Revised rules for close air support.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: Up Front

Several instances of air-to-ground friendly fire by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan were attributed to misunderstandings between operators from different services, who may not necessarily speak the same language when it comes to close air support.

Under new procedures now in plaice, all participants in close air support operations--including ground and air controllers--will be trained to follow the same protocols across all services, and will employ common terminology lot assigning targets and ordering air-to-ground strikes.

"We now have joint standards for joint close air support," said Air Force Maj. Gen. (S) Mark E. Rogers, director of requirements and integration at U.S. Joint Forces Command.

"We standardized the curriculum for how we train the tactical air controllers," Rogers told National Defense. Certified joint tactical air controllers, or JTACS, will be able to coordinate fire missions with aircraft or ground troops from any service. "We are at the point that the process is standardized enough that it should not matter what service or platform you are.... Any certified JTAC can control any platform from any service," Rogers said.

The updated doctrine for close-air support already is being executed in Iraq, but the process is not as smooth as it could be, because the units still operate older equipment--such as laser rangefinders, target designators and radios--that never was designed to interoperate with other services' systems. "One of our efforts is to define the standard package of equipment," Rogers said.

JFCOM eventually wants to see the integration of all services' weapon systems under a single command-and-control network, Rogers said.

When they want to strike a target, U.S. commanders literally have dozens of options at their disposal--radar-guided missiles fired from helicopters, cruise missiles, laser-guided and satellite-guided bombs...