Part 1: joint effects for the MNC-I in OIF II.

BG Formica, the Commander of III Corps Artillery, Fort Sill, Oklahoma, deployed with part of his staff for Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) II in January 2004. He served as the commander of the FFA HQ and effects coordinator (ECOORD) in the Combined Joint Task Force 7 (CJTF-7), which was commanded by Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez. He reported to the C3 of CJTF-7.

On 15 May 2004, CJTF-7 was replaced by both the four-star strategic headquarters, MultiNational Forces, Iraq (MNF-I), and the three-star operational headquarters. MNC-I, the latter commanded by Lieutenant General Thomas F. Metz, who also commands III Corps. As the commander of the FFA HQ, BG Formica established the Joint Fires and Effects Cell (JFEC) for the MNC-I. He redeployed in February 2005.

Part I summarizes some of the contents of more than six hours of interviews with BG Formica in March. It focuses on the operational environment, organization of the MNC-I JFEC, integration of joint fires and counterstrike operations.

Ed

The Threat and Environment. During the time we were in Iraq, the insurgency continued to develop. Today there are still attacks against Coalition Forces, but we are seeing an increase in the number of attacks against Iraqi Security Forces [ISF] and Iraqi civilians. Clearly a security challenge still exists.

But Iraq has continued to progress and is getting better all the time. Now there are more businesses and more people on the streets, and children go to school. There's a never-ending line of Iraqis applying for jobs in the ISF--the Iraqi Army, Iraqi police and Iraqi National Guard [ING]. Even as the anti-Iraqi forces [AIF] increasingly target the ISF, there's no shortage of Iraqis applying. They want to be ISF.

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The enemy's center of gravity is the will of the Iraqi people. It's a classic insurgency: to the extent to which the insurgents can garner the support of the Iraqi people or at least avoid being negated by the Iraqi people, then they can continue the fight. If we can isolate the bad guys from the support of the Iraqi people, then we can begin to defeat the insurgency.

The Coalition Forces recognize that the "will of the Iraqi people" is not something that they can universally or unilaterally impose. In the long run, the ISF and Iraqi people have the best shot at defeating the insurgency. They need us to help provide some of the security so they can do that.

And as the ISF are better trained and have better equipment and gain experience in Coalition Force and independent operations, they are more capable of providing Iraq's security.

Iraqi National Elections. The ISF's increasing effectiveness was never more evident than during the national elections in January. I believe the reason the ISF stood so firmly on 30 January is because those were Iraqi elections. We distanced ourselves from the planning for those elections because we didn't want them to be seen as "Coalition" or "American" elections.

The Independent Election Commission, Iraq, IEC-I, was the Iraqi organization chartered with planning and running the elections. The commission did a good job.

Everything Coalition Forces did that year was designed to increase security so the Iraqi people could have successful elections. MNC-I prosecuted a series of battles: Fallujah, An Najaf, Karbala, Al Kut, Sadr City in Baghdad, Samarra, Fallujah (again in November) and Mosul. [See the map in Figure 1 on Page 6.] Those battles eliminated the insurgents' safe havens and reduced their ability to conduct operations or interact with the Iraqi citizens. They also increased the confidence of the ISF.

The more Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and the terrorists attacked Iraqis, the less tolerant the Iraqis were of the insurgency. It appears that trend is continuing, and more and more Iraqis are stepping up and speaking out against the insurgents.

During the elections, the ISF probably performed their best, to date. The ISF provided that inner cordon of security at the various polling places and in key areas while the Coalition Forces provided the outer cordon of support and quick-reaction forces [QRFs].

Several ISF personnel died intercepting vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs) to protect polling places. The ISF demonstrated absolute courage that day and became the key provider of security for the Iraqi people.

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The Iraqi people also showed great courage. The stories are numerous of Iraqis who endured VBIED threats or mortar attacks and stood their ground at polling places. They stayed in line for hours to have the opportunity to vote. We Americans could learn from that.

On election day, the Iraqis demonstrated that they want democracy more than we want it for them. That day, the people also showed disregard for the insurgents. When a VBIED attacker or an insurgent was killed at a polling place, Iraqis not only left the bodies unattended (which is against their culture), but also spit on them and then stepped over them to get back in line. The elections marked a shift in the Iraqis' level of support for the insurgency.

Another example of that shift is the "purple finger." If Coalition Forces had been running the elections instead of the IEC-I, there would have been no purple fingers. We were afraid it would mark someone who voted as a target for the insurgents, and he'd lose that finger or his life, or his family would be intimidated. But the elections were run by the IEC-I, and they wanted to dye every voter's finger purple for election control.

The purple finger turned out to be a very powerful symbol. Images of Iraqis holding up their purple fingers with pride raced around the world, symbolizing the Iraqi people's courage and determination in the democratic election process.

