Ground attack: Air Force seeks to upgrade close air support fleet.

As the Iraqi and Afghan conflicts evolve essentially into ground wars--with U.S. and coalition infantry units fighting small bands of guerrilla fighters--the Air Force is moving to improve its ability to provide close air support, according to the service's top officials.

The Air Force is developing new tactics, equipment and organizational structures to conduct CAS operations. The aging A/OA-10 Thunderbolt II--the first Air Force aircraft designed especially for close air support--is getting upgraded precision-strike technology. The aircraft comes in two versions. The A-10 actually attacks enemy ground troops, while the OA-10 variant performs airborne forward air control.

To replace the A/OA-10 in future CAS missions, the service has decided to acquire the short-takeoff, vertical-landing version of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which is still under development.

In 2003, Air Force aircraft flew more than 10,000 CAS sorties in Iraq and Afghanistan the two countries, The effectiveness of those CAS missions "was unprecedented," said Lt. Gen. William S. Wallace, former chief of the U.S. Army V Corps. "None of my commanders complained about [its] availability, responsiveness or effectiveness."

CAS was a key factor in the rapid destruction of enemy ground forces in both wars, U.S. military leaders said. Thirty days "after operations began in Afghanistan in 2001, U.S. and coalition troops were able to enter Kabul, and within 26 days of fighting in Iraq, they captured the last major Iraqi city, Gen. Michael Moseley, Air Force vice chief of staff, told the House Armed Services Committee.

In the battle for Baghdad, U.S. military officials put together an innovative, complex plan for urban CAS. Moseley said. Airborne forward air controllers flew over the city 24 hours a day, assigning missions to multiple sets of fighter aircraft stacked up in the air nearby.

In the stack was a mix of Air Force, Navy and Marine fighters, including A/OA-10s, F-15 Eagles, F-16 Fighting Falcons, F-14 Tomcats and F-18 Hornets.

Under this scenario, a ground commander receiving CAS "may be working with a Marine in an F-18 or Navy crew in an F-14 or an Air Force pilot in an A-10," Moseley said. You wont know the difference. You'll just know the call sign and the location."

In addition to fighters, CAS is provided by AH-64 Apache and AH-1W Cobra helicopters and AC-130 gunships. With the development of precision-guided munitions, long-range bomber--B-1 Lancers, B-2 Spirits and B-52 Stratofortresses--are conducting CAS missions from high above the battlefield. "CAS from 40,000 feet is truly transformational," Roche said.

Even RQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicles, armed with Hellfire laser-guided missiles, are flying CAS missions,

When CAS is needed, the troops on the ground don't care which aircraft provides it, said Air Force Capt. Dan King, who flies an F-15E for the 336th Fighter Squadron, headquartered at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C.

King, who spoke to National Defense at the 2004 Joint Service Open House at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., has seen CAS from a number of perspectives. He has flown CAS missions in the F-15 and the A/O-10 during the current conflict, and he served as an enlisted man in the Army's 82nd Airborne Division during the first Persian Gulf War.

"When you're being shot at, it's nor what kind of aircraft they are," he said. "Its how fast can they get here. minute is an eternity."

Army Sgt. Scott Bates, of the 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, agreed. His unit called in CAS in April 2003, when it came under fire after seizing the Hadithah Dam, which is located on Iraq's Euphrates River. "I don't know what kind of aircraft they were, but they came in, one after the other and dropped ordnance pretty, close," he said. "They were on target and very effective."

Picking the right target, however, can be difficult. In May, for example, coalition forces, operating near Iraqs border with Syria, said they came under hostile fire and called in CAS, killing perhaps 40 people

Coalition officials said the dead were foreign terrorists. But Iraqis claimed that they were members of a wedding party, where weapons had been fired into the air as part of the celebrations. The incident is under investigation.

In 2001, three U.S. servicemen and five Afghan allies died when a B-52 dropped a 2,000-pound Joint Direct Attack Munition about 100 meters from their position north of Kandahar. The U.S. troops had called for strikes on enemy forces near their own position.

In 2002, two U.S. F-16 pilots in Afghanistan attacked a Canadian army unit that was conducting live-fire training, killing four. The two pilots were slapped with criminal charges, including manslaughter, assault and failing to exercise appropriate flight discipline and not complying with the rules of engagement. One pilot has resigned from the service. The other's court martial is pending.

The Air Force is taking a number of steps to minimize incidents of fratricide and otherwise improve CAS operations.

In 2001, the service awarded a $226 million contract to Lockheed Martin Systems Integration, of Owego, N.Y., calling for the firm to act as the prime contractor in a major upgrade of the A/OA-10.

The contract calls for Lockheed's Aerospace Systems unit to design, manufacture and test an enhanced precision-engagement system, explained Roger Il Grande, Lockheed's A/OA-10 program manager. This involves installing a digital stores management system for improved cockpit control of weapons systems, new cockpit displays, a Situational Data Link to provide more accurate information about friendly forces and potential enemy threats, a direct-current generator upgrade, guided weapons, such as the JDAM and Wind-Corrected Munitions Dispenser, and an advanced targeting pod.

