Online Sponsor: April 01, 2003
With Precision Engagement Mastered, Air Force By GAIL KAUFMAN, DEFENSE NEWS MEDIA GROUP ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The opening night of the Operation Iraqi Freedom is a textbook example of precision engagement, according to one of the Air Force’s top future planners.
That night, within two hours of being notified of their mission to destroy a key command and control building, two Air Force F-117 Nighthawks equipped with satellite-guided bombs and more than three dozen Navy-launched cruise missiles destroyed their intended target without causing damage to nearby buildings.
Using that as an example, Air Force Maj. Gen. David Deptula, said the U.S. military has proven it can place “the right weapon at the right target at the right time,” but now must take that a step further.
Specifically, the military should start to rely on more nontraditional methods of warfare to achieve desired effects, instead of only dropping bombs on buildings, Deptula told industry and defense officials here April 1 for a Defense News Media Group conference — Strike Warfare and Precision Attack: Compressing the “Flash-to-Bang” Cycle.
Deptula, now director of plans and programs for Air Combat Command, Langley, Va., served as an Air Force planner during Desert Storm in 1991 and was director of the Air Operations Center during Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.
The Air Force is developing ways to use what service officials refer to as information operations.
For example, instead of trying to search out and destroy the enemy’s integrated air defenses, the military could hack into the system, programming it to play Solitaire when it was supposed to be detecting U.S. and coalition planes in the airspace, he said.
The military should also develop new ways to conduct psychological operations, letting innocent civilians know the intentions of the U.S military and its allies, especially since public opinion and perception is as important as how well operations are working.
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Maj. Gen. John L "Jack" Hudson |
