Airborne: A Guided Tour of an Airborne Task Force

by Tom Clancy

  It is an axiom that in these times of downsizing and declining defense budgets, joint and coalition warfare has become the norm. No other military organization in the world has more experience in such operations than XVIII Airborne Corps. They do this through a long-standing set of relationships with other services and nations that would be the envy of any foreign ministry in the world. We’ll let General Keane explain.

  Tom Clancy: You’ve been saying that XVIII Airborne Corps has a unique relationship with the units of the U.S. Transportation Command [USTRANSCOM], particularly the Air Mobility Command [AMC] and the Military Sealift Command [MSC]. Talk a little about your partnership with these organizations, would you please?

  General Keane: The U.S. Air Force and XVIII Airborne Corps tend to think of ourselves as being just one [entity]. We’ve been, in a sense, brothers for years going back to World War II. We train together, exercise together, deploy on operations, and go to war together. We cannot complete our missions without the Air Force, it is that simple! XVIII Airborne Corps could not be a strategic crisis response force without the Air Force’s ability to respond as rapidly as our units. Their challenge is just as great as ours. The Air Force is out operating as an air force every day, peacetime or war. Their planes are all over the world, and if a crisis comes, they have to bring their planes back and assemble their crews. And if the mission includes a parachute assault (with the 82nd Airborne Division), they have to assemble their airdrop crews that are qualified to do that, because not all transport crews are. So they have a great challenge, and they practice for it with us all the time.

  Our relationship with the Navy’s Sealift Command [MSC] is the same. As you know, we now have nine of the fast sealift ships [33-knot ships like the SL-7 class] and we’re going up to [a force of] nineteen with the LMSLR program. They just christened the first two of those, the USNS Shughart and the USNS Gordon, named for our two Army Medal of Honor winners [posthumously] from Somalia. We cannot project the nation’s combat power to great distances without sealift. It’s that simple. We could project a smaller force, but only sealift gives us the capabilities to project the forces we need, in the time required, and sustain them over time.

  Now, in conjunction with MSC, we’re constantly exercising with them. Once a quarter [every three months] here at XVIII Airborne Corps, we conduct what we call a Sea Emergency Deployment Exercise. Just recently, we ran one of these with elements of a brigade from the 101 st Air Assault Division. We moved their equipment and flew the helicopters down 625 mi/1006 km from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to Jacksonville, Florida (at the Blount Island Naval Terminal), then shrink-wrapped the aircraft and loaded them aboard a fast sealift ship. We then had the ship moved up to Norfolk, Virginia, where it practiced three different types of operations at the time. First we off-loaded part of the load at the Norfolk cargo terminal, which represented an improved port facility which we may encounter, similar to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. At the same time, we took some of the equipment off the vessel, and put it into the water onto amphibious literage and drove it onto a pier that we had built, as if it was a degraded port, like that of a Third World country [like Mogadishu, Somalia]. Finally, we took other equipment off the ship on lighters and drove it over the beach as if it was a beach landing. We call that last one an “over the shore” operation. It was a tremendous operation, and we do three or four of these a year. In addition, back to my previous comments on our partnership with the Air Force, we do at least several similar operations with them each month. Obviously, though, the Air Force element that we spend the most time with is the 23rd Wing, which is based right next door at Pope Air Force Base [AFB], North Carolina.

  Tom Clancy: Could you tell us about the joint [inter-service] training exercises that you participate in?

