Providing Security for the Deployment

Posted on | by Caroline Teames
07/20/2011

07/20/2011: As the CRW is deployed to carry its core missions, security is a must.  Sgt. Gomez led the discussion during the SLD visit to the CRW about this challenging task.

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Credit: SLD 2011

Sgt. Gomez: I’ve been with this CRW, actually, since its inception in 2005.

SLD:  You’re that old?

Sgt. Gomez:    I’ve been here for a while, sir.  I was actually in the AMOG 621st Air Mobility Operations Group [621st AMOG] prior to it becoming a CRW here.  I have deployed a few times in Iraq.   And you are looking at some of the tools of the trade.  Basically, we at security forces are in charge of integrated base defense.  And in the CRW, we’re uniquely suited where we can actually integrate non-security forces personnel into our defenses.And unlike typical Air Force units, airmen do arm when they deploy.  But we’re unique in that everybody in the CRW has an individually assigned weapon.  It’s their weapon, they train with it, at home station, they deploy with it downrange.

SLD:Sort of Marine Corps like.

Sgt. Gomez: Very similar, sir.  The Air Force is just now trying to go to that integrated base defense concept, and it’s basically a Marine Corps idea…every marine is a rifleman first is the concept.For the majority of the CRW personnel, we issue M16 series rifles.

SLD: This approach allows you to have a much leaner operation.

Sgt. Gomez: Absolutely, sir.  We carry the M4 variants as the security forces personnel.  Whereas the rest of the CRW, non-security forces personnel will carry the M16A2 or the M16, depending on their particular duty position.We utilize the M249 in an automatic rifleman role, basically supports the rifleman.  We don’t typically use it in stationary mode, because for its volume of fire, it’s a lot lighter, maneuverable, you can move it around.For stationary light machine guns, we use the M240 Bravo.  It’s the 762 variant of this design… puts down a heavier volume of fire.  A little bit more effective against the light armored targets. And then, we utilize the Browning M2 for our standoff role.We also have a sharpshooter sniper capability.  I actually manage the sniper/sharpshooter program for the wing.We utilize the M24 sniper weapon system.  Our sniper weapon system is a bolt gun, you can’t go wrong there.  It’s tremendously accurate.  It’s reliable.

SLD: You are the deployed defense for the CRW.

Sgt. Gomez: Yes, for us, the sniper and the heavy weapons capability are actually critical to our defenses.  They allow us with the smaller package to be a little bit more robust to get that reach out and touch somebody capability, because our big thing in defense is standoff.  A lot of what we’re dealing with now with indirect fire and IEDs, we want to be able to get to them before they can get to us.With our sniper rifle, we can get that standoff capability.

SSG. Scott Adams: I’m in charge of the weapons vault for the wing. We have weapons that we track and need to be cleaned up and ready to go at a moment’s notice.It’s an armory, you have to be armed up when we’re inside the perimeter. I am not a Security Forces member, per se.  One of the vehicles that you just looked at over there, that’s my primary duty.  But in the CRW, you have to learn a little bit of everything and everybody has to wear multiple hats.

SLD: I’ll ask you one last question.  What’s been the biggest challenge when you deploy?

Sgt. Gomez:    From my perspective, I think the biggest challenge is being the primary Air Force presence in that particular area of operations.For example, we opened up air operations at Camp Striker in 2005.  It was an Army base, there were Army rotary wing assets, but there wasn’t an Air Force presence at the base.  We came in as a small, robust package.  We were the Air Force.  We were the Air Force presence. So to me, that was a huge challenge.  We didn’t have the level of Air Force support you would in a typical Air Force unit at an Air Force base.  We have to learn to speak Army and Marine in order to be able to interface with our sister services.And that can be quite challenging coming from an Air Force background.

The CRW Assessment Team

Posted on | by Caroline Teames
07/16/2011

07/14/2011: During the Second Line of Defense visit to the Contingency Response Wing located at McGuire AFB, several of the components of the Wing provided presentations of their approach, capabilities and components.  The Assessment Team, or the soldiers who deploy first to determine what needs to follow to set up an operating airfield in a remote location provided the first of the presentations.Sergeant Nolan initiated the presentation.

SGT. Nolan: This is the assessment team.  This is their equipment.  This is a seven to eight-personnel team, you have your O6 (Colonel – team lead), you have a Contingency Response Element (director of operations) officer, a civil engineering officer, an airfield management officer (or a CE NCO),  security forces, comms, and then you have one or two wildcards.  Depending on where you’re going, what you’re doing, that person may vary.

SLD: I see you use a toughbook.

