BVR*

A comment in Bean's post from Saturday, got me to thinking.

I know, Sarge, that's always dangerous, but I've got to post something.

Anyhow that comment was:

"I remember in Desert Storm an Airforce Air Jockey got an Air metal for refused to fire a missile at a target that an AWAC had designated as a "bad guy" because his gut told him that the profile didn't match an enemy helicopter and he flat out refused and went and closed for a visual and it was a pair of black hawks,and the pilot was really pissed he went up the chain of command raising hell pissed. I heard about the initial drama from the air liasion attached to my unit because he was getting stuff from the Airforce side of the house. The Airforce back then had always denigrated Army aviation as "unworthy" in their eyes, it was a cultural thing. After the shoot down in 1994, it forced the changes of protocols and procedures to prevent future "blue on blue" accidents."

And I'll get back to it shortly.

When I received my wings in '79, the Air Force (Two words, Mr G ;-) ) had just brought the F-15 to operational status.  Most Fighters in it were Vietnam era and the F-4 was, by far, the most prevalent one in the inventory.  It's weapons, while formidable, had some growing pains and, to be honest, still were not particularly reliable until the AIM-7F (Radar guided) and the AIM-9P (heat seeker) became operational.  I remember one of my IP's at Luke telling me as I got ready for an Air to Air Ride, to shoot off the missiles to scare the bad guy, then close for guns.

He was serious.

Back in my formative years, I'd read stories about WWI Fighter Pilots who, on losing a wingman, would have their crew chief rearm their airplane and fly over the enemy base dropping a wrench with a message attached inviting the adversary to come up and "duel".  Evidently that was still a mindset, of sorts when I got to the Phantom.

At least among some.

But, as I said, the F-15 came along and while it did have some growing pains, weapons wise, it was head over heals better than anything we had in the inventory for the Air to Air mission.  However, most of that capability was classified.  So, I'm out on my graduation ride, I'm a wingman on a low level ground attack on an enemy airfield on the ranges south of Phoenix.  It's hot and bumpy and were going 540 K (9 miles per minute) at "500'" above the ground.  I didn't have time to look inside.  I, like everyone else, "eyeballed" it.

Yep, 500' on the nose!
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Eagles were our adversary.  As I'm approaching the target area on my lead's right side, I hear a call on the common frequency of "kill right hand F-4" over the point I was.  I'm thinking BS, but we're still got to drop the bombs for training.  Come back to the squadron after the mission, board a helicopter and ride down to Gila Bend to be the shot down pilot who's the object of the afternoon rescue mission.

It was kinda fun, given that it was training, and I may detail it a bit later.

The point of the BS thought was that was the mindset at the time.  Low and fast might get you shot down by AAA, but NO F'in WAY by SAM or Air to Air!

Fast forward a few years and a couple thousand hours of flying time.  I report back to Luke AFB to transition to the Eagle (Thank you Col Jim "Vegas" Cox.  Bless you and RIP Sir.) and on my very first sortie, we're out in an area burning down fuel to get to landing weight to practice, well, landings.  But, we're out in a low level area because that was all that was available.  My IP doesn't want me, on my first sortie in the jet (Solo by the way, loved it) to be at low altitude and working the radar.  PK of the ground being very nearly 100%.  So, I'm at the top of the altitude block and he's the target at the bottom near the ground.

Clean Eagle Loaded for Bear
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I had no problem detecting him, locking on to him, getting missile tracking indications and taking the shot.  That would have been next to impossible in the F-4 even with a good WSO.  Ground return would have blanked out the target return.

So.  Long intro to my point.  The Air Force had with the F-15 and F-16 made a giant leap into the future in air to air lethality.

Unfortunately, the rules did not keep up with that drive.  New rules would have to be developed such that targets could be engaged at the distances that the new weapons could handle.  A head on AIM 7M shot taken at 20NM was heart of the envelope, even if the target turned and ran, the missile had a decent chance of chasing him down.  The AIM-9M while shorter ranged was even more deadly.

So...Closing on a target to visually ID it was no longer a good idea.  The situation might require it, but your life insurance premiums should be up to speed.

This change in circumstance made the requirement for Beyond Visual Range Identification methods crucial.  One of the first attempts was called Eagle Eye.  A rifle scope mounted to the side of the gunsight.

No....I'm not kidding.  I'm supposed to be looking through a rifle scope while piloting a fighter at well above the speed of sound against a target coming at me also well above the speed of sound and who might not be alone.