Lockheed's Sniper XR Advanced Targeting Pod is a precision targeting system. It incorporates a high-resolution, mid-wave, third-generation forward-looking infrared; a dual-mode laser and a charged, coupled-device sensor, along with a laser spot tracker, a laser marker and a sophisticated data link. These technologies enable the Sniper XR to detect, classify and engage targets at more than three times the distance of older pods, Il Grande said.

Lockheed plans to begin flight tests of the new system in September of this year, and to have it installed on all A/OA-10s by the first quarter of 2009, he said.

At the Hill Air Force Base, Utah, meanwhile, Ogden Air Logistics Center is embarked upon a "Hog-up" program, which is designed to extend the lifespan of the A/OA-10--nicknamed the "Warthog" for its ungainly appearance--from 4,000 hours of air operations to 16,000. Most of the work, officials said, involves refurbishing the center part of the wing, which absorbs much of the stresses of flying.

The Air Force currently has 357 A/O-10s in its inventory. The service has been flying them since 1975, and maintenance costs are rising, Roche said. For this reason, he said, the Air Force is planning to retire some of them--the exact number is still being determined--and plow the savings into upgrades for the remainder of the fleet.

The reason: "The A/0A-10 may be an old plane, but it has characteristics that make it lethal on the battlefield," said a spokesman for Checkmate, the Air Force's secretive operational planning and analysis cell, located in the basement of the Pentagon.

The twin-engine A/OA-10 can prowl over the battlefield at 420 mph--a quarter of the top speed of an F-15, he explained. A 30 mm GAU-8/A seven-barrel Gatling gun juts from its nose, firing 3,900 rounds a minute and destroying an array of ground targets, including ranks. Under its wings and fuselage, it carries up to 16,000 pounds of mixed ordnance, including laser-guided munitions, incendiary cluster bombs, and AGM-65 Maverick and AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles.

Flying as low as 100 feel above the fighting, the Warthog makes an attractive target for enemy fire, but the pilot and part of the flight-control system are protected by titanium armor. Redundant primary structural sections help the aircraft survive enemy fire. The aircraft can survive direct hits from armor-piercing and high-explosive projectiles up to 23 mm in size.

The Air Force intends to replace the A/OA-10 with the STOVL version of the F-35, officials said. The F-35 is being designed in three versions, one that operates from conventional airfields, one that can take off and land on Navy, aircraft carriers, and one that can take off from short, austere landing strips and land vertically on amphibious warships.

The Air Force originally planned to buy the conventional variant of the aircraft, and it still plans to do so. It has decided, however, that the short-takeoff model--originally designed for the Marines--fits in better with the GAS mission.

"We're not interested, as the Marine Corps is, in the vertical part of it," Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John P. Jumper told a recent conference sponsored by the National Defense Industrial Association. "We're interested in the short-field capabilities, [which] will open up thousands more airfields around the world for us."

The design of the F-35's airframe, however, "is taking longer and is more complex than had been originally anticipated," John J. Young Jr., assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, recently told the House Armed Services Committee.

"Additional design work is required to address technical issues, primarily weight projections," Young said. The result will be cost increases and delays, he said, explaining that low-rate initial production is scheduled now to start in fiscal year 2007, instead of 2006.

These problems, however, are "solvable within the normal parameters of design fluctuation," Young argued. "We are re-planning JSF system development and demonstration to make sure that we succeed."

The Air Force also is seeking to make better use of its "battlefield airmen"--the combat controllers, para-rescue specialists, combat weather technicians, special tactics teams and tactical air control parties, who deploy with ground forces to help coordinate CAS missions--Roche said.

"Just as we have a family of airmen we call 'pilots,' with a variety of specialties--helicopter, fighter, tanker, airlift, bomber--we need to start thinking about these specialized warriors, these battlefield airmen, in similar terms," he said. "We need to consolidate our battlefield airmen ... under a common organizational and training structure, and strengthen the combat power they bring to the battlefield, whether it be in Air Combat Command or in Air Force Special Operations."

The ACC, headquartered at Langley Air Force Base, Va., is leading an effort to define more clearly how the Air Force should use "the guys at the pointy end of the sortie," said Chief Master Sgt. Michael Breeden, from the Special Operations Division of the Air Staff at the Pentagon. An ACC team is developing plans for a more coherent organizational structure, training and equipment, he said.

Some changes already are underway. In October 2003, the service transferred nearly 7,000 combat search and rescue personnel to AFSOC. Air commandos have worked, for many years, side-by-side with CSAR specialists, said the AFSOC commander, Lt. Gen. Paul Hester. Placing them in one organization will strengthen their ability to perform missions, he said.

"Although only CSAR units based in the continental United States will realign, our objective is to improve the mission, training, equipment and career opportunities for the entire Air Force CSAR community," Hester said.

To lighten the load that these various specialists must take into combat with them, the Air Force has begun deploying a new battlefield air-operations kit that is 50 percent lighter than traditional versions.

The old kits weighed as much as 160 pounds, and included outdated mapping, plotting, designation and communications equipment, Roche said. In addition to being lighter, the new equipment reduces the time it takes to link sensors to shooters by 40 percent.