  General Keane: In addition to the exercises that I described previously, we also continuously practice joint operations with our other sister services. In fact, we’re doing twenty-two joint exercises this year [FY-96], with sixteen more planned for next year [FY-97]. Most of the joint exercises we do are with II Marine Expeditionary Force [II MEF, based at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina], 9th and 12th Air Forces, and the 2nd [Atlantic] Fleet. The approach that we take with these joint exercises is that each one of the service components [Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps] will be responsible for a JTF headquarters on an exercise, and we switch that responsibility out during the year. The nature of the operation or scenario that is conducted will have the other service components working for that JTF headquarters. For example, for the JTFEX-9510 exercise that we conducted in August of 1995, Admiral Jay Johnson [now the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO)] who commanded 2nd Fleet, was the JTF commander, and I [at the time commander of the 101st Air Assault Division] was his deputy commander. Now sometimes these are field or fleet training exercises with troops [actual ground, air, etc.], though more and more, we conduct these exercises using networked computer simulations. We have found that we can hone and maintain our skills through computer simulations, and reduce the cost of large-scale exercises.

  Tom Clancy: You’re getting ready right now [May 1996] for a very large joint exercise known by the various names of JTFEX-96/Purple Star/Royal Dragon. Could you please tell us how you expect it to run?

  General Keane: For Royal Dragon, we’ll [the XVIII Airborne Corps headquarters] be the Joint Land Component Commander when our part of the operation kicks in. Prior to that, though, I’ll be working for the JTF headquarters, which will be aboard the command ship USS Mount Whitney [LCC-20], and commanded by the new 2nd Fleet Commander, Admiral William Vernon Clark, who recently took over from Jay Johnson.4 One of the more interesting parts of our part of the exercise will be the inclusion of multi-national forces. We recognize that coalition warfare has manifested itself as a vital part of our national security policy, and we obviously have treaties and arrangements with allies around the world. We have to make certain that we have some level of interoperability and compatibility with the forces. So on occasions when we can, we practice with them.

  We recently sent a brigade task force of the 3rd MID [formerly the 24th MID] over to Egypt for Operation Bright Star with upwards of five thousand plus soldiers training with the Egyptians. We also just finished having a battalion from the same division training with the Kuwaitis in Operation Intrinsic Action-96, and the 10th Mountain also did one in Oman. For Royal Dragon, we’ll have over seven thou-sandBritish troops taking part, plus a Gurkha battalion, and soldiers from the 82nd Airborne, the 10th Mountain, and the 3rd Mechanized Infantry divisions. In addition, the Royal Navy is contributing over thirty naval vessels, including a carrier battle group built around HMS Illustrious [R 06] which will operate off the Carolina coast with our naval forces. I might also add that while all this is going on, we’ll still have a brigade each from the 82nd and 101st Airborne on eighteen-hour alert, ready to go just in case. If we’re going to maintain our [fighting] edge, and the American people expect us to do just that, we have got to practice our craft. That means getting out in the field and honing our skills. We have got to make certain that our soldiers, Marines, sailors, and airmen are practicing and staying ready.

  For all their capability and skill, the soldiers of the XVIII Airborne Corps have paid a high price in personal sacrifice and emotional strain. High OpTempos over the past decade, as well as force and budget reductions, have stretched our forces to the breaking point in places. Given their large number of overseas and combat deployments and a rigorous exercise schedule, they arguably have the toughest routine of any corps in the Army. Let’s hear General Keane’s thoughts on the quality of life for his soldiers, as well as some other challenges that he is facing.

  Tom Clancy: All these operations, both real and exercises, have placed a high strain on your personnel and equipment. Could you tell us your view of the high OpTempos that you have been experiencing these last few years?

  General Keane: Well, to be sure we cannot control the world, nor would we as a nation think of doin
g that. We’re here to respond to the NCAs, and we will respond in the fashion that they expect. We are busier in the last six years, to be sure, than we were previously in the Cold War. But there are some things that we can do to moderate the effects of these high OpTempos.

  Despite all the operational requirements, we are in control of most of the time of our soldiers. So we try when we’re back here at Fort Bragg and our other bases to have a “standard” duty day for our soldiers, so that they’re not working terribly long hours, though by most people’s standards, it is a pretty long day! From 6:30 in the morning to 5:00 o’clock at night as a standard, though we do try to give our soldiers weekends off when we can. Sometimes we cannot, because they are on exercises and deployments.

