[R-G] NATO air power doubling in Afghanistan

[Anthony Fenton]

http://www2.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=55e5696a-d540-48c5-9f78-3f87a25445bc&sponsor=

NATO air power doubling in Afghanistan
Added support aims to increase effectiveness of U.S. deployment of  
more ground troops

Matthew Fisher
Canwest News service

Sunday, April 19, 2009

The whopping buildup of U.S. forces in Afghanistan ordered by  
President Barack Obama is not only about putting more boots on the  
ground.

Air power is being more than doubled in Afghanistan this spring, and  
the "air czar" organizing the surge is a Canadian fighter pilot.

"I will say upfront that not all our land forces in Afghanistan have  
in past years had the critical support or the enablers they have  
needed to do their jobs properly," said Maj.-Gen. Duff Sullivan of  
Cornwall, Ont., who is director of the air co-ordination element and  
of joint operations for NATO's International Security Assistance Force  
in Afghanistan.

That shortfall is about to be dramatically remedied. Where the Taliban  
insurgency is the worst, in the south, the number of helicopters is  
about to increase to 320 from 140. About 260 of those helicopters will  
be crammed into the Kandahar Airfield,where Canada's Task Force  
Afghanistan has its headquarters.

Also on the way to Afghanistan to join U.S., Belgian and French  
fighter jets are Royal Air Force Tornadoes and an additional U.S. air  
force

F-16 fighter jet squadron. Some lumbering American A-10 attack jets  
known as Warthogs now based in the north of the country are to shift  
to KAF soon, too.

A U.S. Marine Expeditionary Brigade is also bringing dozens of attack  
and transport helicopters and jets to southern Afghanistan.  
Furthermore, the USS Eisenhower carrier strike group, which includes  
almost 100 warplanes, is on call in the Arabian Sea.

"There is a huge difference (now) from when John Manley was over here  
identifying shortfalls and deficiencies," Sullivan said, referring to  
the retired Liberal politician who led a parliamentary panel which  
urged Canada to acquire its own helicopter airlift to reduce the risks  
to ground troops travelling in convoys on roads infested with  
improvised explosive devices. The Harper government responded by  
sending six Chinook heavy lift helicopters and eight lightly armed  
Griffon helicopters to Kandahar early this year.

"Every little bit helps," Sullivan said, adding that the arrival of  
the Canadian Chinooks had an "instantaneous" positive effect on ground  
operations. "When we resupply our forward operating bases in Arghandab  
and Panjwaii, there is a significant decrease in risk to those forces  
by being lifted in. Suddenly, those IEDs that are waiting for them, we  
are bypassing them. We are flying overtop."

One of Sullivan's biggest challenges has been to figure out "bed  
space" for the aerial armada that is about to descend on Kandahar,  
which soon could be the busiest military airfield in the world.

"We are building ramp space like crazy, pouring concrete, building new  
maintenance facilities," said the 52-year-old general, who previously  
commanded a Canadian CF-18 squadron and flew combat missions for  
Canada over the Balkans and during the first Gulf War in 1991.

"It will be a total flow through of about 20,000 (troops). KAF is  
going to grow from 16,000 to 25,000. That one airfield will have twice  
the number of personnel as the entire Canadian air force."

Another significant change is that some of the attack helicopters  
coming to Afghanistan are, for the first time, going to be forward- 
deployed alongside ground units near routes used by the Taliban and al- 
Qaida to travel from safe havens in Pakistan to the main fighting  
areas in Kandahar, Helmand and Uruzgan provinces.

Civilian casualties in air strikes has become a divisive issue in  
Afghanistan.

Seventy-seven per cent of Afghans want air attacks to stop because  
they believe the risk of attacks on civilians is too high, according  
to an ABC/BBC poll. President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly demanded  
that much more be done by allied forces to stop what in military  
parlance is known as "collateral damage."

Reducing civilian casualties "was priority No. 1" for Sullivan and for  
U.S. army general David McKiernan, who commands NATO and U.S. forces  
in Afghanistan, the Canadian major-general said.

"It is all about protecting the population and trying to separate them  
from the insurgents," Sullivan said.

He added that this was often extremely difficult to do because the  
Taliban used civilians as human shields.

"The insurgents being who they are, the Taliban, throughout 2008 in  
all the most tragic events where we have had civilian casualties, we  
see time and again where the Taliban has demonstrated a flagrant  
disregard for the safety and security of the population.

"What happens is that the Taliban will set up situations where they  
know we are coming through trying to conduct security operations,  
where they will instigate an attack from positions that are blended  
and coincide directly with civilian population.

"That makes our job 10 times more difficult."

Since last year, NATO ground commanders have been given additional  
instructions "about how to do appropriate application of air power,"  
Sullivan said.

"If they are face-to-face with insurgents, and the general population  
is involved, and there is a possibility of civilian casualties, what  
we ask our ground commanders is to re-position, to withdraw, to move  
back so that we can better assess what is going on."

If the Taliban persist, aircraft buzz them, hoping that the presence  
of the warplanes will convince them to fall back.

If that does not work and "the Taliban are still firing on friendly  
forces and harming civilians, we will then attempt to target their  
positions," Sullivan said.

"It is not carelessness on the part of the friendly force.

"We can show (in) most of these situations that it is a Taliban tactic  
to put themselves with the civilian population."

© The Edmonton Journal 2009