...permission from a general.
Someone mentioned that rule yesterday on either NPR or AAR and talked about a computer program called BUGSPLAT that they use to predict civilain casualties.
I wonder how big this strike was, and how far up the chain of command they needed to go to authorize it.
"BUGSPLAT" PREDICTS BOMBS' IMPACT
One of the reasons that so many civilians are killed by "precision" munitions is that a bomb's effects are usually estimated by simply drawing a circle around the target.
But the U.S. military has developed new software that more accurately predicts the impact of a bomb, the Washington Post reports. The unfortunately-named "Bugsplat" program takes into account the terrain being struck, the size and shape of the weapon, the altitude from which it's being dropped.
The Post predicts that Bugsplat will be ready for an attack on Iraq.
More:
http://www.defensetech.org/archives/000131.htmlSee also:
The language of war
Nicholas Watt
Tuesday April 8, 2003
The Guardian
Decoding the military jargon
· Bug Splat
With typical sensitivity the Pentagon has dreamt up this term, with its shades of a blitzkreig-style computer game, to describe the bombing of Iraq.
The crude language, however, hides a highly complex process to calculate how to strike a target. Lengthy mathematical equations are used to assess the effects of a bomb on a target and the surrounding areas.
The size, direction and angle of the weapon are all taken into account as the planners assess what type of bomb should be dropped to destroy the target while minimising civilian casualties.
More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,932044,00.htmlAlso:
Untold Stories: ‘Modern-Day Bombardier’
A bird’s eye view of the air campaign from the cockpit
By Martha Brant
Newsweek Web Exclusive
April 10 - Maj. Mike Jaggers, whose call sign is Mick, has been flying for a dozen years and he’s never seen anything like the air war he’s been fighting these last few weeks.
The 37-year-old weapons-systems officer mans the computer in his F-15E Strike Eagle while the pilot steers. He runs his targets through a computer program nicknamed Bug Splat, which helps make his bombing so precise that he is dropping munitions in windows rather than on whole buildings. “I am the modern-day bombardier,” he says.
<snip>
The first week of the war, Jaggers always knew where his targets were when he left base. These days, it’s more likely that he’ll have a “target of opportunity” come up when he’s flying. Some days he’ll lie in wait up there in “air orbit” for someone on the ground to call in CAS (close air support) mission. When he gets word on his headset about coordinates of a possible target, he goes to work on the computer to complete a CDE, collateral damage estimate. Bug Splat helps him determine what kind of bomb to use, from how high to drop it, what kind of fuse it needs. But before he drops a bomb in an urban setting like Baghdad, he gets a PID, positive ID. “I physically see the target and check the surrounding area,” he says. “If it’s ever in doubt, bring the bomb home.”
More:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3068366/site/newsweek/
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