Small Targets Present Big Challenges
Armada International|October 2017

Counter Insurgency (COIN) campaigns present some of the most demanding missions for military aircraft involved in Close Air Support (CAS). Yet improvements in sensors and weapons are honing the ability of air power to deliver decisive effects in this regard.

Justin Bronk
Small Targets Present Big Challenges

In spite of the limited presence of traditional anti-aircraft threats such as Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAMs) and Anti-Aircraft Artillery (AAA), aircraft involved in supporting COIN operations have to cover vast geographical areas to help detect and bring force to bear on concealed enemy forces that can attack from almost any direction in relation to friendly forces and are often either ‘danger-close’ to friendly troops or civilians, raising the possibility of ‘blue-on-blue’ or collateral damage incidents. Furthermore, since COIN operations are usually discretionary rather than existential conflicts for Western forces, civilian and friendly casualties are a potentially strategic issue due to fears of wavering domestic support for continuing operations, witness the event in April when a misdirected US airstrike killed 18 friendly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces militia in Tabqua, northern Syria.

This story is from the October 2017 edition of Armada International.

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This story is from the October 2017 edition of Armada International.

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