Gaza War Leaned Heavily On F-16 Close-Air Support
Sep. 15, 2014 - 06:34PM | By BARBARA OPALL-ROME
http://www.defensenews.com/article/20140915/DEFREG04/309150012/Gaza-War-Leaned-Heavily-F-16-Close-Air-Support

TEL AVIV — Hundreds of the more than 6,000 targets struck from the air
during Israel’s 50-day urban war in Gaza were from fighter jets delivering
one-ton bombs in record time and in close proximity to friendly ground
forces.

After-action accounts of Operation Protective Edge show unprecedented use of
fixed-wing fighters for close air support (CAS) of urban maneuvering troops.

With an F-16 dedicated to every brigade, precision air power provided
“pillar of fire” protection for friendly forces fighting less than 350
meters away.

That’s more than a three-fold improvement, officers here said, from Israel’s
traditional 1-kilometer safety range for fixed-wing CAS.

“Until this last operation, we attacked in ranges of about 1,000 meters,”
said Brig. Gen. Amikam Norkin, Israel Air Force chief of staff.

In a Sept. 10 interview, Norkin said Protective Edge marked the first time
fixed-wing fighters were used as dedicated assets to division- and
brigade-level forces.

“Over the last year, we drilled in a very substantive way with the ground
forces and we built a process where our fighters could attack at much closer
distances … We did this hundreds of times during the operation.”

Brig. Gen. Oren Avman, head of Israeli ground force training and doctrine,
said the latest operation validated joint processes born from lessons of the
2006 Lebanon War that were not yet mature in Cast Lead, Israel’s last ground
war in Gaza in late 2008-early 2009.

“To take fixed-wing fighters dropping one-ton bombs just a few football
fields away from us is something amazing. It can only be done through true
jointness; when we trust them and they trust us.”

“Protective Edge proved that it doesn’t matter if you’re green or blue.
Purple is by far the best color,” he said.

Beyond the ability to operate at closer range, Air Force fighters shortened
the time it took to put bombs on target from first receipt of ground force
tasking data.

During the 19-day ground segment of the Protective Edge operation,
fixed-wing CAS was provided within 30 minutes. In many cases, it took only
20 minutes for air power to arrive.

But that’s still not good enough, Norkin said. By honing procedures and
networked air-land command and control, the Air Force wants F-16-launched
bombs on target within 10 minutes.

“Ten minutes from the moment the ground force commander designates the
target, that target should no longer be there,” Norkin said.

Norkin, the Air Force’s second in command, said urban battles demanded very
close support from fighter-launched precision weaponry, in addition to the
combat helicopters that constantly accompany Israeli boots on the ground.

“The Apaches are always there,” he said. But when forces are maneuvering in
built up areas where threats are hidden on, above and under the ground,
fighter-launched precision weaponry is the best option.

“When there are residential buildings of three, four and five floors, and
the civilians are already evacuated, fixed-wing precision air power is most
effective. ... I’m talking laser, [joint direct-attack munitions], all of
them,” Norkin said.

Ben Lambeth, a veteran air power author and analyst formerly of Santa
Monica-based Rand Corp, said the response time and ranges that Israel claims
to have conducted constitute a clear and possibly unprecedented achievement.

“If they’re dropping MK84 2,000-pound bombs within 350 meters of
friendlies — and doing so 20 minutes after getting the targeting request —
this reflects extreme precision and a new level of responsiveness for modern
air power,” said Lambeth, now senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and
Budgetary Assessments. “I don’t think the US Air Force would risk doing that
so close to our friendlies.”

Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel, Air Force commander, said introduction of fighter
planes “changed the face of warfare for warriors on the ground.”

“The pillar of fire that went before the forces is the fruit of
extraordinary cooperation. It was proven effective and widely available for
the first time in the recent operation,” Eshel said in a special edition of
the Air Force’s in-house magazine commemorating the 50-day Gaza campaign.

Retired US Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula said Israel appears to be headed
in a very good direction. “Anything that reduces time, increases accuracy
and drives down miss-distance is all good,” he said.

He noted that Israel’s goals are feasible and should be obtainable in the
not-too-distant future. He suggested that Israel should move to increasingly
smaller precision weapons, particularly for urban war.

Balancing Deterrence and Legitimacy
Israel’s punishing assault on the coastal strip has sparked a UN
investigation and scorn from many quarters of the global community, which
Israel aims to blunt — or at least explain in detailed context — through
probes of its own.

On Sept. 10, the military announced that a fact-finding team of top brass is
reviewing 44 “exceptional incidents” — and has identified another 50 — where
“military activity allegedly resulted in significant and unanticipated
civilian harm.”

The Israeli Parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee is also
reviewing Gaza war conduct.

But for students of warfare and professionals steeped in technology, tactics
and procedures of urban combat, Protective Edge offers insight into how air
power can be used to strengthen deterrence without sapping legitimacy.

Norkin said the Air Force doubled the targets per day compared to Pillar of
Defense, Israel’s last air war in Gaza in 2012. At any given time during the
50-day campaign, the Air Force had an average of 40 air platforms of
different types operating in the same congested airspace over Gaza, he said.

Those aircraft had to operate in constant coordination and deconfliction
with Iron Dome interceptors, artillery and tactical ground-launched UAVs
flying through the same airspace, he said.

“It happened because our ground technicians know how to work better and with
faster methods. Our controllers in the airspace can hold more platforms in
play while we are attacking, performing intelligence missions, providing air
defense with Iron Dome and coordination with ground assets,” Norkin said.

UAVs monitored and recorded all of the more than 6,000 designated targets
prior to attack, an essential element, Norkin said, for preserving
legitimacy and countering inevitable accusations of excessive force. “One
hundred percent of the targets we attacked had constant [visual
intelligence] above them before, during and after attack.”

Of the more than 2,100 Palestinians killed in Protective Edge, officers here
claim nearly half were armed militants or targets legitimate under
international law.

“Israeli intelligence wants to know exactly, by name, each and every one
killed,” Norkin said. “Only then we’ll know the definitive ratio of
uninvolved innocents to terrorists killed.”

The Air Force officer cited an international average of five innocents
killed for each targeted terrorist. He said preliminary data from Protective
Edge indicates “we’re slowly closing in on numbers of one to one.”

Email: bopallrome@defensenews.com.