Deconflicting army aircraft and indirect fires: brigade-level [A.sup.2][C.sup.2]

FA Journal, March-June, 2004 by Daniel A. Pinnell, Victor S. Hamilton, Michael T. Oeschger

When a brigade is operating semi-autonomously as part of an early-entry force and (or) receives insufficient detail in an [A.sup.2][C.sup.2] plan from higher, it must assume responsibility for the [A.sup.2][C.sup.2] planning that its higher headquarters normally would perform. Brigade staffs are responsible for the planning (or refining) and executing [A.sup.2][C.sup.2] within their AORs.

While all ACMs should be (and in some cases are required to be) forwarded to a higher headquarters for approval, the brigade can enforce ACMs below the coordinating altitude as informal measures until approved by higher--ACMs such as routes, corridors and firing battery ROZs. Bottom line: the brigade always submits the [A.sup.2][C.sup.2] plan and modifications to higher headquarters for approval and inclusion, but it doesn't wait for approval before taking control of its airspace.

In this article, we offer TTP for brigade-level [A.sup.2][C.sup.2] planning for small-scale contingencies (SSC) to help units translate the doctrinal guidance in Army and joint [A.sup.2][C.sup.2] manuals into viable, executable plans for both training and combat.

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Deconflicting Aircraft in the AOR. The brigade staff deconflicts aircraft conducting logistics and assault operations inside the AOR using air corridors built on a network of air control points (ACPs). To do this, the staff first links the routes from the division or joint task force (JTF) logistics nodes to the brigade logistics nodes.

Next the staff links the brigade nodes to battalion nodes as well as to planned or potential future assault and medical evacuation (MEDEVAC) landing zones. ACPs and routes should be constructed to provide the most direct route from node to node while remaining outside the surface danger zone around artillery and mortar units and avoiding areas where large volumes of indirect fire are likely to be delivered, according to plan. To eliminate aviators' concerns that repetitive use of a small number of corridors might increase their risks of ambush, the staff provides a number of alternate corridors and periodically alters which ones are active.

Figure 2 shows a typical [A.sup.2][C.sup.2] plan given to a brigade by the 21st Division at the JRTC. It consists solely of two division-directed SAAFRs linking assets in the division rear area to the edges of the brigade AOR. Figure 3 shows the various brigade and battalion nodes connected by air corridors and connected to the division SAAFRs at the brigade boundaries.

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Deconflicting Air Operations Around Major Firing Units. During many stability operations and support operations (SOSO)/counterinsurgency operations, FA batteries and, to a large extent, battalion mortar platoons remain fairly static for long periods. They occupy hardened firebases distributed across the AOR.

This predictability lends itself to deconfliction using ROZs/ROAs. Assuming a coordinating altitude of 300 feet above ground level (AGL), the trajectory tables for the weapon determine the average range and highest charge expected to be fired that distance from the battery at which a projectile fired at low angle will "climb" above 300 feet AGL on its trajectory toward the target. That distance, plus additional safety factors as desired, becomes the radius of the circular ROZ around the firing unit. The minimum altitude is surface. and the maximum altitude is the coordinating altitude of 300 feet AGL. This ROZ is closed to all fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft operations. The same basic principle applies to mortar positions.