Combined arms
In the 1991 Gulf War a mix of strikes by fixed-wing aircraft including carpet bombing and precision bombing was used in combination with large numbers of strikes by attack helicopters. During the ground assault phase tanks and other AFV's supported by attack aircraft swept over remaining forces. The front moving line moved forward at upwards of 40–50 km/h at the upper limit of the Army's tracked vehicles.
In 2000, the US Army began developing a new set of doctrines intended to use information superiority to wage warfare. Six pieces of equipment were crucial for this: AWACS, an air-borne look-down radar JSTARS, GPS, the lowly SINCGARS VHF digital radio, and ruggedized PCs. The mix is supplemented by satellite photos and passive reception of enemy radio emission, forward observers with digital target designation, specialized scouting aircraft, anti-artillery radars and gun-laying software for artillery. Everything feeds the network.
Based on this doctrine, many U.S. ground vehicles moved across the landscape alone. If they encountered an enemy troop or vehicle concentration, they would assume a defensive, lay down as much covering fire as they could, designate the targets for requested air and artillery assets. Within a few minutes, on station aircraft would direct their missions to cover the ground vehicle. Within half hour heavy attack forces would concentrate to relieve the isolated vehicle. In an hour and a half the relieved vehicle would be resupplied.
Opposing forces have found the system vulnerable to deception and asymmetric attack in wargame scenarios. One of the most disruptive actions of simulated opponents was to use motorcycle couriers instead of electronic communications. This effectively made the location of enemy command and control centers invisible to radio-surveillance satellites. Another significantly disruptive activity was to move assets and use decoys. Relatively simple decoys fooled aircraft ground-search radars and satellite scanning.
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See also
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References
- House, Jonathan M. Toward Combined Arms Warfare: A Survey of 20th-Century Tactics, Doctrine, and Organization. US Army Command General Staff College, 1984. Available online or through University Press of the Pacific (2002).
- Perry, Roland, Monash: The outsider who won a war, Random House, Sydney, 2004
- Stanton, Shelby, The 1st Cav in Vietnam:Anatomy of a division, Presidio Press, Novato, 1999
- Schlight, John, Help from above: Air Force Close Air Support of the Army 1946-1973, Air Force History and Museums program, Washington D.C., 2003
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