Eight and a half million Iraqis from across Iraq voted. I think we'll see the benefits of these elections as the political process takes center stage in Iraq. Hopefully, it will overshadow the security process.

It was very gratifying to help provide the secure environment for the Iraqis to vote.

JFEC Role and Organization. When we became the MNC-I JFEC, our role changed. Instead of being a US Army corps, we were a multinational corps, and MNC-I truly was coalition and joint. [See the organization chart in Figure 2.]

The commander, MNC-I, was an American Army three-star general with British, Canadian and Italian two-stars as his deputies. He had a one-star American chief of staff. Many of the MNC-I staff were US Army because we came from III Corps, but all elements were augmented by coalition and joint officers and NCOs.

Every night, Lieutenant General Metz had a commander's video teleconference with his multinational MSCs [major subordinate commands], who were headed by multinational commanders [shown in Figure 2]. Like all the staff elements, the JFEC organization was both joint and coalition.

The JFEC's main task was to integrate joint lethal fires and nonlethal effects. We used the Decide-Detect-Deliver-Assess ([D.sup.3]A) targeting process. As I left Iraq, we were beginning to integrate lethal and nonlethal effects more formally into the same [D.sup.3]A process. We had deployed wanting to evolve to effects-based operations [EBO]--we never really got there, but we were integrating lethal fires and nonlethal effects.

To set up the MNC-I JFEC, we deployed the FFA HQ and the FSE [fire support element] from III Corps, both headed by US Army lieutenant colonels. The FSE included a Korean major, an individual augmentee.

The FFA HQ conducted counterstrike operations and supervised echelons-above-division FA assets, including radars and the 197th Field Artillery Brigade from the New Hampshire Army National Guard [NHARNG]. The 197th was a theater security brigade doing nonstandard tasks in southern Iraq. We also had a separate battalion, the 2d Battalion, 130th Field Artillery (2-130 FA) from the Kansas Guard, that ran the joint visitor's bureau [JVB] and executed fixed-site security tasks in Baghdad.

Our FSE did the standard, stereotypical fire support tasks in an insurgency environment, such as targeting (both operational and "personality"), fire support coordination in conjunction with the corps MSCs and the integration of joint fires.

Aligned and functionally integrated with the JFEC was the 3d Air Support Operations Group [ASOG], which provides direct support to III Corps and rejoined us when we became MNC-I. It was commanded by an Air Force colonel who was the corps ALO [air liaison officer]. The ASOG ran the ASOC [air support operations center] that executed the air-delivery tasks integrated by the FSE.

The JFEC included the information operations [IO] cell. IO, like much of the corps' organizational structure, matured and changed over time. An Air Force colonel headed the IO cell. It also included an Albanian IO officer.

Then as a carryover from CJTF-7, we inherited the ISF cell. It served as the corps implementation cell for the standardization of ISF. This cell was headed by a British colonel. It was an anomaly--a cell with functions not directly related to JFEC operations. Over time, as the Iraqi Security Forces became increasingly integral to coalition operations. the cell came under the purview of the MNC-I C3.

The JFEC was truly joint and coalition--but it also was an ad hoc organization. Some of the JFEC positions were filled by personnel designated by the joint manning document [JMD]. Others were part of organizations--such as our force FA headquarters, the 3d ASOG and the field support team [FST] from 1st IO Command.

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The quality of the battle staff in the JFEC was terrific. However, the JFEC's ad hoc organization created challenges with staffers rotating in and out of the organization and on different rotation schedules.

The ISF cell had three chiefs in my 13 months in the JFEC--three British colonels, two artillery and one infantry. There were five corps ALOs in 13 months. Initially, the Air Force had all its personnel on 90-day rotations. About seven months into our tour, the Air Force expanded that to 120 days. The ASOG commander and his key staff extended to remain 179 days, which increased stability.

The IO cell had the most turbulence. Although the IO cell had four IO staff officers who deployed with us from III Corps headquarters and remained for the tour, it had five chiefs, one Army and four Air Force. The IO FST of 14 professionals rotated on a four- to six-month schedule, so the cell had three FSTs during our tenure. All these elements rotated through the IO cell on different schedules.

In addition, the IO cell was reinforced by a PSYOP [psychological operations] support element that planned the PSYOP portion of MNC IO.

The manning of the IO cell had constant turbulence that contributed to our challenges to effectively employ IO.

The JFEC had five sections and no deputy or chief of staff to integrate the operations among the sections. Over time, the corps deputy ECOORD [DECOORD] assumed chief-of-staff-like functions (along with targeting, fire support coordination and the integration of joint fires) and the ASOG chief (corps ALO), essentially, served as the deputy. The ASOG chief was senior, experienced and the integrator of most joint fires.

