CommunityEditor
08-18-2008, 10:54 PM
A joint terminal attack controller called in an airstrike around noon Aug. 5. Minutes later, a 500-pound bomb obliterated the target — a ranch house outside Baghdad that gunmen had used as cover to fire on an Army unit.
It has happened in Iraq hundreds of times over the past five years, but this airstrike was still a first — from start to finish, calling it in was all digital.
JTACs used to depend on their radios to call in coordinates, and pilots wrote them down in the cockpit with grease pens. Now, a vehicle-mounted communications system called the ASOC Gateway can connect a JTAC’s laptop or Military Rugged Tablet to a cockpit display through the Link-16 and Enhanced Position Location Reporting System Situational Awareness Data Link networks.
On Aug. 5, the JTAC calculated the correct coordinates and transmitted them via datalinks through the Gateway directly to the Air Support Operations Center and the strike aircraft in five minutes, said Master Sgt. Matt Nugent, Air Combat Command Tactical Air Control Party requirements lead.
The Air Force deployed a Gateway to Iraq in March, and JTACs have been training on it since.
Senior Master Sgt. Kenneth Lindsey, 682nd Air Support Operations Squadron superintendent, who also landed in Iraq in March, has traveled to every forward operating base where JTACs are located to ensure they know how to use the new system.
Trained-up Tactical Air Control Party airmen are now stationed with three Army divisions, six brigades and 12 battalions.
“It took us a few weeks to get [the JTACs] up to speed, but we’ve lately seen a significant spike in the number of target tracks published, and we expect now that the flood gates will open and” it won’t take as long to get a bomb on target, Nugent said.
A similar Gateway system will be deployed to Afghanistan this fall.
The Gateway’s success has drawn attention from other countries. Thirteen nations have contacted the Air Force saying they are interested in training their air controllers on this new method, Nugent said. The only requirement is that the strike aircraft be equipped to connect to Link 16, something Dutch F-16s and German Tornados can do.
And digital means voice communications will no longer be essential, so JTACs won’t have to worry about language barriers when communicating with foreign pilots.
“Language barrier is a problem, and when you are in a [troops in contact] situation, seconds feel like days and minutes feel like weeks,” Nugent said. “But you can do it digitally no matter what country you are from.”
Article: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/08/airforce_digital_first_081808/
It has happened in Iraq hundreds of times over the past five years, but this airstrike was still a first — from start to finish, calling it in was all digital.
JTACs used to depend on their radios to call in coordinates, and pilots wrote them down in the cockpit with grease pens. Now, a vehicle-mounted communications system called the ASOC Gateway can connect a JTAC’s laptop or Military Rugged Tablet to a cockpit display through the Link-16 and Enhanced Position Location Reporting System Situational Awareness Data Link networks.
On Aug. 5, the JTAC calculated the correct coordinates and transmitted them via datalinks through the Gateway directly to the Air Support Operations Center and the strike aircraft in five minutes, said Master Sgt. Matt Nugent, Air Combat Command Tactical Air Control Party requirements lead.
The Air Force deployed a Gateway to Iraq in March, and JTACs have been training on it since.
Senior Master Sgt. Kenneth Lindsey, 682nd Air Support Operations Squadron superintendent, who also landed in Iraq in March, has traveled to every forward operating base where JTACs are located to ensure they know how to use the new system.
Trained-up Tactical Air Control Party airmen are now stationed with three Army divisions, six brigades and 12 battalions.
“It took us a few weeks to get [the JTACs] up to speed, but we’ve lately seen a significant spike in the number of target tracks published, and we expect now that the flood gates will open and” it won’t take as long to get a bomb on target, Nugent said.
A similar Gateway system will be deployed to Afghanistan this fall.
The Gateway’s success has drawn attention from other countries. Thirteen nations have contacted the Air Force saying they are interested in training their air controllers on this new method, Nugent said. The only requirement is that the strike aircraft be equipped to connect to Link 16, something Dutch F-16s and German Tornados can do.
And digital means voice communications will no longer be essential, so JTACs won’t have to worry about language barriers when communicating with foreign pilots.
“Language barrier is a problem, and when you are in a [troops in contact] situation, seconds feel like days and minutes feel like weeks,” Nugent said. “But you can do it digitally no matter what country you are from.”
Article: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/08/airforce_digital_first_081808/