Psyops Units Encouraged to Modernize Their Equipment.

• Author: Kennedy, Harold
• Position: Department of Defense wants to phase out some operations

A Defense Department advisory panel's recommendation that the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) phase our its Commando Solo psychological warfare aircraft and replace it with a range of newer platforms has sparked a debate about the command's modernization priorities. It also has helped shed light on the role that these units play in U.S. military operations.

A report, released last fall by the Defense Science Board (DSB), said that the command's psychological operations (psyops) are hampered by aging equipment and a lack of appreciation for what they can accomplish. Psyops use a wide array of communications media--including radio and TV broadcasts, loudspeakers, newspapers, magazines, leaflets and even comic books--to help win or prevent wars.

Psyops' main means of disseminating radio and TV broadcasts are eight EC- 130E Commando Solo aircraft, flown by 193rd Special Operations Wing of the Air National Guard (ANG). The 193rd, based at Harrisburg International Airport, Pa., is the only ANG unit assigned to Air Force special operations.

The aircraft, built by Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems, of Marietta, Ga., are able to broadcast programs in standard AM, FM, HF, UHE VHF and military communications bands. They have operated in every major U.S. military engagement in the past two decades, including Grenada, Panama, the Persian Gulf and the Balkans.

Broadcasts can be used to inform and influence both military and civilian audiences. In Grenada, for example, they warned civilians about the impending U.S. invasion. In the Persian Gulf, they encouraged Iraqi soldiers to surrender-and they did by the hundreds of thousands.

Commando Solo broadcasts, however, have severe limitations, according to the DSB report. Cited were:

* A range of 480 kilometers.

* Vulnerability to obstructions such as terrain, vegetation and buildings.

* A need to maintain a stand-off distance to avoid surface-to-air missiles (SAMs).

* Land-based broadcast technology that is too heavy, too large and becoming obsolete.

SOCOM plans to replace the EC-130Es, which are nearing the end of their planned service life, with an updated version known as the EC-130J, also by Lockheed Martin. The first one is scheduled to be delivered for operational service in the second quarter of this year. Three more are on order, said Lockheed Martin spokesman Peter Simmons.

"The J," as the new aircraft is known, boasts a 21 percent increase in maximum speed, a 50 percent decrease in climb time and a 40 percent increase in cruising altitude and range, according to Simmons.

The DSB report, however, recommends that the entire Commando Solo program be abandoned and replaced with unmanned air vehicles and leased aircraft. SOCOM should use the money saved--an estimated $250 million--to acquire new technological capabilities in areas such as cable TV, high-definition TV, digital audio, the Internet, satellite transmissions and wireless telephony, the DSB said. Psyops should "increase reliance on commercial providers for high-quality products," the report said.

Lockheed Martin, not surprisingly, doesn't agree. SOCOM should think long and hard before getting rid of the EC- 130s, said Simmons. "The bottom line is that they operate in environments where all normal means of communication have broken down," he said.

"In a combat zone, the first things that the bombers take our are the broadcast towers." Newspapers and magazines often are not distributed, either, he noted.

Army Lt. Col. C. Glenn Ayers, deputy commanding officer of the 4th...