The 19th BCD in counterinsurgency operations.

The 19th Battlefield Coordination Detachment (BCD) is "on point" in Central Command's (CENTCOM's) area of responsibility (AOR) and is integrated at the top of the joint effects hierarchy at the Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) at Al Udeid Airbase, Qatar. Since September 2004, the 19th BCD has executed its wartime mission in support of Operations Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Iraqi Freedom (OIF). We continue a legacy of continuous air power integration in the region, dating from Operation Desert Storm nearly 15 years ago. (See Figure 1 for the 19th BCD's mission.)

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Since the conclusion of major combat operations in Iraq, Coalition Forces have faced an ever-maturing insurgency consisting of a thinking and adaptive enemy. The hallmark of the Army is its ability to reflect and adjust in mid-stride. We have undergone significant adjustments in the tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) associated with all facets of effects-based operations (EBO) in response to the insurgent threat. The most significant changes have been in the application of joint effects.

The BCD has evolved to meet the challenges of the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) environment while retaining basic capabilities. The fundamental roles and functions outlined in Field Manual 3-09.13 The Battlefield Coordination Detachment are firmly established as our doctrinal base and remain just as relevant in counterinsurgency operations as in high-intensity conflict environs. That said, the focus of the BCD has changed to meet the tactical realities on the ground.

The Shorter Air Tasking Order (ATO) Cycle. To the benefit of ground forces, the Coalition Forces Air Component Commander (CFACC) also has adapted to the counterinsurgency environment. The joint targeting process and ATO is leaner, shorter and more flexible in its ability to support ground force requirements for air power.

The ATO planning cycle has contracted from the typical 72-hour process to a 44-hour cycle. What this means for effects coordinators at the battalion and brigade combat team (BCT) levels is an air support request (ASR) submission deadline that better supports the kind of abbreviated planning cycle often conducted at those levels in counterinsurgency operations. (See Figure 2 on Page 18 for the 44-hour joint air tasking cycle.)

To achieve the shortened ATO cycle, the CFACC has reduced the frequency of the assessment and strategy reviews by publishing the air operations directive (AOD) on a weekly vice daily basis. The AOD is his vehicle for issuing planning guidance and priorities for air power. As the supporting command, the CFACC fully integrates MultiNational Corps, Iraq/Combined Joint Task Force 76 (MNC-I/CJTF-76) commanders' priorities and desired effects into the AOD.

For ground forces, this means that the MNC-I's or CJTF-76's prioritized air support list (ASL), the roll up of ASRs for a specific ATO cycle, is the de facto CFACC prioritization for air support.

Due to reduced demand for kinetic targeting, the CFACC executes the guidance, allocation and targeting (GAT) process by exception. The current complement of airframes available throughout the AOR allows the CFACC to support the vast majority of ASRs from both theaters everyday.

The BCD in Counterinsurgency Operations. The BCD continues to exercise its primary mission of ensuring that the ground commander's requirements for air power articulated in the form of ASRs are met or suitable alternatives are provided, as necessary. To perform this mission, the BCD counts on fire supporters at all levels to clearly articulate their desired effects, not capabilities.

The term "effect" is target-centric. Effects are related to those enemy behaviors the ground commander wishes to modify through the use of fire support, regardless of type. In a broader sense, effects may be achieved using either lethal, nonlethal or a combination of the two. "Capabilities" relate to the performance standards of particular airframes. While requesting a particular airframe is frowned upon as it limits air planners in their flexibility, requesting capabilities as a complement to the articulated effects is acceptable.

Ground Commanders should ask for a precision-guided munition (PGM)-capable aircraft, but they should not ask for an F-15 when any aircraft carrying a PGM will do. It's about the effect to be achieved, not the aircraft achieving it.

Aircrew Situational Awareness of Ground Operations. The nature of counterinsurgency operations dictates that the BCD provide a very detailed and precise level of coordination to achieve the ground commander's desired effects. In an environment where company-level operations frequently require joint effects and often have theater-level strategic implications, pilots and air planners need to understand the details of each operation to integrate air power.

Frankly, the 19th BCD encounters resistance from ground units to the idea that a three-star headquarters requires such a micro-view of operations. We have learned that the macro-view of the ground scheme of maneuver that is echelons-above-battalion level provides insufficient situational awareness to the CFACC and his aircrews.

Currently, the 19th BCD monitors an average of 25 named operations of relevance in OIF and 10 named operations in OEF daily. This represents the most significant operations in a list of many. The BCD is the point of entry to the CAOC for these missions and associated graphics and uses the ground liaison team (GLT) to ensure that key graphics make it into the cockpit of supporting aircrews.