SGT. Nolan: You have a toughbook.  We have our BGAN, which gives us our Internet. http://www.ts2.pl/en/BGAN-Inmarsat

Secure and unsecure, and then it’ll also provide you with your voice secure and unsecure. Next you have our secure Harris radio for communications outside of the unit and then our PRC152, which allows us to talk amongst ourselves.Next is our drilling equipment for our assessment and construction work.I should underscore that because the assessment team is so small, they all go out and try to take a variety of equipment. And because it is small it is necessary for team members to perform multiple roles.

Senior Airman McCaskill: We would like next to talk about how we manage assets coming into the airfield as we set up operations.  We are air loader specialists. We are Radio Frequency Identification specialists.  We provide asset visibility by using RFID; what goes in the system, we track and trace those assets.

Senior Airman Butler: An RFID tower can be seen here.  This tower connects with the BGAN to provide data from the ground to the system.

SLD: So with the RFID tags, you then can track the stuff that you’re bringing into the operation?

Senior Airman McCaskill: Yes, sir. This is our gate system.  This is vital for aerial reporting.  We try to trace everything existing. For example, you have a piece of cargo right here.  And you put tags on them, and then input the data into the system.

SLD: Do you have any problems with the RFID tagging?

Senior Airman McCaskill: Not yet, sir.

SLD: So, you feel the confidence level is high enough that you just use it?

Senior Airman McCaskill: Yes, sir.  This is our BGAN you already learned about; we can go anywhere in the world that doesn’t have Internet, we take our BGAN so we can log into the Gate System and send information up.Right now, this costs .81 cents a minute, and it sounds like a lot, but what you see here is a loopback mode. It’s not connected to the Internet.  But we can still exchange information.

SLD: So, you can store it on the computer then, then you can process offline?

Senior Airman McCaskill: And then you can send it up offline.

SLD: And then, you can plug in for when you have a signal.

Senior Airman McCaskill: And push the information into the system.

SLD: So, folks can go in and see the status of the flow of the equipment?

Senior Airman McCaskill: Absolutely.

SLD: And which plane it’s on, when it’s going to come, so you get a sense of in transit time, availability.  And obviously, you can work in different airbases for developing all these parts and so forth and so on.

Senior Airman McCaskill: Yes, sir.  Our counterpart is Army.  A lot of times, they’ll bring supplies, and they have everything you see here, and we’ll work with them and send the same information.

Senior Airman Butler: I would like to continue the RFID discussion.We’re actually on location, like he said, when we’re tracking and tracing our cargo, the RFID towers talk to each other, whatever tags on the cargo and equipment. The tags have changed over time, getting smaller. And by becoming smaller, they are a lot easier to work with as well.And we have solar panels available, in case we just don’t have electricity where we’re located, we would have this laid out and utilize it to power our towers.

SLD: So the overall point is that you have a completely mobile system to support the assessment team and the follow on insertion forces.

Senior Airman Butler: Yes, sir.

A Spanish Approach to Maritime Security: The Role of Salvamento Marítimo

Posted on | by Caroline Teames
06/16/2011

06/16/2011: A very interesting presentation by one user of Airbus Military products at the Airbus Military Trade Media event was by Néstor Perales, Surveillance and Prediction Manager at Salvamento Marítimo. http://www.salvamentomaritimo.es/

The organization provided a different business model for the use of a fleet of planes and ships to deliver a service.  The company owns a capability to deliver a service to the Spanish state.  In some ways, this is reminiscent of the Australian approach.http://www.casr.ca/id-senate-australia.htm The organization is a public corporate entity attached to the Ministry of Public Works in Spain.  It was established in 1992 and began operations in 1993.

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Photo Credit:  Salvamento Maritimo

The organization provides four types of services:

  • Search and rescue;
  • Preventing and combating maritime pollution;
  • Provide maritime traffic control services;
  • Provide services involving towing.

The organization has more than 1000 professionals, 21 maritime rescue coordination centers operating 24/7, with strategic bases and one training center.The organization owns a mixed fleet to provide for its services.  It has 74 ships, 11 helicopters and five planes, including three CN-235-300s. These planes are used in support of the first two types of services, namely S and R and dealing with monitoring and combating maritime pollution.“Because of the size of the surface of the Spanish waters and because we have to operate far from our coasts, it is necessary to use satellites as well as planes to monitor the region. We belong to the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) and we receive significant input from this agency for satellite coverage.  And we use three Airbus Military aircraft as well as two smaller visual surveillance planes (the Beechcraft Baron 855) in the effort as well.”

