Self-Protective Measures to Enhance Airlift Operations in Hostile Environments

205 Pages·2003·9.71 MB·English

by  John A. Skorupa

~,~ABty7fD ~a°°~~
SELF-PROTECTIVE MEASURES
TO ENHANCE AIRLIFT
OPERATIONS IN
HOSTILE ENVIRONMENTS
by
JOHNA.SKORUPA, Lt Col, USAF
Research Fellow
Airpower Research Institute
WinneroftheAirForceHistoricalFoundation's
1988 ColonelJamesCannellMemorialAward
Air UniversityPress
MaxwellAir ForceBase,Alabama36112-5532
September1989
(cid:9)(cid:9)
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PbblilcationData
Skorupa, JohnA.
Self-protectivemeasures to enhance airliftoperations inhostile environments/by
JohnA.Skorupa.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferences.
1. AirliftMllitary-UnitedStates.2. Airwarfare.3. UnitedStatesAirForce.
I. Title.
UC333.S56 1989 89-15156
358.4'4'0973-dc20 CIP
ISBN 1-58566-028-0
FirstPrintingSeptember1989
SecondPrintingSeptember1993
ThirdPrintingAugust 2000
Fourth PrintingSeptember2001
Disclaimer
Thispublication was produced in theDepartment of Defenseschoolenvironment and in the
interest ofacademic freedomandtheadvancementofnational defense-relatedconcepts.The
viewsexpressedinthis publicationarethoseoftheauthoranddonotreflecttheofficial policyor
positionoftheDepartmentofDefense,ortheUnited Statesgovernment.
Thispublicationhasbeen reviewedbysecurity andpolicy reviewauthoritiesandis clearedfor
public release.
11
CONTENTS
Chapter Page
DISCLAIMER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii
FOREWORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
ABOUTTHEAUTHOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . id
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvi
PartI
OPERATIONALNEED
1 AIRLIFTDOCTRINE ANDFORCES . . . . . . . . . . 3
CurrentAirliftDoctrine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Formal Doctrine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
JointDoctrine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
InformalDoctrine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
ForceStructure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
StrategicAirlift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
TacticalAirlift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
AirliftOperations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
OtherOperations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2 THETHREAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
. . . . . .
MissionScenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
EmploymentandSustainment . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Threat Intensity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
NearMainOperatingBases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
.
En RoutebetweenTheaters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
EnRoutewithinTheater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Near ForwardOperatingLocations . . . . . . . . . . 34
Peacetime-versus-Wartime Threats . . . . . . . . . . . 34
ThreatTrends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
iii
Chapter Page
PartII
TECHNICALFEASIBILITY
3 ELECTRONICWARFARE:HOWITFUNCTIONS . . 49
ElectromagneticSpectrum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Radar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Waveform Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
OtherDesign Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
RadarUsage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
ElectronicWarfarePractice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
OffensiveandDefensiveTasks . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
ElectronicWarfareTasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Electro-opticalCountermeasures . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Infrared HomingMissiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Antivision Lasers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
LaserBeam-RidingMissiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Directed-EnergyWeapons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
System Countermeasures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
CounteringHumans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
MissileGuidance Countermeasures . . . . . . . . . 84
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
4 TECHNOLOGICALSOLUTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
DesignPhilosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
BenefitsofLowAltitude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
CounteringRadarSystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Avoiding DetectionandAcquisition . . . . . . . . . 99
DefeatingRadarSystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
CounteringAirborne Interceptors . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Avoiding Airborne Interceptors . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
DefeatingAirborne Interceptors . . . . . . . . . . . 110
DefeatingRadarMissiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Countering Electro-opticalWeapons . . . . . . . . . . 117
Avoiding InfraredDetectionandAcquisition . . . . 117
DefeatingInfrared Tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
DefeatingInfrared Missiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Avoiding OpticalDetection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
DefeatingOpticalTracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Countering Directed-EnergyThreats . . . . . . . . . . 125
Countering Antivision Lasers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Countering LaserBeam-RidingWeapons . . . . . . 127
Countering Directed-EnergyWeapons . . . . . . . . 128
iv
Chapter Page
AugmentingSystemSolutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .130
PartIII
ECONOMIC REALISM
5 ECONOMICAFFORDABILITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
LinkingMissions, Aircraft, Threats,andSolutions . . . 135
System RequirementsforCategory 1Threats . . . . 136
System RequirementsforCategory2Threats . . . . 137
WeaponSystem Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
CostofDoingNothing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
6 BUDGETARYREALISM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Peacetime-versus-Wartime Considerations . . . . . . . 151
CoreSystemsversusAugmentationand
Future Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Strap-On andPartialFleetCapabilities . . . . . . . . . 163
Aircraft-UniqueConsiderations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
7 SUMMARYAND RECOMMENDATIONS . . . . . . . 173
LessonsLearned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Operational Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
TechnicalFeasibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
EconomicRealism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Epilogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Doctrinal Debate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
OrganizationalMachinery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure
1 RadioFrequencyAbsorption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
2 Visible andInfraredAbsorption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3 RadarBurnthrough . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4 GhostingProblemwithNettedRadars . . . . . . . . . . . 70
5 Knife-EdgeDiffraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
v
Table Page
1 StrategicAirliftAircraft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2 TacticalAirliftAircraft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3 Threat Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4 C-17StudyThreatAssessments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
5 Deployment MissionAirborneInterceptorThreats . . . . 30
6 Deployment MissionAir-to-AirMissileThreats . . . . . . 31
7 EmploymentandSustainmentMission
Surface-to-AirMissileThreats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
8 ElectromagneticSpectrum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
9 AtmosphericParticleSizes(Diameter) . . . . . . . . . . . 51
10 LandandAirborneRadars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
11 Soviet NavalRadars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
12 EarlyWarningandTrackingRadarECMand
ECCM Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
13 InfraredSensitivePhotoconductors . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
14 Mission, Aircraft,andThreatLinkage . . . . . . . . . . . 136
15 Self-ProtectiveSystemsforDeployment Mission . . . . . 137
16 Self-ProtectiveSystemsforEmployment and
SustainmentMissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
17 WeaponSystemAcquisitionCosts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
18 AcquisitionandInstallationCostsofFullyCapable
Self-ProtectiveSystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
19 AcquisitionandInstallationCostsofFullyCapable
Self-Protection forMACInventory . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
20 CostofDoingNothingto DefendtheC-17Fleet . . . . . . 143
21 AffordabilityofDefendingAirliftAircraft . . . . . . . . . 143
22 CostofDoingNothingto DefendtheC-130Fleet . . . . . 144
23 AffordabilityofDefendingC-130Aircraft . . . . . . . . . 144
24 Cost ofDoingNothingto DefendtheAirdrop
C-141Fleet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
25 AffordabilityofDefendingAirdropC-141Aircraft . . . . 146
26 Category 1ThreatsandSolutionsversusNormal
PeacetimeNeed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
vl
Tabk Page
27 Category2ThreatsandSolutionsversusNormal
PeacetimeNeed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
28 Short-,Intermediate-, andLong-TermAcquisition
andInstallationCostsofFullyCapable
Self-ProtectiveSystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
29 Short-,Intermediate-, andLong-TermAcquisitionand
InstallationCostsfortheMACInventory . . . . . . . . . . 156
30 RankOrderofProtectiveSystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
31 IncrementalBuildupofProtectiveSystems . . . . . . . . . 160
32 IncrementalBuildup:Short-,Intermediate-,and
Long-TermAcquisition andInstallationCosts . . . . . . . 161
33 IncrementalBuildup:AcquisitionandInstallation
CostsfortheMACInventory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
34 C-130Strap-On CandidateSystemCosts . . . . . . . . . . 166
35 SavingsPotentialofNotEquipping CertainC-130s . . . . 167
36 ImpactofPartial C-130EquipageonCosts . . . . . . . . . 167
37 IncrementalBuildup:AcquisitionandInstallation
CostsforC-5s,C-17s, andAirdrop C-141s . . . . . . . . . 169
Vii