Simply put, if a pilot can quickly orient on a company commander's graphic control measures, he can efficiently and effectively provide the needed effects; his enhanced situational awareness may make him a force multiplier in ways the ground commander may not have anticipated.

The message for battalion fire support officers (FSOs) is that the BCD needs your graphics for those company-level operations that are supported by air power. FSOs must think of the BCD as an extension of their reinforcing headquarters and provide the same degree of situational awareness to the joint community via the BCD.

Lethal and Nonlethal Effects. The CAOC's target cell provides collateral damage estimates (CDEs) for preplanned targets requiring kinetic strike. The CDE requirements differ between theaters, but the target cell works closely with its counterpart at CENTCOM to ensure that the right CDE calls are made in a timely fashion. This ensures commanders understand the level of risk they are assuming.

Similarly, rules of engagement (ROE) differ for both theaters. Given the fact that theater air power is provided by a coalition of nations, each of whom may have unique elements of ROE, the CAOC legal team must ensure coalition partners are not asked to deliver air power in a manner contradictory to their respective ROEs. The BCD supports the ground commander by facilitating the CDE process and helps to integrate air power in accordance with the established ROE.

A critical capability of air support to ground operations has become what has been variably described as the "show of force" or "presence" mission. These ostensibly are close air support (CAS) missions to achieve two, simultaneous nonlethal effects for the ground tactical commander. Captain Joseph Katz touched on this capability in his article, "Afghanistan--The Role of 'Show-of-Presence' Aircraft in the First Democratic Elections" in the January-February edition.

In brief, ground commanders in both theaters have determined that high-performance aircraft flying in visible and aggressive profiles achieve simultaneous effects. They serve as reassurance for law-abiding citizens and as a forceful deterrent to would-be evildoers.

The BCD works closely with fires and effects cell (FEC) personnel in both theaters to ensure ASRs clearly articulate the effects desired and Air Force strategists and combat planners fully appreciate the context in which these missions are to be flown.

Information Operations (IO). The BCD is a key integrator in the realm of IO and its related elements. According to Field Manual 3-13 Information Operations as well as its joint counterpart, Joint Publication 3-13 of the same name, an important supporting element of IO is physical destruction. There are several other IO-related aerial capabilities that BCD personnel routinely integrate into ground operations. The increased use of air- and ground-based electronic warfare (EW) assets in both OIF and OEF theaters provides an enhanced effect to ground commanders and adds to the complexity of joint effects integration. The BCD provides liaison through the CAOC's EW element to the EW coordinators in the MNC-I/CJTF-76 FECs to help plan and deconflict EW effects across the battlespace.

Intelligence Support. To defeat insurgents, ground commanders require an unprecedented level of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities to provide the "long, unblinking eye" necessary to develop a multitude of elusive targets. The CFACC provides a host of assets to support the collection demand--U2, joint surveillance and target attack radar system (JSTARS), Predator, Global Hawk, P-3 aircraft and others. The CFACC's ISR division has developed innovative cross-cueing TTPs, integrated non-traditional ISR platforms and learned to squeeze the most out of existing assets in its struggle to satisfy the demand for intelligence.

The Detect phase of the Decide-Detect-Deliver-Assess targeting cycle has grown in complexity as the insurgency matures. There is a clear need for a strong coordination cell to represent the ground commander in the CAOC's planning and execution of joint ISR operations. Remarkably, the BCD's intelligence section does not have a doctrinal role in the joint collection process. FM 3-09.13 assigns the intel section the mission of providing air power with the ground commander's view of the enemy and targeting tasks.

Nonetheless, the 19th BCD facilitates the resourcing and execution of ISR operations to support the joint integrated prioritized collection list (JIPCL). The 19th BCD has made significant inroads into filling this void and increased the efficiency of the collection process on behalf of the ground commander.

Airspace Management. The BCD airspace section has a wide range of tasks in support of counterinsurgency operations. The airspace section executes the same coordination tasks in counterinsurgency operations as in high-intensity conflict. It processes an average of 750 Army airspace control measure requests (ACMRs) daily via the tactical airspace integration system (TAIS). This ensures every Army aircraft in theater is "missioned" on the ATO and provides the CFACC staff and aircrews situational awareness of known flight hazards, such as explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) points and active ground firing ranges. This is a daunting task list, especially in the mature, high-density and nonlinear battlespace of Afghanistan and Iraq.

