Posted on 03/18/2003 6:41:39 AM PST by TADSLOS
AN EXPEDITIONARY CAMP IN WESTERN KUWAIT, March 17, 2003 -- Largely unaccustomed to city fighting and well aware of its heavy risks, the U.S. Army and Air Force in coming days may be faced with the prospect of unseating a hostile regime in Iraq's capital city. To get prepared, the land and air components have agreed they would attack Baghdad by adapting a warfighting approach traditionally used when jet aircraft fly in support of heavy tanks on the ground, U.S. officers tell InsideDefense.com.
As in past wars, responsibility for coordinating "close air support" for ground units engaged with enemy forces would fall to an Air Force "air boss" in an Army-led expeditionary command center, not far behind the front lines. The air officer connects attack aircraft orbiting the battle area with tactical controllers on the ground, who identify targets and provide precise coordinates.
Should there be a war against Iraq, that air-ground process will play out as the Army's V Corps presses north from Kuwait, supported by jets flying out of air bases in the Persian Gulf region. Military experts anticipate the operation, much like the 1991 Persian Gulf War, would be kicked off with a series of special operations attacks on critical targets. Within a week, U.S. jets and missiles would begin striking an unprecedented number of Iraqi "strategic" targets over just a handful of days.
Officers say the ground piece, to be launched shortly thereafter, might at first appear much like a rerun of 20th-century warfare. One exception is that traditional close air support of ground troops -- criticized late last year by some Army officers as being less than responsive in Afghanistan -- is being planned with greater detail and forethought than perhaps ever before among U.S. forces, officers assert.
But a more significant departure from past wars may be that U.S. forces are preparing to engage in the perilous challenge of city fighting to capture a capital city and unseat its political regime.
Block-by-block warfare presents a potential hornet's nest to U.S. troops who may find themselves vulnerable to guerrilla snipers, booby traps and the possible Iraqi use of weapons of mass destruction. A close knife fight in 90-degree-plus weather while suited up and masked in cumbersome WMD gear may turn out to be the greatest threat to Western troops, military experts say.
Artillery with ranges of 5 to 20 kilometers might threaten U.S.-led troops even before they enter the city, U.S. officers say.
Perhaps the most daunting aspect of city warfare, though, is the presence of 5 million civilians, densely packed into residential areas and office buildings. Recent conflicts in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Somalia and Iraq all resulted in a number of unintended civilian deaths, which at times damaged U.S. and global support for military operations.
Military officials believe they've learned from past wars and say they are now in a position to more effectively avoid what they term "unintended consequences" or "collateral damage."
"If this [war] happens, it will be the most strictly controlled [in terms of preventing] collateral damage," said Air Force Lt. Col. Bill Thomas, a V Corps Air Support Operations Center air boss. "You can't win the peace if there's no peace to win because we've destroyed everything."
Beginning a few weeks ago, U.S. Central Command began issuing to forces planning a war against Iraq a detailed list of "No-Strike Targets" -- among them, hospitals, schools, mosques, water processing plants and historical sites, Thomas said. The list is updated almost daily as war draws nearer, according to military officials.
CENTCOM also put out a "Collateral Damage Mitigation Chart," Thomas said. The document will offer target planners a guide for quickly gauging how destructive particular munitions will be against different kinds of targets. If a Baghdad military communications center lies right next door to a residential apartment building, for example, the chart will help command center officers choose a weapon and angle of attack that will destroy the target with the least risk to adjacent structures, Thomas said.
"There's no need to level a building if I just need to take out a window," said Thomas, interviewed March 12. U.S. forces will use the minimum firepower necessary to destroy or disable each target on the list, he said, stressing the idea of "proportionality."
Thomas said CENTCOM target planners well recall Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's 1991 practice of locating tanks, artillery and missile launchers in close proximity to civilian sites. Saddam was banking on the notion that a U.S.-led coalition would either hold its fire against such targets or risk international condemnation if large numbers of civilians were killed.
But in this war, almost no target will be completely immune from destruction, Thomas said. With the idea of proportionality in mind, U.S. target planners are hoping that if they carefully calibrate munitions to specific targets, a tank could even be hit "on the roof of a hospital" without significantly damaging the building, he said.
