thedrifter
11-19-03, 06:44 AM
Issue Date: November 24, 2003
Boost the successes, eliminate the messes
War-fighting experts look to improve joint-fire training, command and control
By Gidget Fuentes
Times staff writer
NAVAL AMPHIBIOUS BASE CORONADO, Calif. — Supporting fast-moving combat forces with coordinated artillery, aviation and naval gunfire strikes resulted in “tremendous successes” and a few “big messes” in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Navy and Marine Corps officials are looking for ways to improve joint-fires training and command-and-control techniques with a goal of boosting the successes and eliminating the messes.
Toward that end, Expeditionary Warfare Training Group Pacific drew nearly 60 experts for a conference here Nov. 12-15. Over the three days, war-fighting experts from the naval surface fire, artillery, mortars, fire support, reconnaissance, operations and planning communities met in groups and made recommendations to an executive steering committee composed of senior commanders.
The conference, a follow-on to a February “fire summit,” focused on ways the services could update training programs to ensure they are in line with the Naval Operation Concept, the new Navy and Marine Corps’ joint-warfare concept.
Participants also discussed lessons from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, such as the challenges of coordinating joint fires in a congested battlefield during intense combat operations.
“There were some tremendous successes” in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Lt. Col. Marty Almquist, an artillery officer and the Expeditionary Fires division officer at EWTG-Pacific, and some things “that were big messes.” In some cases, “friction points” grew in areas busy with aircraft, weapons and people. Operation Anaconda, the heavily contested joint operation in Afghanistan, was one example discussed.
“If we had some of the [command and control] enabling technologies that we have right now, we could have done that more gracefully,” said Navy Capt. Stuart Markey, who commands EWTG-Pacific here and who sponsored the conference. “If we had trained a little better in the area of joint-fires coordination, if we had a better appreciation for what the other services bring to bear at the organizational level, then maybe we would have done it a little differently.”
Aligning joint-fires training in the Navy and the Marine Corps, officials said, will improve coordination in a joint-combat environment.
The Marine Corps Training Command earlier this year directed the two EWTG’s to refine the so-called training continuum, following on the earlier summit, Almquist said. The training continuum includes courses that teach individual skills through training on systems and at a joint level.
Markey said he wants to ensure the right type of training is provided to Marines and sailors who need it.
Emerging and available technologies should maximize the command and control to “create a common operational or tactical picture” that best represents the battlefield, he said.
“We want to ensure that our systems are interoperable, that people know how to operate them properly, that shipboard systems are properly supported by maintenance and training and so forth,” he said.
Among the courses taught by EWTG-Pacific are fire-support coordination, supporting-arms coordination and naval gunfire liaison.
Almquist said that, in the near future, training and doctrine will provide better links between existing and new fire control-and-command systems, such as:
• Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System, which the Marine Corps fielded about three years ago.
• Automated Deep Operations Coordination System, a software program that provides near-real-time pictures of artillery strikes, surface fires and air operations on a battlefield.
• Theater Battle Management Core Systems, a deployable system for air commanders to control air operations in a combat theater and coordinate air with ground and naval forces.
• Naval Fire Control System, which will be fielded on surface warships.
• Joint Forces Command’s “joint fires initiative,” an effort to help commanders plan and execute operational- and tactical-level fires across a broad spectrum, including time-sensitive targets.
Planners have to figure out how to get the most out of the command-and-control systems in the fast-moving, fast-changing combat environment.
“In Iraq, our forces moved extraordinarily quickly. Very fast,” Markey said. “And it’s hard for us to keep up with that.”
Technology will improve command and control in this area, while also minimizing fratricide and maximizing high-priority targeting, he added.
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=0-MARINEPAPER-2398620.php
Sempers,
Roger
:marine:
Boost the successes, eliminate the messes
War-fighting experts look to improve joint-fire training, command and control
By Gidget Fuentes
Times staff writer
NAVAL AMPHIBIOUS BASE CORONADO, Calif. — Supporting fast-moving combat forces with coordinated artillery, aviation and naval gunfire strikes resulted in “tremendous successes” and a few “big messes” in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Navy and Marine Corps officials are looking for ways to improve joint-fires training and command-and-control techniques with a goal of boosting the successes and eliminating the messes.
Toward that end, Expeditionary Warfare Training Group Pacific drew nearly 60 experts for a conference here Nov. 12-15. Over the three days, war-fighting experts from the naval surface fire, artillery, mortars, fire support, reconnaissance, operations and planning communities met in groups and made recommendations to an executive steering committee composed of senior commanders.
The conference, a follow-on to a February “fire summit,” focused on ways the services could update training programs to ensure they are in line with the Naval Operation Concept, the new Navy and Marine Corps’ joint-warfare concept.
Participants also discussed lessons from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, such as the challenges of coordinating joint fires in a congested battlefield during intense combat operations.
“There were some tremendous successes” in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Lt. Col. Marty Almquist, an artillery officer and the Expeditionary Fires division officer at EWTG-Pacific, and some things “that were big messes.” In some cases, “friction points” grew in areas busy with aircraft, weapons and people. Operation Anaconda, the heavily contested joint operation in Afghanistan, was one example discussed.
“If we had some of the [command and control] enabling technologies that we have right now, we could have done that more gracefully,” said Navy Capt. Stuart Markey, who commands EWTG-Pacific here and who sponsored the conference. “If we had trained a little better in the area of joint-fires coordination, if we had a better appreciation for what the other services bring to bear at the organizational level, then maybe we would have done it a little differently.”
Aligning joint-fires training in the Navy and the Marine Corps, officials said, will improve coordination in a joint-combat environment.
The Marine Corps Training Command earlier this year directed the two EWTG’s to refine the so-called training continuum, following on the earlier summit, Almquist said. The training continuum includes courses that teach individual skills through training on systems and at a joint level.
Markey said he wants to ensure the right type of training is provided to Marines and sailors who need it.
Emerging and available technologies should maximize the command and control to “create a common operational or tactical picture” that best represents the battlefield, he said.
“We want to ensure that our systems are interoperable, that people know how to operate them properly, that shipboard systems are properly supported by maintenance and training and so forth,” he said.
Among the courses taught by EWTG-Pacific are fire-support coordination, supporting-arms coordination and naval gunfire liaison.
Almquist said that, in the near future, training and doctrine will provide better links between existing and new fire control-and-command systems, such as:
• Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System, which the Marine Corps fielded about three years ago.
• Automated Deep Operations Coordination System, a software program that provides near-real-time pictures of artillery strikes, surface fires and air operations on a battlefield.
• Theater Battle Management Core Systems, a deployable system for air commanders to control air operations in a combat theater and coordinate air with ground and naval forces.
• Naval Fire Control System, which will be fielded on surface warships.
• Joint Forces Command’s “joint fires initiative,” an effort to help commanders plan and execute operational- and tactical-level fires across a broad spectrum, including time-sensitive targets.
Planners have to figure out how to get the most out of the command-and-control systems in the fast-moving, fast-changing combat environment.
“In Iraq, our forces moved extraordinarily quickly. Very fast,” Markey said. “And it’s hard for us to keep up with that.”
Technology will improve command and control in this area, while also minimizing fratricide and maximizing high-priority targeting, he added.
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=0-MARINEPAPER-2398620.php
Sempers,
Roger
:marine: