Compass Call

There’s some good news in this article, as well as some disturbing stuff.

https://www.airforcetimes.com/articles/target-isis-ec-130h-compass-call

The real issue is this: short-staffed, losing techs to advancements that take them out of skilled maintenance positions, or to civilian jobs: so what happens if a real crisis arises, and things ramp up with Daesh? This loss of people experienced in their fields is really more important than anything else. Without a strong base layer of hands-on wrench-cranking techs, the entire project goes right down the toilet. This is disturbing, because the war in the Middle East is not dying down. It is increasing in volume. Those drips and drabs that come in on the news feeds, if any come at all, are only a smattering of what is really going on there, and we all know it. The recent attack on a Saudi warship by rebel Houthis from Yemen is the tip of the iceberg.

Warfare is and always has been a game of cat and mouse, and ditto modern electronic warfare.  In World War II, coded messages were frequently sent from the field to a military base by homing pigeon. Now it’s ISIS using off-the-shelf quadcopters and RC model planes to spy on their enemy’s troops and equipment.

While the use of small drones carrying cameras is not new, being used as spies by ISIS is quite deadly. They could be visible on radar, but you can’t just drag a radar setup into the field with you, hence these Hercs jammed full of electronic gear for detection and jamming ISIS’s toys, as well as interpreters to decipher their chatter.

While the drones can be shot out of the air, it requires not only being aware of them, but also being able to spot them. If they’re several hundred feet up, bringing them down from ground level requires a trained spotter as well as a good marksman. The Daesh videos using drones to follow truck bombers appear to be from a substantial height, maybe 1,000 feet.  If they’re being used for recording truck and car bombings, they’re also being used to spy on troops on the ground.  It’s back to WWII and camouflage netting to hide things. Maybe the troops should use inflatable decoy tanks and cardboard planes, too.

As the article says, it’s easy enough to shoot them down. Spotting them is the more difficult part. It’s also easy enough to spot and jam their signals and contacts.

So I’m going to ask the dumbest question of the year: where in the Seven Hells are they getting these things? Is there a Toys R Us franchise over there somewhere?

There’s a nice shot of a Herc in the article.

Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work"