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The section fulfills a key role as the Army's advocate to the CFACC, who is dual-hatted as the airspace control authority. What this means to Army airspace coordinators is that the BCD airspace section has a seat at the table where the most important decisions regarding joint airspace management are made.

The section is uniquely postured to facilitate solutions on behalf of the ground commander if armed with a solid understanding of issues and requirements. Additionally, the section uses its proximity to the CFACC's airspace and air traffic control sections to influence the baseline documents that govern airspace operating procedures: the airspace control plan (ACP), airspace control order (ACO) and special instructions (SPINS).

The section works to deconflict competing requirements and priorities for airspace usage in an extremely congested operational environment. The challenge is truly unique as the airspace architecture in both Iraq and Afghanistan are rapidly maturing from their previous wartime state to peacetime civil airspace in the near future.

The complexity of airspace management is immense. It equals the level of coordination required to clear counterbattery fires in battlespace that is occupied by Army, Marine, Air Force and Navy forces plus Coalition partners, a plethora of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commercial airline traffic and special operations aircraft. Then add a credible ground-to-air threat and place the Hot Platoon inside what normally would be considered Class B airspace due to the high density of air traffic. At the same time, the air traffic command and control facilities are partially manned by host nation operators because they own the airspace.

The Way Ahead. Ironically, BCD personnel often find they are more understood by Air Force personnel than by their Army brethren. As fire supporters, we must work to overcome this visibility gap and educate our own ranks. The BCD is the key point of entrance for fire support elements (FSEs) and FECs to ensure vital aerial fire support for ground forces.

Recently, BCDs were designated O-6 commander positions, a brigade command selection list billet with concurrent efforts to code the operations sergeant major position as a command sergeant major billet. Additional efforts are underway to recode BCD positions as joint assignments.

It is essential that we, as fire supporters, educate each other and our respective senior Army leadership of the significant role the BCD plays at the operational level of joint warfare and in the modular structure of the force interface with FECs in higher tactical headquarters, operational-level headquarters and joint task forces (JTFs).

Colonel James M. Waring commands the 19th Battlefield Coordination Detachment (BCD) out of Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany. He deployed the 19th BCD to Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar in September 2004. His other commands include serving as Commander of the 1st Battalion, 7th Field Artillery (1-7 FA), 1st Infantry Division (Mechanized), in Germany. His operational deployments include Operations Desert Shield and Storm and Operation Desert Thunder in the Gulf and Operation Joint Guardian II in Kosovo.

Lieutenant Colonel Carl L. Giles, Aviation, is the Chief of Plans for the 19th BCD in Qatar. A Senior Army Aviator, his previous assignments include serving as S3 and Executive Officer for the 1-227 Attack Helicopter Regiment (AH-64D) of the 1st Cavalry Division, located at Fort Hood, TX. He also served with the 1st Armored Division during Operation Desert Storm and as an Aviation Officer Advanced Course Small Group Instructor at Fort Rucker, Alabama.

Chief Warrant Officer Three John A. Robinson is the Targeting and Information Operations Officer for the 19th BCD in Qatar. He previously served as the Targeting Officer and Field Artillery Intelligence Officer (FAIO) for Combined Joint Task Force-180 (CJTF-180) in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and as Targeting Officer/FAIO for CJTF-Mountain, also in OEF.

By Colonel James M. Waring, Lieutenant Colonel Carl L. Giles, AV, and Chief Warrant Officer Three John A. Robinson

Serve as the liaison between COMARFOR (MNC-I/CJTF-76) and the CFACC to
facilitate and synchronize air and ground operations in the designated
AOR.

Key Tasks
* Process and coordinate all pre-planned and immediate ASRs.
* Exchange operational and intelligence data between ARFOR and the CAOC:
  -- Monitor/interpret current ground operations to enhance situational
     awareness within the CAOC.
  -- Provide the ARFOR view of the enemy situation to the CFACC and
     staff.
  -- Provide the GLTs the best available information for pilot briefings
     for missions in support of ground operations.
* Monitor the current ATO execution.
* Coordinate Army aviation fires into the ATO and ACO.
* Coordinate Army intra-theater airlift assets.

Legend:
ACO = Airspace Control Order
AOR = Area of Responsibility
ARFOR = Army Forces
ASRs = Air Support Requests
ATO = Air Tasking Order
CAOC = Combined Air Operations Center
CFACC = Coalition Forces Air Component Commander
CJTF = Combined Joint Task Force
COMARFOR = Commander, Army Forces
GLTs = Ground Liaison Teams
MNC-I = MultiNational Corps, Iraq

Figure 1: 19th Battlefield Coordination Detachment (BCD) Mission