Air Force wants missiles redirected in flight: weapons with two-way communications links could help avoid fratricide.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.

Precision-guided munitions, in their current form, generally are accurate but still not adaptable enough to the complexities of urban combat, where targets constantly are on the move, say military experts.

Incidents of fratricide and misdirected weapons seen during the conflict in Iraq, for example, highlight one specific shortfall in Air Force missiles and bombs: they cannot be retargeted after launch.

Combat scenarios of the sort seen in Iraq--with a complex target mix ranging from moving missile launchers to deep bunkers, dispersed troops and dual-use buildings--have stirred concerns among Air Force planners that their weapons need to become "more precise and cause less collateral damage," said Air Force Col. Pamela Arias, head of the armament product directorate at the Air Armaments Center.

Accuracy would improve if weapons could be retargeted in flight, officials said. Cruise missiles and other satellite-guided munitions used today are programmed with the target's coordinates, but cannot be redirected if the target moves after the weapon is launched.

The Air Force now is studying options to install two-way communications links on weapons. The idea is to take advantage of real-time intelligence--such as streaming video from unmanned drones--to track target movements and reprogram the weapon after it leaves the aircraft, if necessary.

'As a result of this war, you will see a push towards that very thing," Arias said in a conference call with reporters.

The problem air-war planners face today is that the sources of target information--the sensors--are sometimes far away from the weapons. Predator and Global Hawk unmanned aircraft, for example, can see the target, but they don't necessarily carry weapons. (Only a small number of Predators are armed) The shooters--the fighters and the bombers--don't always see the target.

Although the Air Force for years has been working on technologies to shorten what it calls the "sensor-to-shooter" cycle, there is still a certain amount of latency in the process. That creates problems when targets move rapidly.

"The close air-support problem is a challenge, whether it's in the desert or whether it's in a city, because you're dealing with delivering weapons in the close proximity of friendly troops, said Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael Moseley, the commander of air operations in the Iraq war.

The answer to that problem is to "network the battlefield," said Steve Butler, director of engineering at the Air...