"A Look at F-35 Close Air Support Tactics Development" Topic

"The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter — a stealthy, high-tech, fifth-generation strike fighter — may also become a major player in close-air support (CAS) missions. Last week, we talked with the US Air Force general who is leading the testing and preparation for the CAS mission.

Let's get the disclaimer out of the way: the military aviation community is divided as to whether the F-35 can be an effective CAS platform. A lot comes down to the relative merits of fast-jet CAS versus the kind of low-to-the-ground, persistent CAS practiced by the A-10 or AC-130. (We wrote more about this in January.) Neither side is willing to give ground — perhaps understandably, because the question can truly be answered only when ground troops, under fire, call for help.

Some members of Congress, including incoming Senate Armed Services Committee chair Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., argue that jets such as the F-15 or B-1 bomber are simply too high and move too fast to be effective. Members of the A-10 community point out that the Warthog can go "low and slow" in a way that something like the F-35 will never be able to do, avoiding potential friendly fire incidents like the one that occurred this summer. That's an argument backed up by the Tactical Air Control Party Association, which supports keeping the A-10 around to protect ground forces…"
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Amicalement
Armand

"avoiding potential friendly fire incidents like the one that occurred this summer."

I think the British Army would tend to disagree, as the A-10 has killed more British troops than any other US type since WW2.

Some members of Congress, including incoming Senate Armed Services Committee chair Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., argue that jets such as the F-15 or B-1 bomber are simply too high and move too fast to be effective.

It's not 1966 anymore John! We have things called Precision Guided Munitions now.

And even then in Vietnam they were using supersonic F-100s and F-4s in CAS!

They flew low too but there weren't any MANPADS in 1966 either.

James F. Dunnigan's book, How to Make War, pages 154 to 162, especially pages 160 to 161.

Love the A-10 but it isn't the 1970s anymore. There ar e options – if there is the political will to use them.

The new book "Level Zero Heroes" provides excellent insights into the use of different CAS assets today. We've even rewritten parts of our new CAS rules for an upcoming product release (free DLC for Warfare in the Age of Madness).

Some key points:

- Fast movers don't need to drop bombs or shoot guns to provide CAS. The author, a US Marine JTAC, describes "show of force" runs which sort of suppress enemies with a low pass followed by a steep climb on full after burner.

- As others have noted, JDAMs have changed everything. Now B1 bombers provide CAS with 2,000 pound bombs with precision as good or greater than the traditional iron bomb delivered by a fixed wing aircraft.

- A JTAC can now tap into sensors on aircraft in real time to see the battlefield from the pilot's perspective which enhances precision and reduces fratricide…but weirdly enough not all JTACs use it.

- Even with all of this tech, or maybe because of it, training and skill and discipline becomes even more important. When an air controller can devastate a target in seconds he needs to be sure the target is the right one. In the book there is an fratricide incident that occurs despite the precision. It occurred NOT because the pilot or bomb was inaccurate but because it WAS accurate and not designated with care by the air controller.

- even with all this tech pen and paper are still crucial. A good JTAC keeps a book of maps of the AO with every building pre-designated with a code coordinated with his fire support. The code also includes the grid for targeting purposes. In one instance in the book another air controller doesn't do this and it causes friction on the battlefield.

- JDAMs are so precise that in one instance a commanding officer tells the JTAC to drop 3 of them as "warning shots". The JTAC protested to no avail. Later he drops a JDAM with great precision, just outside a village to avoid violating ROE but close enough to have an effect.

- With so much firepower available sometimes caution over collateral damage can make it useless in COIN ops. It doesn't help win over the peasants if you kill their family members. Knowing this the bad guys stay close to civilians or important civilian buildings. They can even break contact, drop their weapons, and walk into the open again free of fear. Such tactics combined with tight ROE are more effective than a CAP of fast movers in disrupting CAS.

In wargaming terms it makes CAS all the more interesting, especially at company level. At that tactical level a fast mover is mostly an abstraction as far as movement is concerned. And a B1 bomber functions almost like super precise off board arty completely invulnerable to a MANPAD.

Meanwhile an AC130 is sort of in between off board arty and a gunship. It can loiter for a long time and in COIN is virtually immune to ground fire. But in a conventional war it's a big slow targey for enemy jets and heavy SAM batteries. Writing rules for this multi layered air support environment becomes a challenge.

For "A Clear and Present Madness" we decided to abstract such air support into levels of availability, persistence, precision, effect, and vulnerability. At company level the details of air to air combat are not appropriate. All that matters is that a given class of CAS is more or less vulnerable to enemy assets such as basic battlefield weapons, dedicated AA weapons, and abstracted assets such as a CAP. Those various CAS counter-measures have a chance of disrupting CAS based on relative force quality and gear.

And each class of CAS has advantages or disadvantages in game terms. A 2,000 pound JDAM is devastating but the platforms that deliver it are not always available and they're vulnerable to enemy heavy SAMs and fighters. In COIN ops it acts like a devastating, one shot off board arty strike that's invulnerable to company level AA weapons. But if your opponent has his own fighter cover then your bomber probably won't be sbowing up.

A helo gunship will probably have a model on the table for its gun run and it will be vulnerable to all sorts of ground fire. But it's probably more precise and persistent than fast movers. OTOH, it's not nearly as persistent as an AC130 but easily as vulnerable to enemy fast movers.

Good stuff Visceral.

With regards to collateral damage, they do now have concrete filled bombs etc. No explosion but target smashed just as well.

Agree, thanks for share Visceral!.

Amicalement
Armand

Mostly agree Visceral but a well flown attack helicopter would not be an easy target to a fast mover. Far superior ability and the ability to fly really low causes all sorts of problems to the jet jockey.

@Ascent: Depends on what the fast-jet is packing. I'm reasonably sure an AMRAAM is going to ruin an Apache's day, as will an AIM9X or ASRAAM.

A friend of mine mentioned that he turned an A10 loose on a 1km strip of ground seeded with IEDs and other 'party favors'. One long BRAAAAAAAAAAAP later, it was secondary explosions and rubble for "re-development." I'm not sure the 25mm is going to be as effective. It certainly doesn't have the magazine capacity.

As a JTAC/FAC who has recently returned from Afghanistan (well, last year), I can honestly say that you are grateful for anything that turns up. You aren't allowed to ask for a specific aircraft type in any planning you do, and if you have air coming to you rapidly as the result of a contact, the faster it gets there the better. Clever FACs have a plan in their head for any possible type that arrives. All types have pros and cons.

@foxweasal…that was the impression I got from "Level Zero Heroes". But I wonder if gamers would accept a completely random approach to air support, especially with respect to binary availability.

In LZH, the author noted that on one mission he didn't have any aircraft available so he was just another trigger puller going along for the ride. In another a B1 happens to show up and begins lobbing 2,000 pound bombs at his direction. Later on the same mission an AC-130 shows up and loiters for quite some time during the night and he notes how comforting the sound of its engines is.

For game balance purposes going from the JTAC/FAC element serving as another random rifle team to pounding the enemy with multiple 2,000 pound bombs in a company level action is a problem. This is true for both point-based gaming and even scenario gaming. Through no action by either player and based entirely on a single die roll the tied of battle can swing wildly from no air support to decisive, devastating air support that effectively decides the game.

Based on your experience as FAC and wargamer what sort of approach do you recommend?

I'm all for making things historically accurate but if some poor schmuck pays $20 USD to attend a game convention, deploys his troops, and then gets annihilated on turn 2 because his opponent rolled up a B1 on station, I can see him being very disappointed.

I sort of like a compromise for game balance purposes. CAS might not be a sure thing in timing but it's coming at some point. And certain effects probably need to be throttled back somewhat to avoid the game simply being ended when a bunch of bombs pound one side into submission. There also needs to be a cost or limit to the side(s) with CAS. This can be done with balancing numbers of ground troops and/or ROE.

aAnyway, I'm very interested in y9ur thoughts on the matter.

@Visceral Impact: What Ambush Alley does is generally ignore which plane you have overhead. What matters is that said plane dropped a JDAM of whatever size (usually 1000lb, but 500 and 2000 are possible). But it's a SINGLE attack that gets made. Those happen as Fog of War cards for the most part.

I understand that you're looking at more of a company-per-side level of game, like Flames of War.

If you're going to allow CAS in that game, well, I'd first REQUIRE a forward air controller (whatever the current appropriate acronym is) to be taken to allow any level of CAS. Then I'd require some kind of communications test to see if there is guy in the air at that moment (exact mechanic is up to the rules-writer). You could randomize what exactly shows up if you want (honestly, I probably would). But only give a single attack for each successful request. So if a B1 is overhead, it will only throw a single 2000lb JDAM your direction per turn. If you got an A10 overhead, you may have an option between a gun run and a couple different missile/bomb attacks. But you will only get the one attack, regardless of what bird is overhead.

Depending on the level of detail of your combat model, that 30mm gun run may be about as many dice as a 2000lb JDAM, just applied in a different way.

I'd want to defer to an Army guy (I was Navy) about how you'd call in Helicopter CAS, but I suspect that it would NOT require a dedicated controller and is something that could be called by company commander or whatever.

Visceral impact, I'm assuming you are talking about CAS in Afghanistan/Iraq type situations. It should be quite easy to limit its power in any rule set. Only large operations would have dedicated CAS for most of the Op and the enemy never show themselves if they know air is on station (especially attack helicopters). A company JTAC will often go out on platoon level patrols, he will have put a request in to have some air support for when he thinks enemy action is likely. The request goes to various different agencies and is prioritised accordingly.