As we examine how we must change to get better, we need to be less ad hoc and more deliberate in the design of the JFEC. That said, the overarching lesson learned is that a coherent JFEC enabled the corps headquarters to synchronize lethal fires and nonlethal effects. We learned the value of having FA fires, the ASOC, IO and, potentially, civil-military operations [CMO] incorporated into one coherent cell under a senior joint fires and effects coordinator while distributed among the command posts for planning and execution.

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Joint Fires. Our main joint fires were air-delivered munitions--Air Force, Navy off the carrier and Marine. We planned ATACMS [Army tactical missile system] fires a couple of times but never delivered them. Most Field Artillery-specific targeting was done at the divisions and brigades or lower.

We had a routine process for providing joint fires. Everyday there was a series of battalion-, brigade- or division-level operations ongoing in support of corps operations. If units needed joint fires, which were allocated by the corps, they submitted ASRs [air support requests] through their divisions up to the corps. We preferred to get the ASRs three days out. But we were not hamstrung by the air tasking order [ATO] process that defined the application of air power in more conventional fighting. The CAOC, the Coalition Air Operations Center, was extremely responsive to our requirements for joint fires.

In the JFEC, we prioritized the ASRs based on the priorities established in the targeting process. During intense combat operations, we typically had more requests than we had air power, which is why the ground force continues to need organic artillery and mortars.

The JFEC priorities enabled the CAOC, a CENTCOM [Central Command] asset, to determine when to surge aircraft at what times and over which locations to maintain an appropriate troop-in-contact, or "TIC," response.

So, if we prioritized air, say in Fallujah and Baghdad, and something happened instead in Mosul, we could flex air from one of those other two locations in response to a TIC. The JFEC representative in the current operations section of the JOC [joint operations center] could make those decisions. The ASOC in the JFEC always had radios blaring in constant contact with the pilots and could immediately divert an aircraft to a higher priority mission.

A TIC was the standard CAS engagement supporting friendly troops. The commander on the ground, usually at the battalion or higher level, employed CAS. He had to positively identify an enemy force and determine that the use of CAS was proportional for the target. For example, we would not drop a 1,000-pound bomb on one guy with an AK-47 rifle.

We tried to maintain a rapid TIC response capability in multiple areas across the country. Our air power was absolutely agile and responsive.

The munition of choice was a 500-pound JDAM [joint direct attack munition]. Most aircraft had JDAMs on board along with a few 1,000-pound and 2,000-pound bombs. The AC-130 gunship, when available, was a particularly effective CAS platform in this environment.

MNC-I Counter-strike. One of the primary functions of the force FA headquarters, at every level, is the prosecution of counter-strike operations to defeat the AIF mortar and rocket threat. The mortar threat is fought more at the battalion, brigade and division levels, while the rocket threat is fought at the brigade and division levels under the umbrella of a corps operations plan.

The AIF fought non-traditionally; it improvised rocket launcher devices and fired rockets from a box on the ground, laid on a berm, mounted in the back of a donkey cart or in the back of a van, or by other means. The counterstrike fight was nontraditional.

As we adapted to counter the enemy, he adapted to counter our new operations--each in a series of adjustments to the other. Any time we were predictable, he figured that out and exploited our predictability and vice versa.

At the corps, we analyzed his patterns and the trends--day or night, types of movement or attacks, points of origin [POOs], timing--to make the insurgents more predictable. We adapted our TTPs [tactics, techniques and procedures] from conventional counterfire operations to counterstrike in an insurgency.

In a conventional fight, there are four elements required to conduct the counterfire fight: take away his "eyes;" rapid, decisive maneuver; and conduct proactive and reactive counterfire operations.

First, you take out his eyes. If you win the counterreconnaissance fight, you've taken out his eyes.

The second element is rapid, offensive and decisive maneuver. If you are on the attack pushing him back, then he's moving, he ain't shooting at you. From a combined arms perspective, that tactic always has been effective in the counterstrike fight.

The third element is proactive counterfire. A lot has been written about how to do that: intelligence analyses; templating the enemy mortars and artillery; and deep attacks with helicopters, CAS or ATACMS fires.

And then the fourth element is the stereotypical reactive counterfire fight. He shoots and you acquire the shot on your counterfire radar and shoot back.

After we arrived in Iraq, we realized that counterinsurgency counterstrike operations had four parallel, yet different, elements.

First, although our units were not conducting a classic counterreconnaissance, they were doing personality-based targeting. For example, they targeted particular cells or individuals who fired the rockets or mortars, facilitated the rocket or mortar men's operations, or financed them.

Second, although we don't conduct rapid, offensive and decisive maneuver routinely, units aggressively patrolled--kept the enemy moving and denied him access to firing points.

Conducting ground and air patrols to deny the enemy access to firing points was very effective but manpower-intensive.

