The conflict in Afghanistan has seen the operational debut of various US Air Force systems and innovative targeting tactics, as the near two-month-long air campaign shifts to supporting military personnel on the ground.
According to USAF chief of staff Gen John Jumper, the use of laser designation systems has been widened to include for the first time the Northrop Grumman/Israel Aircraft Industries Litening II targeting pod mounted on Lockheed Martin F-16C/D fighters.
The air force has been fast-tracking a number of programmes, including equipping its BoeingB-52Hs with the Link 16 datalink to update the bomber with targeting information en route from Diego Garcia to Afghanistan.
The air force has also acknowledged the use of unmanned air vehicles (UAVs), thought to be the General Atomics RQ-1 Predator, to laser-designate targets. Predator has also been employed in conjunction with the Lockheed Martin AC-130 Spectre, providing the gunship with live video-feed and target-referencing. In addition the UAV has been armed with Lockheed Martin AGM-114 Hellfires, but Jumper says the system is limited by the relatively low speed of Predator and its ability to carry only two anti-tank missiles.
Complementing Predator is the higher-flying Northrop Grumman RQ-4A Global Hawk which has begun flying over Afghanistan, though, so far, with "a very limited time on station," according to US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Global Hawk, which is not operational, is equipped with a synthetic aperture radar and electro-optical and infrared sensor package. It can cover a wide area of territory, but there is not yet the infrastructure in place to relay real-time data needed for targeting.
Another system recently deployed is the Northrop Grumman E-8C Joint STARS, reportedly instrumental in detecting a Taliban armoured column heading towards the US Marine Corps' newly established forward operating base south-west of Kandahar.
The force was destroyed by US Navy Grumman F-14 Tomcats, supported by two marine BellAH-1W SuperCobra helicopters operating from the new base.
Source: Flight International
