source GAIA package: Sx_DefenseNews_M5201410309270026_6C2E.zip Origin key: Sx_DefenseNews_M5201410309270026 imported at Tue Jan 12 14:58:58 2016
It can be easy, in the first days of strikes on Syria, to focus on the weaponry being dropped. After all, the explosion from a 1,000-pound bomb makes great video.
But as the days turn into weeks and the Syrian operation settles into the day-in, day-out grind of a protracted war, the big waves of weaponry are likely to give way to smaller, more precise targeting that will increase the importance of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft.
“ISR is constantly going, on a never-ending cycle, when you’re engaged in an air war,” said James Poss, a retired major general and deputy chief of staff for ISR with the US Air Force.
At a Sept. 23 press briefing on the first wave of strikes, Army Lt. Gen. William Mayville, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs, said the Pentagon is already seeing “evidence” that the Islamic State group is adapting to the airstrikes by dispersing among the civilian population.
The experience in Iraq has shown how to handle those situations, Poss said, but it requires a commitment to resourcing ISR aircraft, both manned and unmanned.
“We know how to counter that — it takes more ISR, and we have to use smaller weapons,” Poss said. “If you look at a great deal of targets in Iraq, most of them were in high collateral damage areas so we know how to do it. But it does take more ISR resources to accomplish that effect.”
At the same time, Poss warns, the US should not be shy about going in hard against identified targets.
“Air power is only as effective as the strategy used to employ it,” Poss said. “My caution in seeing air power applied in a similar situation dozens of times is, it is a lot easier to do too little than it is to do too much. This is a sizable target that will take a sizable effort.”
Retired Lt. Gen. David Deptula, who helped the Air Force plan air operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, argues that decisive action now could prevent getting drawn into a conflict that government officials, including President Barack Obama, are already warning could last years.
“We don’t have to accept this notion that this will take several years,” Deptula said. “With a much more intense campaign, you can certainly render [Islamic State] ineffective in the region of northern Iraq and Syria.”
Assisting in the Syria strikes are five gulf nations: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan and Bahrain.
Having representatives from six different nations performing joint operations is complicated enough when they are part of a longstanding alliance like NATO. Having a coalition put together quickly could provide major logistical challenges.
An emphasis in recent years on joint training operations helps mitigate some of that, one DoD official said.
“Anytime we go out and we do exercises, whether it’s just us or with our coalition partners, there’s going to be a certain level of lessons learned and increased cooperation and interoperability,” the official said. “There is an obvious benefit of having that level of training and interoperability, and just understanding how each air force will handle situations differently.”
Deptula called the gathering of allies for the Syrian operation “absolutely a highlight” for the Obama administration. But he warned against expecting the allies to do too much too quickly.
“These nations are very inexperienced,” he said. “This is the first time they’ve used those aircraft in conflict in a long time.
“So handing [operations] all over to them isn’t going to work because they don’t have the comprehensive command and control, integration of ISR with strike, or expertise the US does,” he added. “But they can certainly learn, and over time more of the operations can be transitioned to those nations.”
Unsurprisingly, the US has more advanced ISR technology, both aircraft and sensors, than their allies in the region. And one of the most advanced platforms was finally put into use during the initial wave of strikes.
The F-22 Raptor made its combat debut during last week’s attacks, dropping a precision-guided munition onto a Syrian command-and-control facility controlled by Islamic State, a surprising debut for a plane primarily viewed as an air-to-air, stealthy system.
Asked in a press briefing why the Pentagon chose to use the F-22, Mayville described the decision as driven by strategic needs.
“We had a large menu of targets to strike from and then we chose from there,” Mayville said. “So really it’s less the platform than the effects we seek, and then what platform can deliver those effects.”
What are those effects? Those familiar with the capabilities of the F-22 say the ISR capabilities are not to be ignored.
“It’s a fantastic ISR platform,” Poss said of the jet. “Everyone concentrates on it being a stealth fighter and then they think about its supercruise engine that lets it stay supersonic for hours, but really the important part is the data fusion the system does on board.”
One DoD official highlighted the F-22’s capabilities as an ISR aircraft, noting the “unique capabilities” the jet can bring to the fight.
“It has integrated avionics and a whole suite of sensors that are able to collect information, so it becomes an ISR platform on top of being a kinetic platform,” the official said. “Those two things combined allow it to have a better understanding of the battle space, while at the same time being able to provide information to other aircraft it is operating with. That helps create a clear picture of what’s going on.”
While the F-22 production line is dead, it shares multimission capabilities with the F-35 joint strike fighter, also termed a “fifth-generation” fighter.
“The F-22 and F-35s aren’t “F’s,” Deptula said. “They are flying sensor-shooters that have a panoply of capabilities.”
Its use in Syria “demonstrates the multiple capabilities and applicability of the F-22, and we will rue the day [former Defense Secretary Robert] Gates [decided] to terminate the world’s most capable aircraft at less than half of its established military requirement,” Deptula said.
Those capabilities make the F-35 attractive to the same Middle Eastern allies who are joining the US in Syria. However, it is widely believed the US government will not consider sales of the F-35 to the Arabian Gulf region until after Israel’s fleet of jets goes operational in 2018.
Until then, allies will have to settle for the US sharing the data collected by the F-22. While sharing data from fifth-generation jets to their fourth-generation cousins has been a challenge, the DoD official expressed confidence the data would be shared with allies.
“Anytime an aircraft goes out and then comes back, there is an extensive amount of post-mission analysis that goes into that particular flight,” the official said. “That information will be disseminated as needed to other folks that are going to go out and operate.” ■
