Posted on 06/23/2005 9:07:48 AM PDT by robowombat
INTELLIGENCE OPERATIONS: JSTARS and Tracking Terrorists in Iraq
June 23, 2005: U.S. Air Force JSTARS radar aircraft are being used to track down terrorist bombers in Iraq. The U.S. Department of Defense demanded that all the services get to work on dealing with terrorist bombers in Iraq, and the air force responded by suggesting that the JSTARS be used to track down the bases of terrorist bombers. This is done by using the JSTARS radar to track where the attackers go after an attack. Many of the attacks take place in sparely populated places, and at night. JSTARS can track vehicles on the ground over a wide area. For example, a single JSTARS can cover all of central Iraq, although its ground radar can only track a smaller area. The JSTARS radar has two modes; wide area (showing a 25 by 20 kilometer area) and detailed (4,000 by 5,000 meters). The radar can see out to several hundred kilometers and each screen full of information could be saved and brought back later to compare to another view (to see what has moved). In this manner, operators could track movement of ground units over a wide area. Operators could also use the detail mode to pick out specific details of what’s going on down there, like tracking the movement of vehicles fleeing the scene of an ambush. JSTARS is real good at picking up trucks moving along highways on flat terrain. JSTARS can stay up there for over 12 hours at a time, and two or more JSTARS can operate in shifts to provide 24/7 coverage. There has always been at least one JSTARS operating in Iraq.
In its new role, JSTARS will operate as part of an intelligence team tracking down the hideouts of terrorist bombers. Israeli advisors have pointed out that if you can get to the planners of these attacks, and the technicians that build the bombs, you can greatly reduce the number of bomb attacks. So now, when a bomb goes off, the unit that is hit, as is customary, reports the attack. Quick reaction forces rush to the scene. But the terrorists know this, and usually only fire on the convoy for a short while before getting into their vehicles and speeding off. Many are caught by helicopters that either escort convoys, or patrol the area waiting for an attack to happen. U.S. helicopter gunships have excellent night vision equipment, and if they can get to the scene quickly enough, they can see the attackers, and kill them. Once the gunships have spotted you, you can run, but you cannot get away. Even if the attackers have fled before the gunships show up, they can start sweeping the area for vehicles moving away, and call in ground troops or, increasingly, Iraqi police, who can stop and search vehicles moving away in the area. If it’s a particularly isolated area, there won’t be many vehicles moving around.
But with a JSTARS up there, the ground radar is monitoring the area within minutes, if not already. This makes it possible for JSTARS to operate in cooperation with other units to track the terrorists to their bases. The intelligence troops has compiled a lot of data on how the terrorists, and especially the bombers, operate. Using that information in conjunction with JSTARS, and other airborne sensors (gunships, UAVs), it’s believed that many of the bombing organizations can be taken out. The intel people already know that there are only a few bomber organizations operating in Iraq. That much can be deduced by the vast amount of detail compiled by the CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) teams that scrutinize each attack. Using JSTARS, and tighter integration of all the intel, reconnaissance and combat units, may be what it takes to track down the bomber workshops, and destroy the organizations. It worked for the Israelis, who basically shut down the terrorist bombing campaign of the Palestinian terrorists.
Good stuff!
I assume that all this intel is recorded. If so they probably should look for where these car bombers COME from not where they go to. No doubt they come from the place where the bomb is placed in the car. That might be more productive. It would be interesting for a blimp to record all car movements during a day to see the movements of car bombers.
Cool! If we could take out those bomb factories we could stop a lot of the killings.
In case you hadn't noticed, the Army has rolled-up a couple of bomb factories in the past few days. Interesting how the timing of this article coincides with events.
Frankly, I doubt that JSTARS would be effective in this role, and if we really had this capability it would remain secret.
It's probably reasonable to assume that these car bomb factories are like chop-shops and located in the center of urban areas (where legitimate automotive garages are located). How effective would airborne radar be when buildings shield the streets below? I also recall stories about how the Serbs were spoofing JSTARS over Kosovo with rather crude techniques (like dragging multiple bales of barbed wire behind a pickup to simulate the mass of an armored column). If that is only halfway correct, then JSTARS is really only effective at picking up general traffic, not specific vehicles, in near real-time and in relatively open-areas.
Unfortunately, entirely too much information that is, or ought to be, Secret turns up on some web site telling the world what we are up to and what our capabilities are.
Too bad that we have quit using firing squads, they would prove useful in some cases.
Check this out.
Interesting
June 23, 2005: U.S. Air Force JSTARS radar aircraft are being used to track down terrorist bombers in Iraq. The U.S. Department of Defense demanded that all the services get to work on dealing with terrorist bombers in Iraq, and the air force responded by suggesting that the JSTARS be used to track down the bases of terrorist bombers.
Just sounds like it was written by somebody who really doesn't know what he/she is talking about.
Interesting. Great post.
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