Coalition Air Control Squadron supports ground troops with air power

01.23.2010

Story by Staff Sgt. Kelly White 

379th Air Expeditionary Wing

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Should an enemy missile or air threat head this way, the course to neutralize it is theirs to plot. When coalition ground forces in Afghanistan take fire, they make the call to shorten the kill chain.

The expertise of the 71st Expeditionary Air Control Squadron, here in Southwest Asia, is taking full advantage of air power and state of the art equipment, for the benefit of troops in combat.

"It's our job to put aerial assets in the best possible position to support the guy on the ground and to ensure the air defense of the Arabian Gulf," said Lt. Col. Bryan Gates, 71 EACS commander, deployed from Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, "and accomplishing this mission is both a joint and combined effort that includes working in conjunction with the Navy, Marines, and British and Australian forces."

The squadron of about 150 people, made up of U.S., Australian and U.K. Air Force members, leads operations as the senior tactical command and control agency for aerial operations in the region.

"Working with our British and Australian partners has been a huge benefit for the squadron," said Gates. "They bring a lot of experience and continuity to the fight. Most of my surveillance Airman have anywhere between eight and 18 months experience, and our Coalition partners bring, on average, 10 years of experience. Our Coalition partners are constantly training my younger Airman, helping everyone step up their game."

Working with the U.S. Marine Corps Air Command and Control System and U.S. Air Force Tactical Command and Control, such as the Airborne Warning and Control System and Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System — as well as the Navy's E-2 Hawkeye, the 71 EACS is tuned in to Coalition and enemy activity, on the ground and in the air, 24 hours a day, said Gates. The squadron manages all portions of the air battle to meet the ground and air commander's intent, and works in coordination with the Air Support Operations Center to ensure air power is maintained in support of ground operations.

"We do that through radars and radios piped into us from Afghanistan. We use the U.S. Air Force's newest C2 equipment, Battlespace Command and Control Center, to control aircraft, moving them from point A to point B, ensuring decisive airpower is available," the colonel explained. "Whether it's planned or if it's a troops in contact situation, we work in conjunction with the ASOC, the Air Operations Center, AWACS and JSTARS — all those guys — to get the best asset, with the right amount of gas and the correct weapons to support that guy on the ground, shortening the kill chain.

"It is a fast paced dynamic environment, because the plans are only as good as first contact with the enemy," he added. "If we have a troops in contact situation, that sets off a set of procedures to find an asset to support the guy on the ground, that can stay overhead for as long as he needs it."

It's this part of the mission, getting immediate air support to the ground, that Maj. Ken Voigt, 71st EACS assistant director of Afghanistan operations, and day shift crew OIC, said he enjoys most about his squadron's mission.

"As the senior director, I manage all the fuel, work with the ASOC to ensure all the air support requests get filled, ensure aircraft are notified within two minutes for troops in contact or special forces events, and I get all the surface to surface fire restricted operating zones cleared out so they can respond to what they need to respond to with artillery," said the major, also deployed from Mountain Home AFB. "I know the job I do has significant impact for our forces."

Another part of what they do managing air assets over Afghanistan serves to protect one of the country's chief means of revenue.

Civilian flights over the country provide Afghanistan's second largest source of income, said the colonel. "With the war going on, it's our job to make sure we keep the war fighting assets away from the civilian traffic. We've developed new Tactical Air Command and Control standard operating procedures, in conjunction with air traffic control, and have put a lot of actions in place to be sure we avoid the civil traffic and still bring rapid death to the enemy.

"We're the first TAC-C2 reach back in existence, meaning we control all the aircraft in our specific AOR within Afghanistan from more than a thousand miles away."

But defense from afar isn't the squadron's only vital role. Should an enemy launch an attack on the base, the warriors of the 71 EACS are the ones who see it coming, inform the region's populace and coordinate counter measures.

"Our purpose is also to work with the area air defense commander in the Combined Air Operations Center to ensure all air threats and theater ballistic missiles, UAVs — or cruise missiles — are identified correctly and, if need be, engaged," said Voigt. "Working with the air defense artillery fire control officer, the senior director and the air surveillance officer, we ensure we have a common operating picture for the Combined Forces Air Component commander. On a daily basis, we ID all tracks inside the Arabian Gulf. If a threat were to flare up, we would be the ones who'd direct all the aircraft and Patriots to engage the enemy."

To better guarantee success in this multi-faceted, ever changing field, the squadron developed a de-confliction tool to help track the real time whereabouts of every asset in their AOR.

"We've got UAV pilots in theater we're in contact with 24/7 in chat rooms. Their UAVs are flying around in this airspace and they're not always aware of who's around them," said Gates. "So, we developed an airspace spreadsheet on the Web. They can pull up the URL and when they're establishing an airspace, they can look and see who's flying around them — making sure nobody runs into each other. That's a huge thing we've done since we got here.

"It was built from scratch and tweaked, and is now pretty automated," he said. "But we're always updating when we find something that can be done better.

"We're always moving toward getting it all done better. It goes back to that fast paced dynamic environment. The war's going to change, and we've got to change with it. Everything we do is geared toward making sure our guys on the ground survive and the other guy is the one who dies for his cause."