If they go on the patrol with no air cover and then get in a serious contact a request for priority air will go in, if it gets approved the nearest aircraft will go to assist and if it's serious enough other or more suitable types will also be sent. This may take 20 or 30 minutes, so in game terms that will be quite a few turns with no air cover. In the real world as soon as the enemy realise aircraft are on station they disappear until the air covers leaves, a bit boring in game terms but you can have the aircraft stand off a long distance and just give the troops on the ground accurate information about the enemy. To further limit the lethality of air power why not bring collateral damage limitations in as well, no firing within a certain distance of buildings etc, in the early Afghan days you could drop compounds like it was going out of fashion, nowadays you have to be in bad trouble to get approval to fire on a building.

To sum up, once air is on station it's a bad day for Terry, but the likelihood of having it for the whole game or at all should be slim.

To answer the rotary CAS question, JTAC/FACs are the preferred method of calling it in, but there is a way that is used to allow any ground troops to call it, but this is heavily controlled by the helicopter.

^Air Support Control Officer (USMC), but no combat deployments

To elaborate on some of what goes on behind the scenes/at a higher level….

The Air Tasking Order is usually built in 24hr blocks at least the night prior, so all the air assets for the next day are scheduled (for high-intensity OPLANs, usually staggered Time On Stations to provide continuous coverage for major friction points in the scheme of maneuver).

If I'm sitting the Tactical Air Director position (controlling fast jets) and get a Joint Tactical Air Request, usually I quickly check the target type (tanks, infantry in the open, fuel trucks, etc.) then dispatch whatever aircraft I have loitering in the CAS stack with the best ordnance. If I have nothing available that's airborne I'll ask the Helicopter Director seated next to me for some Cobras and pass the JTAR off to him. If he's got nothing then we'll scramble something from Strip Alert but that's usually delayed 15 minutes or more. Once we match up a JTAR and a section of aircraft, we'll call the pilot and pass the mission data to him, then one of the Enlisted guys gets the JTAR and lets the JTAC know which aircraft will be coming to support him.

From DASC guys who have deployed the workload for us in A-stan is pretty low. The simulated high-intensity fights here in the Pacific theater get pretty hectic sometimes. There are so many JTARs coming in you just task ANYTHING to prosecute them as quickly possible, with your main focus being giving them flight directions so they don't crash into each other on their way to drop bombs (or come back afterwards).

As for the F-35: If it can carry a bunch of Small Diameter Bombs I think it will be useful, as long as it has a decent Time on Station/Loiter Time. UAVs like the MQ-9A Reaper have a good payload and loiter time but are too slow to prosecute time-sensitive high value targets unless they are already practically on top of them.

F35 can only carry 8 SDBs internally, but once it's safe for external ordnance it could carry something like 32 (with nothing else loaded, mind you).

If I was loading an F35 for CAS, I'd probably hang 2 HARMs, the 8 internal SDBs, a maximum rack of something lighter like Griffins or Joint Air to Ground Missiles, and two fuel tanks for more loitering time.

But I'm still wondering if the 25mm gun is powerful enough (or have a large enough magazine capacity).

If I was loading an F35 for CAS, I'd probably hang 2 HARMs, the 8 internal SDBs, a maximum rack of something lighter like Griffins or Joint Air to Ground Missiles, and two fuel tanks for more loitering time.

Hanging HARMS and drop tanks off F-35s defeats the main strength of F-35s – stealth.

If you need to do CAS in a contested environment and SEAD/DEAD assets aren't available, then carry the 8 SDBs and that's it.

F-35 doesn't have HARM capability anyway and electronic warfare module is years away (USMC wants it to replace EA-6B).

But I'm still wondering if the 25mm gun is powerful enough (or have a large enough magazine capacity).

A question for the guys with experience – how often is cannon used in CAS.

Guns are always used by helicopters straight after hellfire goes in. As for fast air, it just depends on how much notice the ground commander takes of the JTAC and pilots recommendations. A lot of ground troops don't trust straffe from guns, as long as the pilot knows all friendly positions then the final attack heading can be fairly easily worked out to guarantee no blue on blue. Dive profiles also can be used to maximise safety. There are too many factors to say if straffe is a better option than a bomb e.g distance of friendlies, is the target moving, collateral damage limitations, commanders wished etc etc.

In "Level Zero Heroes" it was a gun run that caused friendly casualties. The troops, Americans and Afghans, we inside a walled compound when the incident happened.

Thanks to those who provided comments. Last night we tweaked some rules and played through 4 games with the changes. We really liked the results!!!

Foxweasel and Noble…please check your PMs. Thx!