FOREWORD
Thenational strategy ofdefending US interests as far from
NorthAmericaaspossible has elevated airlift'simportance in
national securityto a critical level. AirForce support of this
strategyhasledtothe acquisitionofnewairliftaircraft and an
emerging doctrine of global forward delivery that exposes
airlifters toawiderangeofthreatsacrosstheconflictspectrum.
Such adoctrine andourplansforglobal projection maynotbe
supportable unless airlift aircraft are equipped with self-
protective systems. Alack ofairliftsurvivability is apotential
Achilles' heel in the US global defense posture. This is an
ominous and compelling reason for studying how to protect
airlift aircraft inhostileenvironments.
Self-Protective Measures to Enhance Airlift Operations in
HostileEnvironmentsis aworthyresponseto this national crisis
foritstimeliness, comprehensiveapproach,andauthority.The
report is timely not only in addressing an issue of national
strategic significance but also in doing so at atime when the
MilitaryAirlift Commandis beginningits searchforsolutions.
The report is comprehensive in its examination of strategy,
doctrine, forces,threat, andtechnological solutionswhilealso
consideringcost andfiscal issues.Thereportis authoritativein
itsblending of military artwith industrial science, andonly a
person with the author's experience and insight could have
produced it.
The author's unique perspective on this topic comes from
having spent 19yearsas apilotintransports, as anaeronautical
engineer developing and acquiring combat aircraft, as a staff
officer at the Military Airlift Command dealing with daily
operationalissues, andasaresearchfellowstudying thesubject
at great length. He has done a masterful job of explaining
complexproblems andpotentialsolutions ineasily understood
terms.The studywill undoubtedly stand as alandmark effort