A-10s over Kosovo

Flight Journal, Aug 2001 by Haun, Phil

The A-10 Warhog is the utimate close-air-support warbird. It was initially conceived to replace the- A-I Skyraider of Vietnam acclaim, but the realities of the Cold War and the threat of the Soviet Red Army led to the development of "The Tank Buster." Armed with an enormous 30mm gun and carrying 500-pound Maverick air-to-surface missiles, the A-10 has armor-killing power like no other fighter. During the Gulf War, A-lOs not only demolished Iraqi tanks but also the misconception that a slow, low-flying aircraft could not survive combat. More recently, during Operation Allied Force, the A-10 became king of the skies over Kosovo, commanding 40- to 50-ship missions as airborne forward air controllers attacking Serbian armor. Credited with attacking and destroying more artillery and armored vehicles than any other platform, the A-10 continues to prove its worth as a workhorse for U.S. airpower.

I feel lucky. After getting weathered out of yesterday's some, I'm flying back into Kosovo. I also have my wingman, "Dirt," flying with me. Dirt is a good friend and an experienced A-10 instructor pilot who never loses his cool. This morning, I'm the mission commander for a 45-ship package of airborne forward air controllers (AFACs), strikers, command and control and suppression of enemy air defense (SEAD) aircraft. Our objective is to destroy as many Serbian tactical vehicles (armor, artillery and soft-skinned vehicles) as we can find. As AFACs, Dirt and I are to actually locate, identify and attack these mobile targets. The entire package provides continuous coverage over Kosovo by splitting the country in two, with two sets of AFACs rotating on and off the tanker to cover our three-hour vulnerability window. The A-10s have the east; the F-16CGs have the west.

For AFACs operations, my A-10 is loaded with 2.75-inch "Willy Pete" (white phosphorous) rockets for marking, Mk-82 500-pound bombs, 500-pound air-to-surface Maverick missiles and more than 1,000 rounds of 30mm GAU-8 armor-piercing and high-explosive bullets. This gives me a variety of munitions that allows me not only to mark targets but to kill them as well. With F-lSEs, Canadian CF-18s and British GR-7 Harriers available to me, I also have a lot of laser-guided bombs (LGBs) and cluster-bomb units (CBUs) at my disposal. Life is sweet.

Today's five-hour mission includes an hour's flight to the KC-135 tankers holding over Macedonia for our refueling; an hour of flying over Kosovo; back to the tanker for more gas; another hour over Kosovo and an hour flight back to Gioia del Colle-our deployed airbase in southeast Italy (see Map 1).

The morning's mass briefing is only so-so. The weather looks workable, but we're threatened with mid-level cloud decks. On top of that, the bad weather these last few days has prevented the accumulation of any good imagery, and we'll be forced to go it alone to look for Serbian military vehicles with limited help from reconnaissance and intelligence sources.

This is nothing new. The Serbs have stopped using the roads during the day, so I don't expect to find anything out in the open to shoot. Three options are available to me; the first two are to systematically search the towns for military vehicles or to comb the outlying areas for revetments. Urban visual reconnaissance is extremely difficult. In the towns, the Serbs have been parking their tanks next to houses-and sometimes inside the houses. I was able to find good vehicles on a previous mission, but it still took about an hour to find one target, and the attack was only partially successful. The third option is to search the distant hills for revetments containing armored personel carriers (APCs), tanks and artillery. The Serbians have hundreds of dug-in fighting positions all over the foothills that overlook the main lines of communication (LOCs) leading south and east out of Kosovo.

I am determined to give some revetments south of Gnjilane (aka "G-town") a first look. I know where there are 20 juicy revetments that were full of APCs and artillery just two days ago. On that day, I found the revetments, called for fighters and was given F-15Es and Belgian F-16s. While waiting for the F-lSEs, I attempted to lock up and shoot a Maverick at one of the APCs. The target contrast was too poor, and I came off target dry.

As I called to get an update on the fighters, I looked back at the target and saw a long, white trail of smoke off my left wing. It looked like the smoke trail off a Maverick missile, and I was pissed that my wingman had shot a Maverick on his own. I hadn't given him permission or been able to provide cover for him. When he responded that he had made no such attack, chills went up my spine. The smoke trail was evidence of a shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile (SAM) shot at my flight.

I didn't have to wait long for the second SAM, as I directed my wingman to roll in on the revetments where the smoke had come from. He came off dry, with a hung-up Maverick, only to see another SAM come streaking up for him. I called for flares then held safely to the south until the strikers showed up. The F-15Es called in were low on fuel. I talked them onto the target, but they bingoed out for gas before they could splash any of the revetments with their LGBs. Now I was running low on fuel, and before I could get the Belgian F-16s on target, I hit bingo myself. On the tanker, I plotted my revenge, but unfortunately, after I had refueled, low-level clouds moved into the target area and we had to leave all 20 revetments unmolested. It burned me that they had been able to take two shots at us without retribution.