To understand how U.S. forces are planning for Baghdad attacks, a look at targeting out in the open desert battlefield is in order. Targeting is performed with reference to engaged forces within and beyond what is termed a "fire support coordination line," or FSCL. Supporting friendly troops inside the FSCL -- where V Corps Army troops will be principally engaged against Iraqi units -- strike pilots will have the benefit of moment-to-moment coordination by Thomas and others at the corps' Air Support Operations Center.
Beyond the FSCL -- which traditionally lies about 25 kilometers beyond the forward edge of friendly ground forces -- pilots must visually identify targets more independently. Geographically removed from most friendly ground forces, they will rely on a paper list of 300 to 500 No-Strike Targets in their assigned area and adjacent ones.
These 30-by-30 kilometer squares of assigned territory are called "kill boxes" within which pilots may drop munitions. Kill boxes beyond the FSCL might still contain some number of friendly special operations forces, and pilots are to be advised to steer clear of them in "no-fire areas" marked on cockpit maps.
Major Iraqi cities -- with Baghdad obviously pre-eminent -- would be treated like areas within the FSCL on a more traditional battlefield. As such they would be the focus of intense ground-air coordination much like the close air support offered ground troops within the FSCL in the open desert, Thomas said. The difference here is that U.S. forces are using this approach in city fighting for the first time, air officers say.
The equivalent of the eighth largest city in America -- around the size of Boston or Detroit -- Baghdad may be vulnerable to fires that spread into civilian structures after heavy bombing attacks, Thomas said, calling this a "major concern." He said the military planning assumption is that Baghdad fire rescue crews will be hunkered down and unavailable throughout the war.
To plan attacks on Baghdad targets in painstaking detail, U.S. forces have divided the city map into a handful of zones. Each zone is then further subdivided into alphabetized sectors. And, again for the first time, the U.S. military has actually numbered each building within each sector.
Intelligence organizations provided three-dimensional mapping that will help allow the V Corps to determine exactly what part of a building should be targeted, and what might be preserved, Thomas said.
He demonstrated for a reporter computer software called "Bug Splat" that approximates the trajectory of debris when a particular type of building is attacked from a specific angle with one weapon or another.
Using these tools, Thomas says he believes buildings might be destroyed while leaving the shell of perimeter walls intact, minimizing the possibility of the uncontrollable spread of fire.
Minimal collateral damage campaign.
1. Come to within 30 kms of the city.
2. Cut off all ingoing and outgoing traffic: ground, water, air.
3. E-bomb the city to cut off electricity.
4. Leaflet the city with demands for surrender of all military forces and handing over of all political leaders of the national administration.
5. Use counter-fire radar to target any rounds launched from within city. Take they out precisely.
6. Wait one week. Leaflet to inform of further restrictions against city until surrender is complete.
7. Begin radio broadcasts of allied humanitarian intent and relief centers.
The problem will be that those folks will set up next to a school, hospital, old age center, library, etc.
50 km would be better.
Sodamn Insane will order a strike on Israel.
Israel will respond.
Our troops need to stay a safe distance from where Baghdad won't be anymore.
Israel thinks so. The US thinks so.
While Saddam and Al Quada target our civilian populations we will be avoiding the very places where Iraq is concentrating their weapons and forces. Sometimes, I think that we are just too nice or nieve. The world is upside down. I think that we will be shocked at what some of Iraq's "Mosques" really are.
I think you're right, and as soon as they become bastions for armed Iraqis firing on our troops they lose their protected status.
"Mosques" are merely worship halls of the Devil, disguised as worship plces to God.
One should not be surprised they would be full of things the Devil holds dear, except people. Oh, they contain people, too. But he sneers at them with distain while celebrating in their moral degradation and spiritual slavery to him.
The US doesn't "appoint" targets for Israel.
If Sodamn Insane doesn't attack Israel, Israel won't nuke Baghdad.
If he does, they will.
It would seem the "appointing" will be done by Sodamn by his own actions.
claim retribution
&
provide that excuse
"They" are doing all that? Renolds wrap time?
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