RIIIIIIIIGGGGGHHHHHHTTTTT!  Somebody made General with that idea!

I flew with it once, tried it on one intercept and finally caught site of the other guy as he swung my 3/9 line.  (He was turning behind me.)  Went back to eyeballs outside the cockpit and did better.

Other methods included something called Non-Cooperative Target Recognition (NCTR).  Not going to go into detail on that, as, when I was flying even saying those letters would get you in trouble. However, evidently times have changed.  But even that had some limitations.

So, what did it take to shoot BVR?  Well, it would depend on the Rules of Engagement.  But generally if a radar, your onboard radar, Ground Controlled Intercept (GCI) Radar or AWACS, had maintained continuous tracking of the target after detecting it launching from a known bad guy base AND it wasn't squawking a Friendly Transponder code (those things they show on TV when they show a radar screen Numbers and such), they could declare it hostile.

Another way to shoot BVR was to hold friendly forces on the ground until the airspace had been searched and no aircraft were airborne in front of the sweepers squawking friendly squawks.

And finally we get to the point.

These rule changes require the cooperation of all involved.  While they had been developed, tested  practiced and modified as determined in very large exercises  (e.g. Red Flag) for years, Desert Storm was the first time they were actually used for "realsies".

But this requires a change in mindset for others also.  The Army and the Air Force had a bitter divorce after WWII. (IMHO both sides were wrong. but that's suitable for several years of later posting and the comments might get a bit "robust".)

From the Air Force's point of view, somebody needed to know who, where, and when, everybody flying in the airspace was to deconflict, protect if necessary and not kill the wrong folks.   Sounds Reasonable.

The Army's point of view was, "we need to be able to use our air assets to supply, insert, evacuate, protect our ground forces as required".  Also sounds reasonable.

Now, I'm buttoning up my flak jacket as I've been down this road many times before.  While I was at Army Command and Staff, I had to learn about, explain and defend the Joint Forces Air Combat Commander (JFACC) more times than I can count.

The concept is to have one person that handles the Air portion of the war, coordinating, deconflicting, moving assets to support various missions according to the overall commander's plan and priorities.

My Marine Lt Col thesis advisor from School for Advanced Military Studies (the Jedi Knights of Desert Storm were graduates thereof) was very adamant that this was just a power play to "Take Marine Air away".

Suffice it to say, we had "Interesting" discussions.  After Graduation, I was assigned to USCincPac as the lead of their Joint Task Force Augmentation Cell.  Part of my job was training 7th Fleet, 3rd MEF and I Corps Officers and Enlisted procedures for Joint Task Force operations.  Part of that training was  JFACC procedures if the JTF mission required one.  I spent a lot of time reassuring people that the JFACC was not necessarily an Air Force officer but it needed to be someone familiar with Air Operations and what would be needed to support whatever mission that particular JTF was stood up to perform.

That was in 1992.  After many spectacular discussions between myself and the 3 star JTF commanders to be (fortunately I was well defended by my O-6 Army boss and his O-10 Navy boss), we worked out the details.

Blackhawk
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Hind.  Easy to see the difference, right? Now try it at 450 K a couple of hundred feet off the ground.
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And then in 1993, Billy Jeff was elected and promptly started cutting the military.  Training was cut significantly.  Flying time also. Tragically, this perfect storm came to a head in 1994.  The specifics of the Blackhawk shootdown can be read here.  But as a result of and in addition to the training and flying time cuts, were  poor procedure compliance inside the AWACS, squawking the wrong IFF codes and using a different radio frequency in the Blackhawks.  On the Eagle Side, poor communication procedures by the Eagle Drivers (LtCol May should have communicated that he was unsure of the helicopters ID, "Tally Two" means I see and confirm two Bandits".  "Visual two bogeys" would have been the correct call in the circumstance.) That combination of all those circumstances, I believe, caused the shootdown, and not a feeling that Army Aviation was "unworthy".

So, Mr G.  The guy in Desert Storm did the right thing, because he sensed something was wrong and he had the courage to question it.  The shoot down in 1994 did, in fact,  force "...changes of protocols and procedures to prevent future "blue on blue" accidents.".  Most of those changes involved requiring aviation units to follow the requirements of the Air Tasking Orders and other procedures as outlined by the JFACC, whichever uniform that officer wears.

Train how you want to fight because you'll fight like you trained.



*Beyond Visual Range. The shot was fired before you can see the target.