The result is impressive from the joint coverage effort. “We can cover more than 30 million square kilometers with a satellite image and also with our planes. We can control more than 60 thousand vessels in navigation. And we use more then 3 thousand flight hours to support our efforts.”The Airbus Military aircraft have integrated sensors, which are used to deliver a comprehensive product. “One of the most important sensors in the aircraft is an all-weather sensor, and thanks to it we can operate during the day and also during the night. “

Perales added: “When the aircraft lands, we can reconstruct the operation, we can rebuild all the mission, and know exactly where the aircraft was. And everything is collected by us, and then provided to the Spanish authorities. They’re responsible to prosecute any wrong doers.”

The Portuguese 502 Squadron “Elefantes”: Leveraging the C-295M

Posted on | by Caroline Teames
06/14/2011

06/14/2011: During the Airbus Trade Media event, the 502 Squadron Commander, Major Dina Azevedo, discussed the mission sets, which the Command performed, and how they used the C-295M in meeting mission needs. She has been based at Seville, Spain as part of the initial acceptance team and then became the Squadron commander.  The Portuguese are receiving 12 C-295Ms for transport, search and rescue, medical evacuation, with five optimized for maritime surveillance and two for photo reconnaissance.

The normal operational areas are contiguous Portuguese waters and the Mediterranean, although obviously can be deployed globally with proper support capabilities.  The planes can operate for 10 hours on average at a cruising speed of 240 knots.The Portuguese are using the aircraft to provide for a wide range of mission sets.  They will configure their planes for general transport or VIP transport or medical evacuation mission sets.  Search and rescue is a core mission capability, and photoreconnaissance capabilities used for a variety of maritime surveillance missions important to Portugal.She discussed fisheries surveillance, monitoring and controlling illicit activities, monitoring and controlling maritime traffic, and pollution monitoring and control.Having the core capabilities perform such safety and security missions’ means as well the Squadron can support military missions in the maritime environment.The slides in the slideshow focus largely on her discussion of the customization of the aircraft to provide for reconnaissance and surveillance missions.  The point was driven home that the aircraft has several capabilities integrated by the Service to provide for surveillance, monitoring and enforcement maritime activities.

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Photo Credit for Photo’s 1 and 2:

SLD 2011

Photo Credit for photos 3-13:

502 Portugese Squardron “Elepfantes”

She concluded by examining a series of scenarios of operations in Portuguese waters of how the systems are used to achieve the desired results. The first situation is monitoring the Portuguese continental coast, which covers approximately 1600 nautical miles.  With aircraft, they can cover 1400 nm and spend three hours over an area of interest.

  • The second situation is monitoring the waters around the Azores.  This also is an area of approximately 1600 nautical miles.  Their experience has been the ability to cover either 1600nm and have the ability to be over an area of interest for two hours or cover 1800nm and have thee ability to be over an area of interest for one hour.
  • The third mission involves dealing with the Madeira Coast. This is a Portuguese archipelago that lies just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union. Here with the C-295M, they can cover the Coast over 1600nms with 2 hours loitering over an area of interest or operate 1000nms from the Portuguese home territory and operate up to five hours over an area of interest. They have also used the aircraft in dealing with illegal immigration missions, notably from the upheaval from North Africa.  The Portuguese are providing support to the European Union immigration control missions.  The demand for maritime patrol aircraft to provide for such missions outstrips supply.

Major Azevedo concluded that the aircraft has good endurance capabilities, can operate off of short fields, with state of the art equipment, including the communications suites, for the core missions.

Evolving Air Power Paradigms

Posted on | by Caroline Teames
06/13/2011

The Emergence of the Three Dimensional Warriors

By Robbin Laird

06/16/2011 – As we look forward to the next decade of air power, the question of how best to understand the way forward is rooted in an understanding that past is not prologue.  The leveraging of new technologies in preparing for the technologies after next is the most cost-effective as well as operational viable approach.

In broad terms, modern air power has been shaped over the past thirty years by what emerged as air-land battle doctrine.  Here the Army was asked to move to a new maneuver concept with air power delivering decisive blows against enemy forces on the battlefield, at the rear, and against moving logistical support elements.  This required the acquisition of air superiority, after which air elements engaged with a mobile ground force could seek destruction of enemy forces.

The air-land approach shaped to deal with the Soviet forces facing Europe was executed in the first Gulf War.  Here the decisive impact of U.S. and allied forces against the fourth largest army in the world was game changing.  Competitors looking at the results noted the need to re-shape their approaches.

