By Sgt. David Turner
Multi-National Division - Center
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Chief Warrant Officer James Dunlop believes in UFOs. He's seen the evidence and he knows the truth is out there.
As part of the Multi-National Division – Center's Air Missile Defense cell, his job is to know what's flying in the skies over Iraq, and whether or not they come in peace. That means monitoring a lot of things at once – helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles, even the Air Force jets and surveillance planes that fly high above the Army's airspace.
As part of the Division G-3, or Operations section, MND-C's AMD cell pulls together information from radars all across southern Iraq, both to stay alert for threats from outside and to keep friendly-fire incidents from happening. If an unidentified object appears in the skies of MND-C, it is up to the air defenders to sort out if it's friend or foe.
"We make sure the brigades have a good air picture and we make sure they do everything correctly as far as managing airspace," said Dunlop, of Seattle, the team's command and control systems integrator.
"At the division level, we're like the data managers. We give the brigades the air picture to be able to de-conflict their airspace. [They] make sure all of the aircraft are out of the way – any fixed-wing or rotary-wing aircraft – in the coordinating altitude."
Brigade combat teams have air defense airspace management cells, to control their airspace. The division AMD cell ties them into the big picture, as well as warns them about outside threats. Dunlop said it's important for them to manage their own airspace, and to provide radar coverage that enables division to maintain oversight of the many aircraft operating simultaneously in the skies over Iraq.
"They own that airspace; that's theirs," said Dunlop. "They need to de-conflict it as well as possible to make sure there is no fratricide. Each brigade is one piece of the architecture. When one piece goes away, we have a void in that area."
Dunlop has seen the mission of AMD change over the course of his four deployments in recent years – two in Afghanistan and two in Iraq. Since insurgents don't use aircraft or long-range missiles, his cell's duties have shifted from lethal to non-lethal effects.
"Our job now becomes the de-confliction of airspace, the managing of airspace, and being able to talk to the aircraft ... where before, as an AMD guy, my job was to shoot down, locate and be able to tell the fire units what's out there and where to fire," he said. "We had to evolve our thinking about AMD and how it would be relevant to the fight."
Dunlop has had the chance to see the big picture as well as the smaller pieces in his career as an air defender.
"I was in Space and Missile Defense at first, and then I transferred to AMD. It's kind of a big jump, actually, from SMD – that's above corps and that's dealing with all [theater ballistic missiles] – then, coming down, you get a different understanding of what's going on," he said. "You understand what a lot of people don't; how vital it is on this side to make sure we do our job, because you don't know how many [special events] are going off on a daily basis."
Those "special events" may be harmless. Or they may be incoming missiles. And as MND-C prepares to expand its area of responsibility to the southern provinces, including a more than 1,000-kilometer border with Iran, the work will only become more important.
"We're doing a lot more because we are trying to control a bigger space now," he said.
| Date Taken: | 10.15.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 10.16.2008 06:11 |
| Story ID: | 25077 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 312 |
| Downloads: | 210 |
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