Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC
Although Operation Allied Force is considered "an overwhelming success" by US military leaders, the US Air Force continues to study the lessons learned in the Kosovo operations to refine its future plans and programmes.
These lessons include the need for specific enhancements to precision strike, electronic warfare and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities. Asset management is also an issue as over 300 USAF aircraft were involved in last year's conflict, helping NATO deliver 23,000 bombs and missiles and conduct 38,000 sorties during 78 days of air strikes that were often hampered by poor weather.
US defence secretary William Cohen says the Department of Defense "has instituted a course of action to ensure the lessons of this operation are not lost". USAF chief of staff Gen Michael Ryan says "it is important to analyse the air war carefully in order to learn from our experiences and decide how the air force can best organise, train, and equip to meet future US security requirements".
The USAF is putting together a detailed analysis of the military operation. The final report will not be finished until late this year, but USAF officials say "it is already apparent that Operation Allied Force was a highly successful airpower-only military operation. Given the circumstances and restraints, senior political and military leaders believed it was the right thing to do. And aerospace power worked."
Ryan says the air war experience has targeted training needs. "The war served as a signpost to the future training needs of the Expeditionary Aerospace Force [EAF], as integrated joint and multinational aerospace operations become the nation's future standard," he adds.
Col Charles Hale, who helped staff USAF Air Combat Command's Kosovo debrief, also believes that training needs to be enhanced. "We need to train the way we fight. We need to increase night operations and joint training with our allies, including 'Flag' and large force exercises. Sometimes training slides down the list of priorities in a resource-constrained environment. We must keep a balance. We must not lose our edge on training."
Global reach
Rapid global mobility, for example, proved its value as airlift, aerial refuelling and operational support aircraft conducted the massive movement of personnel and equipment to Europe. Nearly 12,000 sorties were needed to move 56,000 military personnel and 99,000t of material. During almost 7,000 sorties, the tankers offloaded around 162,000t of fuel. Seven hundred tanker missions conducted by Boeing KC-135s and McDonnell Douglas KC-10s were required to refuel US-based tactical aircraft forward deployed to European air bases.
Meanwhile, the tanker presence in-theatre grew from five operating locations and 55 tankers in March to 12 locations and 175 tankers in June. One problem was the limited number of air bases available to 'bed-down' the tankers. Some had to operate from air bases in Germany and the United Kingdom, requiring 3h flights to rendezvous with strike aircraft.
There were almost 300 tanker aircrews involved in the operation, but the war revealed problems with fighting modern expeditionary campaigns using tanker aircrew-to-aircraft ratios developed during the Cold War. Col Robert Owen, who supervised Air Mobility Command's (AMC) self-analysis, says: "Kosovo reinforced the long-standing perception that the tanker force was not manned appropriately for sustained conventional operations." He says the manning roster is being adjusted upwards.
Owen says the deployment to Europe was routine. "The operation certainly stressed us, but it did not press the limits of AMC's capabilities. No missions were delayed or cancelled because of an air refuelling issue," he notes. A tanker requirements study is due later this year that will guide future procurement decisions. Owen says it will establish future gross requirements for aerial refuelling while addressing the required configuration of the next-generation tanker. AMC's air mobility roadmap includes a new aerial tanker, but the KC-135s - with new cockpits and newish engines - will not be retired before 2035. Meanwhile, the KC-135 Pacer Crag upgrades are replacing 1950s technology navigation and radar systems. As a result, a new tanker programme is nowhere in sight.
Extensive tanker support was needed to re-fuel Northrop Grumman B-2 bombers flying 33h round trip missions from Whiteman AFB, Missouri. Each required multiple air-to-air refuellings per mission. Over the course of the air war, 45 B-2 sorties delivered 656 Boeing Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs), more than 454,000kg of ordnance.
Cohen says forward basing would reduce tanker requirements and mission length. The USAF is examining ways to forward deploy the B-2, which needs special equipment and shelters to maintain the low observable treatment.
Twelve Boeing C-17A Globemasters were dedicated to the Task Force Hawk deployment of 24 US Army Boeing AH-64A Apache attack helicopters and a massive amount of support equipment. They were the only US military transports able to carry oversize cargo into Tirana, Albania.
Operational control of the AMC assets shifted to the USAF's Air Mobility Operations Control Center at Ramstein AB, Germany, without issue, and over 700 airlift missions in theatre were undertaken. Cohen says "temporarily assigning strategic airlift aircraft to theatre control may be of great utility to commanders faced with sudden, large intra-theatre airlift requirements."
He also noted that "one of the great success stories" of Operation Allied Force was the performance of the C-17, which flew half of the strategic airlift missions required by the operation. The USAF says the Task Force Hawk mission "highlighted potential shortfalls in theC-17 force structure, and raised concerns over the ability of the United States to meet the air mobility demands of two nearly simultaneous major theatre wars."
Despite its concerns, the USAF has rejected Boeing's offer of another 60 discounted C-17s. USAF officials say the price is too high, but they are open to further discussions. Boeing had sought to provide the 60 transports over five years, starting in fiscal year 2003 when production contracts for 120 C-17s are set to run down.
Low readiness rate
According to Owen, "the Lockheed MartinC-5A/B Galaxy heavy lift transport's readiness rate was below what we had wanted it to be, reinforcing the need for ongoing and futureC-5 modernisation efforts". A new cockpit is being installed and the 41,000lb-thrust (182kN) General Electric TF39 turbofan, which powers the USAF's 126 C-5A/Bs, will be getting new high-pressure turbine blades. Meanwhile, the commercial GE CF6-80C2 turbofan is destined to replace the TF39 on the four-engined transport under a re-engining and reliability enhancement programme.
