Joint fires observer

FA Journal, Sept-Oct, 2005 by Michael A. Longoria, D. Wayne Andrews, Steven P. Milliron

  The USA and United States Marine Corps (USMC) have identified the need
to provide close air support (CAS) training to forward observers (FOs),
reconnaissance marines and special operators to better prepare them to
assist in the control of Type 2 and Type 3 CAS aircraft when a qualified
joint terminal attack controller (JTAC) is not collocated with the FO.
The idea is to provide a limited capability to control CAS in situations
where a qualified JTAC is not physically located with the FO and the
situation requires immediate assistance from available CAS assets. The
intent is not to circumvent the need for a qualified JTAC, but to
address the fact that a JTAC cannot be present in all locations of the
joint battlespace.
"JCAS [Joint CAS] Action Plan"
Joint Forces Command (JFCOM), 2003

The Army and Air Force are moving out on creating a joint fires observer (JFO). Much has been written and discussed about the JFO; unfortunately, some of the information remains misunderstood or is just plain inaccurate.

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The purpose of this article is to clarify the facts associated with the term "JFO" and the Army's and Air Force's plans to train JFOs.

What a JFO Is and Is Not. First, we need to define joint fire support. According to Joint Pub 3-0 Doctrine for Joint Operations, "Joint fire support includes joint fires that assist air, land, maritime, amphibious, and special operations forces to move, maneuver, and control territory, populations, airspace, and key waters."

Next are the facts associated with providing the CAS portion of joint fire support. In 2004, the Rand Corporation published the monograph "Beyond Close Air Support, Forging a New Air-Ground Partnership." Figure 1 lists the monograph's key findings.

These findings illustrate the need for an asset to increase the critical combat capability the JTAC brings to the air ground battle exponentially: the JFO. Although the concept of the JFO is not new, the services' recognizing that the JFO's role in the Modular Army in light of the increased need for JTACs is a logical and effective force multiplier.

As the Army continues its transformation into a more flexible and lethal combat force, one of the determining factors of the Army's success will be its ability to leverage the full spectrum of joint fires for joint interdependency. One way to leverage these joint fires is the creation of a JFO.

As defined by the Army's Field Artillery Center at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and agreed upon by the Air Force's Joint Air Ground Office (JAGO) in the Air Combat Command, Langley AFB, Virginia, the JFO is a "trained service member who can request, adjust and control surface-to-surface fires, provide targeting information in support of Type 2 and 3 CAS terminal attack controls and perform autonomous terminal guidance operations (TGO)."

A JFO is not a certified JTAC and will never replace a certified JTAC. However, a JFO can serve as the eyes and ears of a JTAC (or certified forward air controller-airborne, called FAC-A) to provide timely and accurate targeting information for the JTAC's terminal control of Types 2 and 3 CAS when the JTAC is not in position to see the target or the aircraft at weapons release or when attacking aircraft are not in a position to acquire the mark or target before releasing or launching their weapons.

When a JTAC is unavailable and the tactical risk mandates the use of an unqualified controller, the JFO will be capable of controlling CAS.

Field commanders must be judicious in using their JTACs to maximize their availability and avoid the exceptional situation of a JFO's controlling CAS, thus deviating from the doctrinally optimal killer combination of the JTAC and CAS platform. Figure 2 gives an example of a commander's positioning of his JTAC and JFO assets to make the most of his air power assets.

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The JFO's controlling CAS when a JTAC is unavailable and the tactical risk mandates it is not a new concept. Historically, FOs have executed "emergency" CAS. However with joint interdependency and a lack of formal CAS training for Army FOs, creating a JFO course was a necessity.

Many units have done and still do quality training and familiarization programs with their resident air support operations squadrons (ASOS). But CAS training as a whole has diminished greatly over the years--so much so that a fire support sergeant in the rank of sergeant or staff sergeant (13F20/30 Fire Support Specialist) no longer was responsible for CAS tasks on his military operational specialty (MOS) task list. This has been corrected. The next logical step was to establish a formal JFO program for new Knight or combat observation and lasing team (COLT) sergeants and company fire support sergeants to ensure they can apply the full range of joint fires.

Training the JFO. The JFO Course (JFOC) started in January 2005 as a seven-day course running in conjunction with the third week of the other resident courses at the Air Ground Operations School (AGOS) located at Nellis AFB, Nevada. (AGOS recently was renamed Joint Air-Ground Operations Group, or JAGOG.)