Third, units conducted proactive counterstrike when they established "snap" (impromptu) checkpoints or TCPs [traffic control points]; positioned snipers near likely firing points, based on pattern and trend analyses; and used aircraft and (or) UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] to look for enemy or unusual activities.

We employed air power innovatively for proactive counterstrike, including nonlethal presence and show-of-force missions. In a presence mission, the aircraft flies over a TAI [target area of interest] so the population can see or hear the aircraft. The show-of-force is much more--the aircraft deliberately flies much lower to make the targeted population very aware that coalition air power is readily available. Neither mission delivers any ordnance, but they are effective nonlethal applications of air power for counterinsurgency.

Another way units used air power and FA and mortar fires proactively was for terrain denial missions. The FFA HQ performed pattern analysis to identify the rocket or mortar boxes the enemy shot from and then attacked those targets in order to interrupt enemy operations. We denied him the terrain he wanted to fire from.

Terrain denial by aircraft and fires was very effective. It kept the enemy from establishing and improving positions and getting known aiming reference points, which would allow him to set up and shoot more rapidly. Terrain denial reduced the number of attacks and made them less effective.

However, terrain denial could have an unintended "harassing" effect on a part of the population we didn't want to alienate. So a commander sometimes made a conscious decision not to conduct terrain denial missions because they would be counterproductive for his IO program.

To avoid killing non-combatants and minimize collateral damage, units always had "eyes on" the terrain before they fired on it.

Units used IO as part of their proactive counterstrike. They passed out leaflets and flyers or engaged the local residents to convince them not to tolerate insurgents using their fields or emplacing weapons next to their homes to shoot at us or other Iraqis. (In reactive counterstrike, we also used IO to convince locals never again to allow insurgents to fire from nearby.) CMO, those operations that earn the trust and confidence of the Iraqi people, also contributed to proactive counterstrike.

The fourth element is the reactive counterstrike fight. Sometimes we responded with mortars or cannons and sometimes with CAS, ground QRF or an armed UAV.

Frequently, we employed a combination of assets in reactive counterstrike. We might acquire enemy fires via a Q-36 radar, vector a UAV over the firing site and respond with artillery fire. If the enemy mortar or rocket crew had already moved, the UAV might track the crew to a new location to be attacked by fires or have a QRF capture them, as appropriate for the target and location.

Just before the Iraqi national elections, an indirect fire attack hit the American embassy in Baghdad. That indirect fire came out of a corps TAI in the 1st Cavalry Division AOR [area of responsibility].

The 1st Cav had been patrolling regularly and concentrating IO, CMO, TCPs, human intelligence [HUMINT] and other operations in that area. The 1st Cav responded immediately with an airborne platform over the firing site, which followed the shooters to a village. In a short time, a QRF captured the seven insurgents who launched the attack.

Shortly after we arrived in Baghdad, the force FA headquarters documented all these counterstrike TTPs that units had been developing for more than a year in a corps plan called, "Op Plan Rocketman." All the divisions and I MEF [I Marine Expeditionary Force] developed implementing plans. Essentially, they executed the tenets of Op Plan Rocketman in their AORs. Op Plan Rocketman also established corps counterstrike priorities.

While counterstrike operations is a principal function of the force FA headquarters, it was not all we did. At the corps, the force FA headquarters provided command and control of echelons-above-division FA units conducting nonstandard tasks, provided a command and control capability for other corps operations and conducted future planning for FA units and operational requirements in theater.

In Part II of this interview in the July-August edition, General Formica discusses FFA HQ functions, IO and the Battle of Fallujah.

Ed

Brigadier General Richard P. Formica

Former Commander of the Force FA Headquarters (FFA HQ) and Joint Fires and Effects Coordinator, MultiNational Corps, Iraq (MNC-I)

Brigadier General Richard P. Formica has commanded III Corps Artillery at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, since August 2002. He conducted split-based operations for 13 months when he deployed a portion of the corps artillery headquarters to Baghdad to establish the Force FA Headquarters and the Joint Fires and Effects Cell (JFEC) for the Multinational Corps-Iraq (MNC-I) during Operation Iraqi Freedom II. In his previous assignment, he was the Assistant Deputy Director for Politico-Military Affairs (Europe), J5, on the Joint Staff at the Pentagon. He also commanded the 3d Infantry Division Artillery (Div Arty) at Fort Stewart, Georgia; the 4th Battalion, 42d Field Artillery (4-42 FA), part of the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Hood, Texas; and two batteries. Among other assignments, he was the Deputy Fire Support Coordinator (DFSCOORD), Div Arty S3 and a Brigade Fire Support Officer, all in the 3d Division. He holds a Master of Arts in National Security Strategy from the National War College, Washington, DC.

Interview by Patrecia Slayden Hollis, Editor