SAS Joins US Forces Hunting For Dictator

London Daily Telegraph | April 11, 2003 | Michael Smith and Oliver Poole

[Stand Watch Listen]

SAS and MI6 teams were last night helping their US counterparts in the search for Saddam Hussein as US troops in Baghdad turned their attention from defeating his army to finding the leaders of his regime.

Spy satellites, photo-reconnaissance aircraft, and Predator and Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles are scouring the area between Baghdad and Tikrit, the dictator's home town.

Intercept operators are also scanning the airwaves for any sign of the encrypted communications equipment used by his lieutenants to communicate with other members of the Ba'ath party leadership.

Those hunting for Saddam include a secret Pentagon unit known only as Gray Fox, which carries out covert intelligence operations and specialises in tracking down individuals.

It has been used in the past in Lebanon against Hizbollah and provided the information that led to the arrest of Pablo Escobar, the Colombian drugs baron. Gray Fox has all the latest surveillance equipment, including communications monitoring equipment and low-flying signals intercept aircraft.

There was intensive special forces activity at the Iraqi town of Qaim, close to the Syrian border, yesterday. This reinforced speculation that the allies believed senior members of the regime were seeking refuge in Damascus.

US Central Command forward headquarters in Qatar said the special forces were trying to ensure that the Iraqis could not launch missiles from the town.

Maj Gen Victor Renuart said Iraq had fired missiles from mobile launchers in the area around Qaim in the 1991 Gulf war, when 39 Scuds were aimed at Israel, causing damage but few casualties.

He said: "It's in our strategic interest that we preclude any capability of surface-to-surface missiles, especially those that are long range, being launched from that area."

Allied special forces teams have been on the ground in western, central and southern Iraq since January, trying to track down weapons of mass destruction and missiles that might be aimed at allied forces or at Israel in an attempt to draw it into the conflict.

In Baghdad, US forces stormed a series of buildings after tip-offs that Saddam or members of his regime had taken refuge there.

Among them was a house in the west of the city that was raided after it was claimed Uday, Saddam's oldest son, had been using it as his military headquarters. Maps were found on the walls with the location of Iraqi units marked.

Neighbours said Uday was seen in the district only 48 hours previously and had, they claimed, fled north to Tikrit.

Rumours circulated that Uday had been seen in a convoy leaving the city heading north. Other rumours said that he was holed up in a suburb to the north-east of the city surrounded by paramilitary fighters.

Elsewhere, skirmishes continued between US forces and Iraqis in hideouts, some of whom manned their own checkpoints in loyalist areas.

An American patrol came across a team unloading five rocket grenade launchers from a lorry near to where US troops were camped.

There was an exchange of fire and the Iraqi driver of the vehicle was killed. Tanks spent the rest of the day attempting to track down the Iraqi paramilitaries but with little success.

[KriegerGeist]

I would like to see a large force of snipers/sharp-shooters be sent to Iraq to wait, scope out other snipers and terrorists and other covert bad guys. They can find just the right advantage points for maximum view, maximum protection of our "boots on the ground" and long-range surveillance of every nook & cranny hiding place, then pick them off before they pick us off.

Equip them with the best telescopic spotting scopes, the best sniper rifles with the best rifle scopes. They could pick off from the best high places any sniper, RPG operator, or suicide bombers...perhaps even pick out ambushers setting up.

That's just my opinion.

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[jiggyboy]

where's that graphic of the F-16 chasing a guy on a flying carpet

[Tarry]

UAV Concept Eyed For Longer Term Missile Defense Applications
The ballistic missile defense national industry team (NIT) is evaluating a concept for integrating airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platforms, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVS), into the future ballistic missile defense system (BMDS) plan, industry officials said.

Under one concept, UAVs like the Northrop Grumman (NOC) Global Hawk would perform ISR missions as adjunct sensors to the planed space-based sensor systems like the Space Based Infrared High (SBIRS High) and Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS).

While the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has no program in place to integrate UAVs into the BMDS architecture at this time, it has tasked the NIT to look at all potential capabilities and advanced technologies that would be a benefit to the overall missile defense mission, according to industry officials attending the Navy League Sea, Air and Space symposium in Washington, D.C.

MDA spokesman Rick Lehner said MDA's top priority now is to get the systems it has into operation and testing with the testbed deployment. But, at the same time, he said there is a concurrent effort to consider conceptually any advanced technologies for future incorporation into the architecture.

"The national team is charged with looking into the future and trying to come up with different technologies with applications to missile defense," Lehner said. "That thinking has to be out of the box. And, UAVs have been so successful that the national team should look at their applicability to missile defense to determine if it is any way feasible."

UAVs are just one of many technological solutions MDA will be eyeing for the BMDS in the years to come, Lehner noted.

Meanwhile, industry officials contend using a mix of UAVs with the planned space-based sensors would provide another layer of sensors for better target identification and early warning.

One advantage of using UAVs, an official said, is that such a platform can be quickly updated with data because it has a smaller area to survey than the space-based platform. The UAV also views a missile launch from a different perspective, which provide added targeting data that could be merged with the other sensor data to provide a fuller picture of the scenario, the official added.

A UAV would view a missile launch looking at the missile against the cold background of space, making it easier to identify after burnout, the official said.

Industry officials also tout the UAV's endurance and positioning flexibility as another advantage over space-based platforms in orbit.

Global Hawk, for example, could provide a high-altitude, long endurance persistent coverage, the official said. For a missile defense ISR mission, two Global Hawks could provide 24-hour coverage from over 2,000 miles away in a threat area, the official said.

While some early demonstrations could begin in the FY '06 time frame, officials don't see UAVs entering MDA's plans until at least FY '08. Industry officials also don't predict that UAVs would replace the space-based systems like STSS, but said the two capabilities would rather complement each other.

Currently, the MDA is re-evaluating all of its requirements for sensor systems, MDA Director Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish told lawmakers earlier this month (Defense Daily, April 10).

"We are rethinking the overall sensor requirement," Kadish told the Senate Appropriations Committee defense subcommittee.

At this time, Kadish said he is confident it makes sense to continue the STSS program for incorporation into the ballistic missile defense system. However, he added that there is an internal debate ongoing on whether MDA should use ground-based sensors, space- based sensors or a combination of both.

"That debate is not resolved," he said.

The STSS is envisioned to provide a robust, round-the-clock, space-based early warning capability to track incoming ballistic missiles as a complement to ground-based radars.

Northrop Grumman (NOC) is leading the industry team with partners Raytheon (RTN) and Spectrum Astro. Program officials do not believe this latest MDA review of sensor capabilities will result in an overhaul or termination of the STSS program.

MDA had been eyeing an initial SBIRS Low constellation of eight to 12 satellites, putting up one to two satellites in a series of block increments. However, the number of satellites in the final constellation has not been determined, and will likely be revised from the previous program's estimates that called for a 27- satellite constellation.

Industry officials said if MDA were to include UAVs in the sensor mix, it may be possible to conduct early warning with fewer space- based platforms.

Officials said an initial capability might include two dedicated Global Hawk platforms with one spare. For an initial capability it also might be possible to place "ride on" infrared sensors on the Global Hawks that already would be in use by the Air Force and Navy for the planned missions.

In that scenario, the platforms would be available to send to a potential threat area for the missile defense mission as needed, they noted.