Such a re-shaping first started in Bosnia, as the Serbs began to mask and catalogue forces.  And to try various techniques to unmask stealth and to use mobile systems to strike air assets.  The air campaign was remarkably successful; but only to the point of needing to insert ground forces to shape outcomes.  Indeed, the core lesson of air-land battle was the need to combine air power with maneuvering ground forces.  This lesson was simply reinforced by the Bosnia experience. With Gulf War II, a new variant of air land battle was implemented, with a significant expansion of the ground maneuvering capability of the USMC and the US Army.  In the case of the USMC, they took their airpower with them, in shaping an ability to encircle and destroy Iraqi forces.  The USMC began to demonstrate distributed operations enabled by air power, a template that is central to the next age of air power.

The decade of COIN first in Iraq and then in Afghanistan has inverted for many the meaning of airpower. For this generation, air power is largely a support function.  The air arm delivers supplies and support to the disbursed ground forces.  An air dropping revolution has facilitated an ability for the ground forces to operate without needing to build Walmarts everywhere they go.  Aeromedivac has progressed to the point that on average soldiers can be brought back stateside in only three days compare to more than 40 in Vietnam.

Remotely piloted vehicles have been able to create asymmetrical strike options against adversaries who use Pakistani territory.  Individual ground units can deploy their own ISR assets to support operations. Indeed, for many RPAs are the future of airpower, but the limitations of these assets are so profound that there is little credibility in making this assumption.  But clearly, RPAs are part of the future of air power.

When looking at the decade ahead is the continuation of the COIN model with its assumption of air superiority really a realistic assumption?

A large part of the answer is how innovative U.S. leadership can be.  There is a troubling trend to keep buying aircraft the Indians don’t want. They answer in large part is how effectively one leverages fifth generation aircraft and changes strategy, doctrine and tactics to take advantage of what they aircraft bring to the table. The next age could clearly be of what we have called the Three Dimensional Warrior.  Here the ability to use air assets to provide for 360-degree situational awareness and flying combat systems becomes a key element for any ground or surface operation.  US forces do not want to be in a far fight; moving a COIN force to Three Dimensional Warriors is a core element of ensuring that the US is not seeking equality in warfare.

In many ways, the shift in air power is from a consideration of the air element as operating as the strategic hammer to considering air power as the enabler of multi-spectrum, multi mission operations in the 21st century.  The much greater capabilities of individual platforms and of fleets operating with such capabilities in mind enable the ground and surface forces to operate with greater range and effectiveness.  A new approach to power projection is possible, whereby the U.S. can link its forces much more effectively, with greater lethality and greater range.

Brazil and Rugged Air Ops

Posted on | by Caroline Teames
06/06/2011

06/06/2011 The Brazilians operate their aircraft under very demanding conditions.  The Super Tucano and CN-295 are both examples of rugged aircraft operating in these conditions.

As a senior Embraer executive stated to SLD:

The Super Tucano started off as the EMB 312 Trainer many years ago and migrated into the Super Tucano.  Currently, more than the six countries are flying the Super Tucano. Based on the needs of the Brazilian Air Force, they wanted a light attack COIN aircraft that was designed from the bottom up to be able to operate out of austere environments without a large logistical footprint because most of the areas that they would be operating would be in the Amazon region and there just weren’t a lot of airfields and the airfields that they had certainly weren’t developed.

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Photo Credit: Brazilian Air Force

Similar to the Super Tucano, the C-295 operates well in the rugged Brazilian domain.  In a briefing submitted to the Airbus Trade Media event in 2011, a senior Brazilian AF officer provided an overview of those circumstances and the response of the plane to those challenges.The brief highlighted the need to operate in bad weather conditions and to operate in frequent rain conditions. The plane had to operate regularly on less the optimal runways.  Indeed, the norm is to operate on semi-prepared runways.  The plane is able to takeoff and land in a short distance carrying full loads.

In short, the Brazilian environment is demanding and has provided a real world testing ground for Airbus Military and Embraer to evolve tough products for a tough world. It might be noted that the USCG has bought the younger brother to the C-295, the C-235, because of its belief in the ruggedness of the airplane.

A New Approach to Airlift and Tanking

Posted on | by Caroline Teames
06/01/2011

06/01/2011: The Shifting Strategic Environment: A New Approach to Airlift and Tanking

The United States has inherited and chosen to pursue the specialized aircraft route to airlift and tanking; Airbus Military has chosen a multi-mission path to providing for airlift and tanking capabilities for its customers. When the DOD chose the Boeing tanker built on a 40 year old airframe and an aircraft too small to do anything other than tanking, the DOD chose against the global trend.  That trend is for multi-mission aircraft able to operate on more than a single specialty. The difference in perspective was on display in the briefing by Antonio Rodríguez Barberán, Senior Vice President Commercial, at the Airbus Military Trade event in mid-May 2011.

