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Aviation History
2003
2003 - 0546.PDF
FULL LIST OF READER SERVICES & ADVERTISER CONTACTS - P"" EDITORIAL +44 (20) 8652 3842 Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS, UK Fax +44 (20) 8652 3840 email flight.international@rbi.co.uk Editor Murdo Morrison +44 (20) 8652 4395 murdo.morrison@rbi.co.uk Editorial Assistant Andrew Costerton +44 (20) 8652 3835 andrm.costerton9rbi.co.uk News Editor Andrew Doyle +44 (20) 8652 3096 andrew.doyle@rbi.co.uk Commercial Aviation Editor Max Kingsley-Jones +44 (20) 8652 3825 max.kingsley.jonesmi.co.uk Defence Aviation Editor Stewart Penney +44 (20) 8652 3834 stewart.penney@rbi.co.uk Operations/Safety Editor David Learmount +44 (20) 8652 3845 david.learmount@rbi.co.uk Business Editor Alexander Campbell +44 (20) 8652 3990 alexander.campbell@rbi.co.uk Business & General Aviation Editor Kate Sarsfield +44 (20) 8652 3885 kate.sarsfield@rbi.co.uk Reporter Justin Wastnage +44 (20) 8652 s8t3justin.wastnage@rbi.co.uk Technical Reporter Michael Phelan +44 (20) 8652 3843 michael.phelan@rbi.co.uk Spaceflight Correspondent Tim Furniss +44 (1237) 471960 tim@spaceport.co.uk Senior Technical Artist Giuseppe Picarella +44 (20) 8652 S05Ajoe.picarella@rbi.co.uk Editorial Artist Tim Brown +44 (20) 8652 8043 tim.brown@rbi.co.uk EUROPE/MIDDLE EAST European Editor Christina Mackenzie •33 (1) 64 23 68 89 christina.mackenzie@rbi.co.uk Israel Correspondent Arie Egozi +972 (3) 9413132 Middle East Correspondent Gerald Butt +357 22 771967 gbutt@spidernet.com.cy AMERICAS Washington DC Office Fax +1 (703) 836 8344 Americas Editor Graham Warwick +1 (703) 836 3448 graham.warwick@rbi.co.uk East Coast Editor Paul Lewis +1 (703) 836 3084 jpaul.lewis@rbi.co.uk West Coast Editor Guy Norris +1 (949) 252 8971 Fax +1 (949) 252 8972 guy.norris@rbi.co.uk Brazil Correspondent Jackson Flores Jr +55 212439-6062 Fax 00 55 212349-6090 fubar@uol.com.br Canada Correspondent Brian Dunn ASIA/PACIFIC Singapore Office Fax +65 6789 7575 Regional Managing Editor Nicholas lonides +65 6780 4311 nichoias.ionides@rbi.co.uk Regional Reporter Leithen Francis +65 6780 4314 leithen.francis@rbi.co.uk Australia Civil Aviation Correspondent Emma Kelly +61(8)92861724 Fax+61 (8) 92861724 emmajketly@bigpond.com Australia Military Aviation Correspondent Peter La Franchi +61(0)419246620 Fax+61 (2) 62312795 nuika@ozemail.com.au EDITORIAL PRODUCTION Group Production Editor Graeme Osborn +44 (20) 8652 3828 Group Art Editor James Mason +44 (20) 8652 4994 Chief Sub-Editor Chris Thornton +44 (20) 8652 4997 Deputy Production Editor Jackie Thompson +44 (20) 8652 3850 Sub Editor Megan Turner +44 (20) 8652 3848 Photographer Mark Wagner +44 (20) 8944 5225 WWW.FLIGHTINTERNATIONAL.COM Webmaster Sheena Buchanan +44 (20) 8652 4432 SUBSCRIPTIONS +44 (1444) 445454 rbi.subscriptions@rbi.co.uk THE FLIGHT COLLECTION kim.hearn@rbi.co.uk © and Database Rights 2003 Reed Business Information Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing of the publishers J\~fl Air Transport Intelligence (ATI), Flight International's Sister A\J J onlineserviceatwww.rati.com, contains the full text of Flight •- " International and Airline Business since 1996. Full text of the magazines can also be found online with Lexis-Nexis, Dialogue, Fl Profile, IAC and Reuters. Editor Kieran Daly +44 (20) 8652 3837 Reed Business Information COMMENT Quick thinking Improved decision-making tools are vital if we are not to waste the advantages offered by today's sophisticated network-centric systems The capabilities gathered for the assault on Iraq promise much compared with the force assembled in the Middle East for the first Gulf War in 1991. On the face of it, today's force comprises smarter weapons, vastly superior intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and target acquisition capabilities and much greater integration of aircraft, ships, sensors and weapons - network-centric warfare version 1.0. Potentially the on-going operations could see the use of new smart weapons, with bet ter accuracy and a choice of GPS or laser guidance allowing employment to be matched with conditions. We may see the debut of a number of new capabilities, including the