In cover of darkness, US military sees an advantage
Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2003 7:41 am
The Bush administration has proposed Monday as a deadline for Iraq to disarm, but if diplomatic wrangling delays an invasion it could accentuate a key US military advantage.
The March moon becomes full on Tuesday and starts diminishing each night until April 1, and for American forces, who have long boasted that they ''own the night,'' the darker the better.
''To go with a full moon or not is a consideration,'' said retired Rear Admiral Stephen Baker. ''If we had a window of four or five days where it didn't make that much of a difference, where it wasn't emerging where we had to hit a target right now, we would wait those couple of days.''
Military specialists agreed that while moonlight is only one of many factors considered in planning military strategy, it is one that military planners are watching as they set a final timetable for invasion. ''We'd like to not have a whole lot of moonlight,'' said Army Colonel Jim Harris, a light infantry veteran who teaches military strategy and joint operations at the National War College in Washington, D.C.
''All that's going on - the timing of the weather, the timing of the moonlight - it's a concern,'' Harris said. ''It takes away our advantage of having these devices when we give [the enemy] natural illumination.''
The overwhelming military superiority that US forces enjoy is augmented tremendously when the sun sets, thanks to technological advances and years of training especially for fighting at night. It is an advantage that could be highlighted in the opening days of an Iraq conflict when allied forces are expected to blitz Iraq with an air and ground showing meant to ''shock and awe'' Saddam Hussein's regime into submission.
''You have tremendous advantages that you can fight a 24/7 war and they can't,'' said Anthony Cordesman, a military specialist with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
As spring turns to summer in Iraq and temperatures rise, being able to operate at night has another advantage. ''It would enable you to maneuver when it's cooler, if you needed to,'' said John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org, a defense research institute.
Even some specialists who questioned the extent to which it would be a factor acknowledged that it can be important. ''It is interesting to note the degree to which elemental forces such as a full moon or adverse weather still can have a major impact on the success of military campaigns,'' said Loren B. Thompson, a military specialist with the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va. ''Much of the Pentagon's investment in advanced technology can be explained as an attempt to nullify the influence of those traditional forces.''
Those investments have paid off with an advantage that has grown in the dozen years since the United States last faced the prospect of fighting in Iraq. Not only has the technology improved (third-generation night-vision goggles are half as heavy, the clarity is much sharper, have a wider field of view, and can operate with far less ambient light) but it is much more widespread.
In the Gulf War, the equipment was predominately given to forward observers and nighttime sentries, said Lieutenant Colonel Cindy Bedell, product manager for the Sensors and Lasers Program at Program Executive Office Soldier, the Army organization responsible for equipping soldiers. ''It is standard equipment now: Drivers have it, infantry soldiers all have it, even maintenance folks have it for working on equipment at night.''
US pilots prefer to operate in the dark because it undermines enemies' ability to target them visually.
''What they would need to use to see you actually puts them in grave danger, they being Iraqis, because at night in order to see and guide your missile to target you have to turn your radar on, which can be a dangerous thing to do in today's warfare environment,'' said a Naval official. ''When you turn your radar on, you de facto give yourself away.''
US troops use two types of equipment that allow them to see in the dark. Airplanes and many ground vehicles, specifically the M1A1 Abrams tank and the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, use infrared technology that picks up variations in temperature to create an image. The infrared technology can be used in either day or night to pick out targets, even at extreme distances, and is not obscured by smoke or the total absence of light as in a deep cave. And infrared technology is starting to extend to the individual level, as thermal weapons sites are being issued to infantry.
US military officials believe that even if Iraqi forces have any night-vision gear, it would be an insignificant amount of first-generation equipment.
''Even if they did, they don't train with it,'' said a defense official. ''It probably isn't going to contribute to their capacity all that much.''
US ability to operate at night has also been augmented in recent years by increases in computer networking and global-positioning systems, allowing large-scale movement of troops and vehicles in a coordinated manner without having to see each other.
''The single most important advance the US military has made in the last dozen years is the improved coordination of the force, its ability day or night in any weather to know where it is, where its friends are and where the enemy is,'' Thompson said.
The March moon becomes full on Tuesday and starts diminishing each night until April 1, and for American forces, who have long boasted that they ''own the night,'' the darker the better.
''To go with a full moon or not is a consideration,'' said retired Rear Admiral Stephen Baker. ''If we had a window of four or five days where it didn't make that much of a difference, where it wasn't emerging where we had to hit a target right now, we would wait those couple of days.''
Military specialists agreed that while moonlight is only one of many factors considered in planning military strategy, it is one that military planners are watching as they set a final timetable for invasion. ''We'd like to not have a whole lot of moonlight,'' said Army Colonel Jim Harris, a light infantry veteran who teaches military strategy and joint operations at the National War College in Washington, D.C.
''All that's going on - the timing of the weather, the timing of the moonlight - it's a concern,'' Harris said. ''It takes away our advantage of having these devices when we give [the enemy] natural illumination.''
The overwhelming military superiority that US forces enjoy is augmented tremendously when the sun sets, thanks to technological advances and years of training especially for fighting at night. It is an advantage that could be highlighted in the opening days of an Iraq conflict when allied forces are expected to blitz Iraq with an air and ground showing meant to ''shock and awe'' Saddam Hussein's regime into submission.
''You have tremendous advantages that you can fight a 24/7 war and they can't,'' said Anthony Cordesman, a military specialist with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
As spring turns to summer in Iraq and temperatures rise, being able to operate at night has another advantage. ''It would enable you to maneuver when it's cooler, if you needed to,'' said John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org, a defense research institute.
Even some specialists who questioned the extent to which it would be a factor acknowledged that it can be important. ''It is interesting to note the degree to which elemental forces such as a full moon or adverse weather still can have a major impact on the success of military campaigns,'' said Loren B. Thompson, a military specialist with the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va. ''Much of the Pentagon's investment in advanced technology can be explained as an attempt to nullify the influence of those traditional forces.''
Those investments have paid off with an advantage that has grown in the dozen years since the United States last faced the prospect of fighting in Iraq. Not only has the technology improved (third-generation night-vision goggles are half as heavy, the clarity is much sharper, have a wider field of view, and can operate with far less ambient light) but it is much more widespread.
In the Gulf War, the equipment was predominately given to forward observers and nighttime sentries, said Lieutenant Colonel Cindy Bedell, product manager for the Sensors and Lasers Program at Program Executive Office Soldier, the Army organization responsible for equipping soldiers. ''It is standard equipment now: Drivers have it, infantry soldiers all have it, even maintenance folks have it for working on equipment at night.''
US pilots prefer to operate in the dark because it undermines enemies' ability to target them visually.
''What they would need to use to see you actually puts them in grave danger, they being Iraqis, because at night in order to see and guide your missile to target you have to turn your radar on, which can be a dangerous thing to do in today's warfare environment,'' said a Naval official. ''When you turn your radar on, you de facto give yourself away.''
US troops use two types of equipment that allow them to see in the dark. Airplanes and many ground vehicles, specifically the M1A1 Abrams tank and the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, use infrared technology that picks up variations in temperature to create an image. The infrared technology can be used in either day or night to pick out targets, even at extreme distances, and is not obscured by smoke or the total absence of light as in a deep cave. And infrared technology is starting to extend to the individual level, as thermal weapons sites are being issued to infantry.
US military officials believe that even if Iraqi forces have any night-vision gear, it would be an insignificant amount of first-generation equipment.
''Even if they did, they don't train with it,'' said a defense official. ''It probably isn't going to contribute to their capacity all that much.''
US ability to operate at night has also been augmented in recent years by increases in computer networking and global-positioning systems, allowing large-scale movement of troops and vehicles in a coordinated manner without having to see each other.
''The single most important advance the US military has made in the last dozen years is the improved coordination of the force, its ability day or night in any weather to know where it is, where its friends are and where the enemy is,'' Thompson said.