Wrong target.

• Author: Williams, Mike
• Position: READERS' FORUM: VIEWS ... COMMENTS ... SUGGESTIONS - Letter to the editor

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

* In reference to the May issue of National Defense magazine, I was amazed at your article, "In Today's Wars, Air Strikes Under Fire."

The cover proclaims "Call for Fire--How urban fighting has changed the business of aerial strikes." With that, I looked forward to a review of how airpower has been improved to provide revolutionary support to troops in contact. What I read was much different. You open by questioning the value of air delivered strikes and quote an academician (Pena) stating that "it doesn't matter how accurate they are, when dropping ordnance from high altitude when pilots cannot see the ground, there is collateral damage." That is an absurd statement. In the final four

paragraphs, you mention a "joint terminal attack controller." You never really make it clear that these are the folks that see the target, see the local area, and are trained to make the call as to whether to strike the target or not. Today's weapons can arrive to within feet (for laser guided weapons) or a meter or so (for GPS weapons). You also fail to mention that the pilot who flies low enough to see the target runs the very high risk of being shot down (and in so doing, fails to support troops on the ground).

In the sixth to last paragraph you give a passing mention of "a recent addition to the arsenal of a 250-pound small diameter bomb." You apparently don't know that this first saw combat in January...