The USAF, however, has yet to complete an analysis of alternatives study for its future airlift strategy, and along with a mobility requirements study due for release in September, they are expected to drive future procurement decisions. The C-5 re-engining, for example, could be limited to the 50 C-5Bs with the procurement of additional C-17s.
The USAF's re-engineered logistics supply chain, made possible by IT advances, was also battle-tested during Operation Allied Force. The USAF's move from individual base supply shops to four regional supply centres linked to all major USAF commands was initiated in 1990 during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
Operation Allied Force was the biggest test of supply regionalisation since the Gulf War. At issue was the need to support hundreds of aircraft a long way from their home stations, including 24 Lockheed F-117 stealth fighters from Holloman AFB, New Mexico, which stayed 11 weeks at Spangdahlem AB, Germany.
Each unit deployed with mobility readiness spares packages (MRSPs), which contained a month's worth of spare parts, including antennas, avionics, computer processors and ground equipment - a parts inventory computed against historic demand and failure rates.
As the initial stocks of spares were expended, requests for more parts were made via satellite communications and tracked on a computer database. The USAF used a host of package carriers to handle the smaller items. Military transports handled hazardous material, classified items and heavy items. It took an average of four days to get the items where they were needed.
Cohen says the MRSP levels rely on the availability of deployed aircraft that can be cannibalised for spares to offset shortfalls. But he says the lower than expected aircraft loss rate and higher aircraft availability rates experienced in Operation Allied Force exacerbated the issue by increasing the spares demand while further limiting the availability of donor aircraft. He says the MRSPs "may be insufficient to achieve aircraft availability targets under the EAF concept."
About 100 Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 40/50 aircraft delivered over 4,000 bombs. Senior USAF officials say the principal lessons learned were the need for night-vision-goggle-compatible aircraft lighting, improved precision targeting pods, and an air-to-air identification friend-or-foe (IFF) interrogator.
They also say the operations reconfirmed the need for a new aircraft computer, colour displays, the Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS) providing off-boresight missile targeting capability for heat-seeking missiles, and the Link 16 datalink offering improved combat situational awareness.
There were instances in Bosnia and Kosovo where Fairchild A-10A Thunderbolt IIs were shot at with infrared-guided missiles and hit, and the USAF is testing an automated onboard chaff and flare system for the slow-moving attack aircraft. The A-10's chaff and flare dispensing system is operated manually, but the new system will allow pilots to pre-program their defences. Once a particular threat is identified on the ground, the system can be programmed specifically for that threat. All A-10s are due to be equipped with the automated dispenser system by 2005.
Kosovo lessons
The Pentagon has spent over $3.5 billion on enhancements addressing the lessons learned from the Kosovo operation, including nearly $2 billion provided by US lawmakers in the fiscal year 2000 supplemental budget. Spending includes: $431 million to convert 624 additional Raytheon Tomahawk missiles to the latest land-attack configuration; $306 million for 11,000 more Boeing JDAM kits and $178 million to convert 322 additional air-launched cruise missiles to a conventional-warhead configuration. Funding is also earmarked to replenish stocks of Boeing AGM-84 SLAM-ER, Raytheon AGM-88 HARM and Raytheon AGM-65 Maverick missiles, and both laser-guided and general-purpose bombs.
The USAF is now storing Boeing Conventional Air-Launched Cruise Missiles (CALCMs) at Andersen AFB, Guam, making it the first installation outside the continental USA to host the weapon. The move relates to the USAF's decision to establish forward-deployed bomber support at key locations worldwide. As envisioned, a USAF bomber would fly its first combat mission from its US air base and then proceed to Guam to reload.
Meanwhile, a number of Grumman EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare (EW) aircraft upgrades were funded with $158 million from the FY 2000 supplemental, along with procurement of 7,600 additional Raytheon ALE-50 towed decoys for various aircraft. An analysis of alternatives is under way to determine what capabilities will be required to begin replacing the124 Prowlers in 2010. Prowlers have been in short supply following the USAF's decision to retire its fleet of General Dynamics EF-111 Raven EW aircraft after the Gulf War.
The supplemental provided $37 million to replace General Atomics RQ-1A Predator unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) lost to enemy fire. The USAF is giving the UAV a laser designator capability and will demonstrate a lethal version. Meanwhile, the DoD has earmarked $390 million for accelerated acquisition and early deployment of the Northrop Grumman RQ-4A Global Hawk high-altitude endurance UAV.
"Although UAVs were used effectively during Operation Allied Force, technical improvements are still needed to attain the full promise of these systems," says Cohen. "In addition, the department needs to improve the tactics, techniques, and procedures that guide UAV employment to better integrate their operations into overall campaign plans," he adds.
Detecting and tracking mobile targets on the ground in poor weather was a problem for the USAF. The Air Force Research Laboratory and the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have an effort under way to use low-frequency radar to see through foliage with enough discrimination to identify targets. The long-term goal of the Foliage Penetration (FOPEN) Radar and Electronic Support Measures (ESM) Synergy for Targeting project, or FOREST, is to develop an integrated FOPEN radar and ESM that can operate on a platform such as a UAV. The Pentagon is also working on techniques to improve its capabilities to discriminate decoys from actual military equipment.
Combat search and rescue (CSAR) forces successfully rescued two downed USAF fighter pilots during the air war. But the USAF believes it has not provided for the systematic integration and training of combined special operations and conventional forces to meet the needs and demands of this mission area.
Source: Flight International