At the heart of Barberán ‘s argument was that there was fundamental shift under way from the Cold War use of lift and tanking focused upon pure play military missions to a 21st century approach to global multi-mission taskings.  Global security – air, ground and maritime – required the availability of lift and tanking assets to be deployable for global and regional operations.The presentation focused on increased demand due to the need to deal with natural disasters, oil spills and pollution control, controlling illegal immigration, global peacekeeping or stability operations, counter-piracy and maritime security missions.  All of these missions together are broadening and changing the demand set facing the lift and tanking market.

The demand is going up, but the budgets are flat or decreasing. “We need to think of solutions that are reliable, that are modern, but more efficient, and specifically very easy to maintain.  We cannot any more think of the top, top, top, of this sophistication and having a system that it is flying fantastically at home, but when you are deploying the system 6,000 kilometers away from home, it is unflyable.  We need to really work on improving systems and on easy-to-maintain systems.”Maintainability is a key consideration of the new products. “We are concentrating mainly on systems, reliable and easy to maintain when deployed outside the range of our customers territory”.

And this perspective also shaped an understanding of how to assess cost comparisons of the operations of aircraft. Barberán recognized that the point of cost is really delivered capability or service, not the IOC of a single airframe.  In the United States, the current debate is gripped by a distinct inability to grasp this point.  And this is particularly ironic given that the US DOD OPERATES with a fleet perspective, but does not buy that way.

Barberán argued that the true life cycle cost comparison is rooted in fleet productivity and associated costs of alternative aircraft fleets in operation.  So 10 A400Ms can do the job of 22 C-130Js or 12 C130Js plus 2 C-17s.  And the equivalence is measured in tones delivered times distance flown times availability rates. And the equivalent of 10 A400Ms operating is equivalent to 22 C130Js, which would cost 60% more, or 12 C130Js plus 2 C-17s, which would cost 25% more.

The Weather Piece at the TACC

Posted on | by Caroline Teames
05/27/2011

The Weather Piece

05/27/2011 – First Lieutenant Adam Bennett  led the discussion at the Tanker Airlift Control Center (TACC) of how weather planning figures into both the planning and execution of the TACC missions.


Working the Weather Issues in the TACC Command Center

Credit: TACC

SLD: What do the weather planners do on the TACC team?

Bennett: We ensure seasonal weather threats are taken into account during the planning stages of a mission.  For example, tanker planners will come to us and say they are considering looking into changing where tankers are stationed.  We’ll, take that information and build a climatology brief for them highlighting seasonal weather impacts (thunderstorms, ceiling/visibility restrictions, wind gusts, and temperature) at each airfield they are considering.

SLD: A cycle manager, basically.

Bennett: Yes.  On the operations side, we continuously monitor the current weather and forecast up to 48 hours in advance.  We’ll take the forecast and issue weather threats that may impact TACC missions, and we’ll work with the flight managers to mitigate these threats.  For example, if for some reason an airfield’s ceiling and visibility conditions go below their prescribed minimums; a volcano erupts; or there is a hurricane out in the Atlantic; we’ll work with the flight managers on the floor and the execution people to tailor the mission around the threat and make sure the delay is minimal.

My job in TACC is to take the weather information from both the operations and planning sides and present it to the General Officers during their daily operations briefing.  I advise the General Officers of what the current weather threats are and what we are doing to mitigate those threats.  For example, I’ll brief them about a dust storm affecting operations in Iraq, and advise them of what mitigation efforts are being conducted.

SLD: You’re taking the daily operations plan and you’re saying “nice plan, but here’s the weather forecast I’m putting up against your plan”?

Bennett: That’s correct.  Yes. As weather forecasters, we can’t vector their plan; that is reserved for the Air Traffic Controllers.  But, we can advise them on a better route.

And where we sit on the floor is very crucial for operations.  We sit right next to the flight managers, so we can easily communicate the weather threats to them.  We’re also sitting right next to aeromedical evacuation folks.  If they have something that pops up, they can quickly ask us for weather information and we can advise them on current weather threats.  We are also centrally located for the planners.

SLD: What are the biggest challenges to getting it right, from your point of view?

Bennett: I think the biggest challenge that we have is staying horizontally consistent. We’re not the ones actually writing a forecast for every single location across the globe.  That would take hundreds of forecasters.  What we do is to take forecasts from other Air Force units and modify them to make them relevant to TACC missions.

The challenge is the collaboration process and coming up with a forecast that multiple forecasters can agree on.  The goal is to provide a single accurate forecast rather than multiple, slightly different ones.