The USAF’s RQ-1A Predator, with a 24-hour endurance capability, mounted a synthetic-aperture radar that enabled it to track targets through clouds and thereby augment the two E-8 Joint STARS aircraft that were operating adjacent to Kosovo out of Germany. Predator also offered the wherewithal for collecting signals intelligence (SIGINT) through its ability to approach threat emitters more closely than manned aircraft and to monitor low-power transmissions, such as those from cell phones and portable radios operated by enemy ground troops.[23]
The most-advanced Predator was not available when Operation Allied Force began. The USAF initially elected to keep those aircraft at their home base at Indian Springs near Nellis AFB, Nevada, rather than commit them to USEUCOM, owing to its reluctance to accept their delivery from the manufacturer without the accompanying technical manuals it needed to maintain and effectively operate them. (Earlier-generation Predators already operating in the theater were frequently prevented from flying because of their susceptibility to icing.)[24] The USAF finally sent three advanced Predators to its UAV facility at the Tuzla airfield in Bosnia. It took more than a week to get the first Predator airborne over Kosovo, however, because of undisclosed technical difficulties. In the meantime, USEUCOM and NATO were obliged to rely on satellites and higher-flying UAVs for targeting and battle damage assessment (BDA).[25]
One new procedure demonstrated operationally for the first time in Kosovo entailed a clever fusion of UAV sensor and specialized command and control procedures, in which two Predators orbiting at 5,000 ft would provide electro-optical and infrared identification of mobile targets and a third Predator would then use its laser designator and mapping software to provide geolocation, after which orbiting A-10s or F-16s could be called in on the detected target. Several confirmed hits on VJ tanks were made possible by this technique.
Interestingly, Predator was not always used in Operation Allied Force in the manner in which it was originally designed to be used. In addition to target search and intelligence collection, the UAV was also often employed to validate pilot reports of possible SAM or ground-force targets on the move, since the rules of engagement often required two sets of eyes on a potential target. As General Jumper later explained, those who planned and executed the air effort soon learned that they “had to make forward air controllers out of what had previously been intelligence collectors.”[26] The original intended Predator mission was to find targets. What happened as the air war unfolded, however, was that Predator was used instead in the collateral-damage management loop and sent out to put real-time eyes on candidate targets that had already been located but not identified, so as to verify that they were valid military targets.[27]
The U.S. Army’s Hunter UAVs operated from the Skopje airfield in Macedonia, with their first operational mission into Kosovo taking place on April 4. Hunter imagery was first downlinked to ground controllers in Skopje and then forwarded either to the CAOC in Vicenza, Italy, or to NATO headquarters in Belgium and to the Pentagon as appropriate.[28] Normally used as a corps asset, Hunter in this instance transmitted real-time video imagery via orbiting satellites and downlinked it directly to the Joint Broadcast System in the United States, which then transmitted it to the CAOC, making for only a one-second delay. Its targets were normally objects of tactical interest against which commanders would not risk a manned aircraft, such as artillery emplacements and dispersed VJ units in the KEZ, which had organic self-protection air defense assets. Much like Predator, Hunter flew whenever the weather allowed. It often would loiter in the vicinity of hot targets to observe munitions impacts and provide real-time BDA.[29]
Both Predator and Hunter operators soon discovered that better sensors were needed for the drones to identify ground targets positively from above 8,000 ft. They also learned that better integration of UAV and manned aircraft operations was essential for minimizing the danger of midair collisions. As a stopgap toward that end, UAVs were restricted to operating in specially designated airspace, where they experienced a heightened likelihood of being shot at because of their frequency of flight over the same terrain.[30] In all, 25 UAVs operated by all allies went down over the 78-day course of Allied Force as a result either of enemy action or of mechanical failure. The United States lost four Predators, eight Hunters (three to infrared SAMs, one to a radar SAM, and the others for mechanical reasons), and four Pioneers. Germany and France lost a total of six Canadian-built CL-289 drones and two French Crecerelles, most of them in a single week.[31]
After Allied Force ended, General Jumper revealed that had combat operations continued into the summer, the USAF would have started employing a new tactic whereby Predators equipped with laser designators would have been flown under the weather near enemy targets to designate those targets for LGBs once the latter had been released by allied fighters flying at safer altitudes above the cloud cover. Jumper further disclosed that UAVs, having successfully undergone a rigorous operational shakedown over Kosovo, would in the future be used more in the targeting loop than in the intelligence collection loop—patrolling aggressively and making the most of their extended loiter time to seek out and identify hidden targets.[32]
THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF SPACE
Among the many U.S. and European space systems that were involved in supporting the planning and execution of air attacks, the most pivotal were classified U.S. satellites that provided imagery support, including transmissions directly through new National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) data reception hardware which had been installed in the 31st Air Expeditionary Wing’s Tactical Integrated Planning (TIP) center at Aviano Air Base, Italy; Defense Meteorological Support Program (DMSP) satellites that provided weather imagery down to 1,000-ft resolution; the GPS satellite constellation which enabled the consistently accurate delivery of JDAMs by B-2s; and various NRO data relay and SIGINT spacecraft. Other allied space assets used in Operation Allied Force included the NATO-4 communications satellite, a British Skynet satellite, the French Tele-sat Syracuse system, U.S. Defense Satellite Communications System (DSCS) satellites, and ultra-high-frequency (UHF) follow-on satellites.[33] After the effort ended, U.S. Space Command estimated that 80 percent of the spaceborne communications used during Operation Allied Force had been transmitted via commercial satellite systems.[34]
At least five notable space success stories came out of the Allied Force experience. The first was the effective use of the Multisource Tactical System (MSTS) on the B-52 and B-1, which gave bomber crews real-time situation awareness updates. The system had existed before but had never previously been used in combat. The second major success story was the highly successful use of GPS-guided munitions described earlier, most notably JDAM on the B-2 and the Navy’s TLAM II. Third was the use of the Defense Support Program (DSP) satellite constellation for providing real-time battle damage indications (BDI) as an input into the BDA process. New procedures toward that end were created and refined for Allied Force that had never before been used.[35] Fourth, the Hook 112 survival radio was available for use by U.S. aircrews, making an important new role for space-enabling systems in CSAR.[36] Finally, command and control personnel in the CAOC coordinated the tasking of terrestrial intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) assets—notably the USAF’s U-2s and RC-135 Rivet Joint electronic intelligence (ELINT) aircraft—with space-based ISR assets (that is, national satellite systems) to a level never before achieved in a wartime operational setting.[37] In all, reported the USAF’s chief provider of operational space support to warfighters at all levels, space integration into Allied Force was “the most extensive seen to date.” But there was still ample room for further improvement in such areas as space doctrine, better education regarding the nation’s space capabilities for prospective users, and better integration of these capabilities into the contingency plans of air component commanders worldwide.[38]
23
John D. Morrocco, David Fulghum, and Robert Wall, “Weather, Weapons Dearth Slow NATO Strikes,”
24
“Air Force Reluctant to Deploy All-Weather Predator UAVs to Balkans,”
25
Jane Perlez, “Serbs Try to Empty Disputed Province, NATO Aides Assert,”
27
One problem pointed up by this mode of operation was the slow flying speed of the aircraft. At a maximum airspeed of only 70 nautical miles per hour, Predator typically required considerable time to get to a previously located target candidate, by which time the latter may have moved to a new location.
28
Elizabeth Becker, “They’re Unmanned, They Fly Low, and They Get the Picture,”
30
David A. Fulghum, “Joint STARS May Profit from Yugoslav Ops,”
31
William M. Arkin, “Top Air Force Leaders to Get Briefed on Serbia Air War Report,”
32
David A. Fulghum, “Kosovo Conflict Spurred New Airborne Technology Use,”
33
Craig Covault, “Military Space Dominates Air Strikes,”
35
On the other hand, cockpit multifunction display videotapes showing successfully impacting munitions were
36
The Hook 112 was developed by the Air Force for use between downed aircrew members and CSAR forces to eliminate a problem presented by the previous survival radio, which allowed enemy monitors to locate the downed crewmember’s position by triangulating on the relatively lengthy voice exchanges required to coordinate a rescue by CSAR teams. The Hook 112 communicates the downed crewmember’s position by means of an encrypted burst transmission that denies enemy monitors the ability to triangulate. A GPS receiver incorporated in the Hook 112 automatically transmits the crewmember’s exact location, along with any coded transmissions the downed crewmember may wish to communicate. Major General Gary Dylewski, “The USAF Space Warfare Center: Bringing Space to the Warfighter,” in Peter L. Hays et al., eds,
37
“Space Support to Operation Allied Force: Preliminary Lessons Learned,” briefing to the author by Colonel Robert Bivins, director of operations, U.S. Air Force Space Warfare Center, Schriever AFB, Colorado, February 25, 2000.
38
Major General Robert Hinson, commander, 14th Air Force, “Space Doctrine Lessons from Operation Allied Force,” command briefing, Vandenberg AFB, California, December 16, 1999.