My first operational assignment was in the 492d Fighter Squadron at RAF Lakenheath. Flying F-15E Strike Eagles in the United Kingdom was a dream assignment for a new fighter pilot, and I quickly gained combat experience over northern Iraq and the former Yugoslavia while enjoying a superb local pub and a wonderful village curry house and kebab stand back home in East Anglia.
In the spring of 1999, Operation Allied Force proved the potency of air power. In 78-days, NATO aerial forces ended the slaughter of ethnic minorities in Kosovo, stopping the ruthless Slobodan Milosevich from his campaign of ethnic cleansing. It also provided a firm operational foundation for a generation of fighter pilots like me.
We successfully destroyed ground targets using mostly laser guided bombs, and were just starting to integrate GPS guided weapons into our arsenal. During a break in combat during a necessary aerial refueling, an old and crusty Weapon System Officer (WSO) provided me his seasoned perspective on defending against air power. If he were in a country fighting against NATO forces, he would only purchase three things: smoke machines, GPS-jammers, and double-digit surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) to protect his nation’s targets. His rationale was compelling.
His recommended layered defense architecture revolved around the SAM – a potent threat to any airborne activity. The key for an adversary was to keep it from getting struck by the allies so it could lethally and sustainably defend its area of responsibility. A smoke machine would be used to obscure the target area, an especially useful defense against laser guided bombs that require visual tracking of targets in the infrared spectrum. Additionally, a GPS jammer would cause GPS-guided weapons to miss their mark. The smoke and the spoofing would primarily defend the SAMs, but could be used to defend other important targets as well. They provided multi-faceted redundancy to protect against an onslaught from the air.
According to the salty WSO’s reasoning, anything else would be an inefficient and ineffective use of military funding.
His thinking provides an interesting consideration still today, especially in a world where GPS guidance has become the overwhelming targeting method of choice while advanced SAMs can be deadly if not quickly destroyed.
Allied forces are starting to pay attention to the vulnerability of our overreliance on GPS. Localized GPS-jamming capabilities have become a ubiquitous element of each contested environment in every corner of the planet. Without navigation and targeting solutions that can withstand heavily jammed environments, precision strike becomes a fantasy, and the deadly SAMs will survive.
Traditional aerial platforms, like those still-magnificent F-15E Strike Eagles, can largely overcome such environments with their expensive, heavy, and power-intensive inertial navigation solutions. Yet, to achieve the goals of affordable mass for our smaller allied strike systems that better meet the requirements of modern warfare, we need something less-expensive, lower-weight, and more power-judicious. Camera-based navigation systems are nice when the terrain is distinct, the ground is visible, and the intelligence is exquisite, but often operationally-relevant mission requirements will not have the benefit of such characteristics. We need navigation alternatives that are more robust, more flexible, highly reliable, and accurate over time.
Twenty-five years later, my WSO’s assessment of the battlespace proves prescient. All allied strike systems must consider his wisdom when fielding unmanned systems and munitions. Incorporating the right type of navigation redundancies is an essential element to success – against a double-digit SAM or any target set in today’s highly contested environment. Fortunately, there is a cutting-edge company here in the U.K. – Flarebright Ltd. – that is perfectly postured to provide such navigation solutions for weapons released from those mighty Strike Eagles or any other system that is looking to hit their target when challenged by smoke, spoofing, or SAMs.
United States Air Force Brig. Gen. John Teichert (ret) is a leading expert on advanced technology and military strategy. He served as commander of Joint Base Andrews and Edwards Air Force Base, was the U.S. senior defense official to Iraq, and recently retired as the assistant deputy undersecretary of the Air Force for international affairs. A prolific author and speaker, he is an Expert Advisor for Flarebright Ltd. in the United Kingdom. John can be followed at johnteichert.com and on LinkedIn.