data communications network. Officials say it’s expensive to install and integrate the systems, but it will

produce dramatic operational benefits:

Increased target processing speed.

Improved accuracy.

Greater situational awareness.

Reduced voice communications.

Even the rudimentary data link currently aboard Block 40 F-16s at Aviano AB, Italy, shows the marked advantages that such systems can

offer, said Leaf, who commanded the 31st Fighter Wing at Aviano during Allied Force. Shortly after Allied Force, Leaf participated in two training flights "

one with RAF Harriers and the other with F-16s bearing an early data link system" that highlight the difference. The RAF pilots were qualified,

combat-experienced pilots in a capable weapons system, explained Leaf. However, he said, the training scenario, which called for putting

bombs on an emerging target, was a “laborious process.” Directing the pilots to the target required step-by-step communication.

Leaf said the directions went like this: “Do you see this bridge or this building? Now move so many meters south.” It took the RAF pilots about

10 minutes just to acquire the target. The F-16 training flight featured a similar scenario, but it had a very different result. Leaf said the F-16s

had a rudimentary data link that pro-vided the needed basics to engage the target, including heading and distance, elevation, description, and

location. It took the F-16 pilots “less than a minute” to put “eyes on target” and attack, said Leaf.

The RAF pilots had to work down from “big to little,” while the F-16 pilots knew the exact information needed to begin their attack, he explained

That difference—10 minutes vs. one minute—was a huge improvement, observed Leaf.

...

Command and Control Arrangements for the Attack of Time-Sensitive Targets

by

Robert P. Haffa, Jr. and Jasper Welch

Over the last decade and a half, the U.S. military has increasingly focused on improving its ability to deal with targets for which timeliness

of attack is a key objective. In general, these targets are called "time-sensitive targets". To be sure, joint airpower has prosecuted missions

for which timeliness has always been a component, including close air support, battlefield interdiction and offensive counter-air missions.

But there are new threats emerging, and new developments in producing tools to address them. The new threats derive from terrorists and

non-state actors: the war on terrorism is predominantly a war on time-sensitive targets.

Time-sensitive targets need not be mobile, e.g., a building temporarily occupied by a terrorist combat

team. If the number of time-sensitive targets grows, then the effort to service them will necessarily

impinge upon the main, pre-planned air campaign. Indeed, lots of friction will be created

even for small amounts of diversion. This paper takes no presumptive stand with respect to how

much diversion is too much, for that judgment will truly depend upon the combat situation and

the relative urgency of prosecuting the preplanned target list. The paper will identify a

number of detailed issues associated with making an informed judgment and offer some solutions

that aim to mitigate the friction.

The new developments include new forms of neutralizing targets, e.g., kinetic kill using precision

weapons and non-kinetic kill using information operations, and new forms of sensors, e.g.,

Joint STARS and Global Hawk equipped with high-resolution radars providing persistent,

detailed coverage of mobile ground targets over wide areas. The new tools also include information

networks that speed data to decision makers, allowing them to rapidly assess the situation and

direct appropriate actions.

...