Iraq "surge" not just troops, but also newer technologies to bear on the enemy

[sabra]

http://www.aviationweek.com/avnow/news/channel_awst_story.jsp?id=news/aw011507p2.xml

Technology Will Be Key to Iraq Buildup

Any U.S. military surge in Iraq will be far more than a troop increase.

A key element in the deployment will be an accelerated effort to bring more and newer technologies to bear on the foe, in part by targeting insurgent commanders, often through their communication networks, say Pentagon and aerospace industry specialists. Even the F-22 with its advanced electronic surveillance and analysis capability is being considered for deployment into theater from Okinawa this year during the stealth fighter's first air expeditionary force assignment.

The Pentagon is scrambling--in tandem with a crash reworking of the 2008 President's budget, due in February--to make sure that the ground force in Iraq, enlarged by 21,500 troops, will "have more advanced technology tools to work with," says a retired U.S. Army official with insight into the service's preparations. "There's certainly going to be more precision weapons available and more special operations teams that can provide precision targeting." But what the military really will be focusing on are electronic emitters, primarily communications used by insurgents.

One goal of the technology infusion in Iraq will be to decapitate the leadership of some insurgent cells quickly and map their communications to reveal additional layers of their networks. Well before the White House's call for troop increases last week, the military and industry were conducting an urgent examination of sensors and weapons that could provide more network-centric-based options for increasing the clout of what's expected to be a relatively small and difficult-to-sustain increase in ground forces.

"Will there be more airpower going to Iraq in the next days, weeks, months? Hell, yes," says a senior Air Force official. "The plan is to clear some insurgent areas and militia strongholds in Baghdad and keep them cleared. There will be precision weapons applied wherever there's an enclave, a storage area or logistics activity--boom, boom, boom. It will be fixed-wing attack of critical targets within urban areas."

:scared:

[CrazyOrangeCat]

1. "boom, boom, boom"

Glad they have the finest leadership working on this.

Asshole.

[sabra]

2. shock and awe part 2? :-(

[CrazyOrangeCat]

8. guess so . . .

. . . cuz the AF can't pinpoint targets in urban warfare situations. Everything changes too rapidly.

Carpet-bombing, on the other hand . . .

this is just unbelievable.

[jpak]

5. F-22s, EA-6Bs and Compass Call can be used to attack Iranian air defense systems

I don't buy any of this...

[notadmblnd]

3. Are they going to use that microwave thing on them

I think it was a microwave.. supposed to make people feel intense discomfort within a certain range?

[Double T]

4. If the air force is depending on OUR precision intelligemce...........

no one is safe, NOT even OUR OWN troops.

[ClintonTyree]

6. "Precision weapons".....

the biggest lie foisted upon us by the Pentagon. We're oh so good at creating new and exciting ways to kill people. Death is our major export. I'm so proud of my country. :sarcasm:

[ninkasi]

7. My own interpretation of this "surge"

Is that Bush is going to order a no holds barred campaign, and he could care less if that results in the slaughter of every innocent Iraqi, and all of our troops, if he can be all macho, and claim he "won". We have inflicted incalculable destruction on a country already weakened by years of sanctions. The monkey DOES NOT CARE.

To him, the world revolves around him, and what he wants. This war is insane. We are creating enemies in record numbers, and all due to his administration's lies and deceit. The worse this gets, the more the rest of the world holds the U.S. not in esteem, but in horror, and loathing.

In addition, this war has been the excuse he has used to strip us of our Constitutional rights. Congress is betraying this country, and citizens, if it does not act immediately to stop all of this bloodshed. Impeachment is one tool, but I'm sure there are others. We simply can not stand by, helpless, while a man who has the emotional and intellectual abilities of a temper-tamper holding two year old, destroys us all.

[BeHereNow]

9. Not what HE wants, it's what GAWD wants!

Don't you remember?
He is doing what GAWD tells him to do.
Gawd speaks to him personally you know.
BHN

[ninkasi]

11. My answer to that

is that he must worship a savage, blood-thirsty, primitive GAWD. The truth is that christians, jews, and muslims all worship the same god, they just believe in different ways to please him, and carry out his commandments.

The three religions all claim to be descended from, either literally or spiritually, the patriarch Abraham. The three are the ultimate expression of a severely dysfunctional family. The rest of the world is held hostage to this carrying out the psychodrama of the children of Abraham.

[BeHereNow]

12. You and I are cut from the same cloth, as the saying goes.

I could not agree more with your post.
BHN

[subterranean]

10. The bombings will continue until morale improves. n/t