first use of electromagnetic weapons that can dis able the electronic circuits at the heart of just about every military system - from truck igni tions to ballistic missile guidance systems - but leave the operators unharmed. Net-centric warfare V1.0 integrates data The time between identifying a target and placing weapons on that target is key from around the battlefield, from subsurface, surface, airborne and space assets. At the tac tical level, this information will be used to show the ground commander what is over the next hill or to guide the fighter pilot precisely to the target. It will also provides situation awareness and the strategic picture up the chain of com mand, all the way to the White House. All this information should ensure that each target is dealt with systematically, with no examples of navy Boeing F/A-18s appearing just as air force Lockheed Martin F-16s pull off the target. The level of information integration and munition precision should mean that fewer aircraft can achieve more and that col lateral damage is reduced, perhaps with individuals targeted rather than entire build ings. But whether all this capability works as advertised, and can be proved to have done so, lies in the future, and much will remain unknown until long after the conflict is over. And despite all the high-tech systems arrayed against Iraq this time round, the open ing strike of the war was with the same weapons that launched the action 12 years ago - the Raytheon Tomahawk cruise missile and the Lockheed F-117A stealth fighter. What the "decapitation" strike that opened this war suggests is an improvement in the sensor-to- shooter chain. In any military operation the time between identifying a target and placing weapons on that target is key. The bulk of initial strikes may well have been against fixed targets that have not moved in the last 12 years, but it is the mobile targets that pop up which need to be eliminated. The reason dictators never sleep in the same bed two nights running and Scud missiles are fired from mobile launchers is that it increases the chances of survival. If a target is mobile, it is unlikely to hang around awaiting a visit from a 500lb bomb, Sensor-to-shooter time is absolutely critical. The first strike on Baghdad was against just such a "target of opportunity". But the attack appears to have been debated in Washington DC for nearly 4h before it was launched. Ethical, humanitarian, political and other factors must be taken into account, but military action stands a better chance of success if it is quick. In the Second World War the sensor-to- shooter time issue was solved with the "cab-rank" system, flights of orbiting ground- attack fighters in direct contact with the front line, called in at a moment's notice and guided by nothing more sophisticated than coloured smoke. Such a system worked in a war where collateral damage was not an issue and where the weaponry was limited to cannon and unguided rockets. Today's requirements and munitions impose very different limitations. The US military, in particular, has done much to improve its intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting capabilities in the last decade or so. It has also made strenu ous attempts to amalgamate the data into useful information - and sensor-to-shooter timespans appear to have been reduced. The solution would appear to lie with the second stage of net-centric systems development - improved decision-making tools. Every war highlights new capabilities. In the 1991 Gulf War it was precision targeting; oper ations in the Balkans in the mid-1990s ushered in the GPS-guided weapon, while more recently Afghanistan saw the debut of the armed unmanned air vehicle. Perhaps the second Gulf War will introduce the world to network-centric warfare. It may also introduce sophisticated decision-making loops or conversely highlight the need for advanced decision-aiding systems. We will not be able to make that assessment until long after the current hostilities have ended. SEE HEADLINES P4 www.fliqhtinternational.com FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 25-31 MARCH 2003 3
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