Balkan Traffic Cops - U.S. soldiers in multinational peacekeeping forces in Balkans - Brief Article

Airman, April, 2001 by Chesley W. Caddell

Operating at an Italian air base, airmen from 14 nations ensure the smooth running of the daily operations that help keep the peace in Bosnia and Kosovo.

photos by Master Sgt. Keith Reed

Most U.S. airmen today have taken part in some sort of combat operation or policing action. The vigils the Air Force keeps over Bosnia, Iraq and South Korea are prime examples.

Establishing and maintaining air superiority is a role the Air Force knows well, and the 78-day NATO air campaign over Kosovo proves the force is good at it. There's no doubt this kind of operation will play a big part in the Air Force's future. But the Air Force doesn't go it alone. Airmen from many nations make up the tailor-made expeditionary forces that help maintain peace around the globe.

Keeping these multinational air operations on track is hard work, and takes exacting command and control. Nowhere is that more crucial than in the Balkans -- a bcehive of activity where NATO forces guard a fragile peace, while overhead military and civilian aircraft ply the sky -- day and night.

At Vicenza, Italy, workers from 14 nations run the Balkans Combined Air Operations Center, an organization that keeps the air traffic flowing smoothly throughout the region. Based at Tomaso Dal Molin Military Airport, the center reviews, plans and directs all military air operations supporting NATO's Balkans peacekeeping operations. It provides NATO joint force commanders with air support, including intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and airlift. Plus, it maintains a tactical air presence.

The air tasking order

The center gathers information on activities within the region from a host of intelligence sources. Afterward, people in several of the center's areas (intelligence, operations, logistics, plans and policies, and communications) sort the information, compute it and create an air tasking order.

Life for the center's 300-plus people revolves around the tasking order. It lays out the big picture of air operations in the center's area of responsibility. Planners must build a strategy and air plan by considering the theater ground commander's intelligence requirements, targets, tactical air asset availability and airlift (both military and civilian) to produce the tasking order for the center's battlestaff.

"The air tasking order provides units all the guidance and direction they need to fly assigned missions," said Brig. Gen. Fred Van Valkenburg, the center's director. "The heart of the order is the individual mission."

Some of the things the order includes are descriptions of where airmen will fly or rendezvous with tankers to refuel, plus areas they'll work and targets they'll seek. Those designed to gather intelligence are at the heart of the daily sorties the center directs.

"Those missions are our main focus," Van Valkenburg said. "They ensure NATO forces have the visibility and situational awareness they need to do their jobs, both in the air and on the ground."

The center also plans, directs and controls the sorties that provide troops with a constant tactical air support. And, if needed, air strikes. Another challenge of the air tasking order is airlift. That's the job of the Regional Air Movement Coordination Center. This center directs daily sorties that ensure ground forces get their supplies.

This center isn't like any of the other 10 NATO centers In Europe. It was the first, set up in 1993 to support Operation Deny Flight -- NATO's first combat air operation. Unlike the other centers, which execute air policing from one region or nation, the Baikan center controls aircraft from bases throughout Europe.

Eventually, the Balkan mission will move to Poggio Renatico, 62 miles south of Vicenza with the mission still under NATO command and control. The Balkans Combined Air Operations Center will direct air policing operations in Italy as well as air support to the Balkans.

Integrating people from 14 different countries can be a difficult and daunting task. While member nations send their top professionals to Vicenza, most haven't worked in a combined, multinational environment.

However, according to Master Sgt. Chuck Benz, a former intelligence superintendent, they all "learn fast."

One initiative -- a direct outgrowth of lessons learned in Operation Allied Force -- addresses air operation centers as weapon systems. The idea is to identify which airmen should work there, how they'll be trained, and what career paths they should follow to keep current.

Lt. Col. Gary Crowder, former chief of combat plans, said, "The center has to operate in a truly joint-coalition environment,"

Van Valkenburg agrees. When the Balkans center moves, it will enter a new era, but it'll take proven performance with it, It also will take the lessons learned from seven years of combined international work, The general said future operations like Deny Flight and Allied Force will require a strong coalition effort.

"Interoperability will be the key to success in any future operations," Van Valkenburg said. "That's something the Balkans Combined Air Operations Center has proven works well."