  In addition, whenever a three-day weekend or holiday comes up, we normally give them a fourth day off. That gives our soldiers and their families an opportunity to go somewhere and do something away from the base. Obviously, the soldiers from the corps alert units are not doing that, but will be confined to the local areas surrounding their bases at Fort Bragg, Fort Campbell, Fort Stewart, and Fort Drum. But we try to manage that pace and OpTempo as best we can.

  “Quality of Life” is an Army term, and we’re very concerned about the amount of separation our soldiers have from their families. On average, XVIII Airborne Corps soldiers will spend six to seven months a year gone from their families, either on deployment, on exercises, training, or away at school. We’re trying to mitigate that as best we can in the areas that we can control.

  Tom Clancy: Along with the high OpTempos, there is the matter of force modernization. Obviously this is a huge challenge because of the money involved. Can you give us your insight on this?

  General Keane: There are significant challenges in modernization to be sure, and the reasons for them are obvious: the downsizing of our budgets. The instruments of war with the precision that they have and the technology involved are extraordinarily expensive, though they do have a large payoff on the battlefield. For example, if I might digress for a moment, in my judgment, one of the most important weapons developments in the post-World War II era in terms of conventional warfare has to be precision guided munitions [PGMs]. When delivered from a suitable platform [aircraft, helicopter, ship, submarine, vehicle, etc.] PGMs have an enormous payoff for us. This is because their precision and lethality provides us with the ability to target and destroy only the portion of a target array that we are interested in.

  For example, if I want to take out a portion of a factory, we can now go in with PGMs, and take out only the part of the factory that is important to us, and not do any damage to the surrounding areas. Only an errant missile or malfunction would keep the strike from being successful, and the probability of this happening is dropping every day.

  Contrast that with what we had to do in World War II, when we tried to reduce the industrial bases of Germany and Japan. We had to fly armada after armada of heavy bombers to do that, and we lost hundreds of crews in the process. Also, quite tragically, a large number of civilians lost their lives in those strikes. The PGMs we have today enable us to send a single crew on a mission that previously might have required dozens, with a very high assurance of achieving the desired mission results with a minimum of collateral damage.

  Of course, PGMs and other technologies like that cost a lot of money, but at the same time they are truly saving lives, of our own military personnel, of non-combatants, and even of our enemies. We have no interest in taking unnecessary lives from our enemies. We just want to stop them from doing whatever it is that we’re opposed to. So technology costs money, and there is a lot of that involved when you’re talking about outfitting an entire corps or army. So we have to make the case for the technologies that we desire, and our people in Washington, D.C., are doing that.

  Our concern for the future is the continuing modernization of our corps. Right now we’re moving the last of the old AH-1 Cobra gunships out and replacing them with newly remanufactured OH-58D Kiowa Warriors. Our force of AH-64A Apache attack helicopters will be upgraded in the latter part of this decade to the new AH-64C/D Apache Longbow configuration, which will be a significant improvement in our capability.

  We’re also bringing in the new Advanced Field Artillery System [AFATAS], which is going to increase our fire-control capabilities for artillery and air support. We’re also going to see a near-term improvement in our artillery capability with the introduction of the new M 109A6 Paladin 155mm self-propelled howitzer, and improved versions of the MLRS rockets and A-TACMS missiles. We’re also still modernizing our fleet of armor with the M1A2 variant of the Abrams main battle tank, and the coming -A3 version of the M⅔ Bradley fighting vehicle. Finally, the new version of the Patriot surface-to-air missile system [known as the PAC-3] will provide the units of the corps with an advanced antitactical ballistic missile capability to the current fielded system.

  These are all proven technologies with enhanced capabilities. We don’t really need to go out and discover or invent something new when we have something so proven and capable. What we have to do is improve to make certain that we have an overmatch with regards to our potential adversaries. Right now, as we look at it from our perspective, we really don’t have a near-peer competitor out there, and therefore we clearly have an overmatch with our potential enemies. The Army has decided to take some risks in modernization efforts for the near term, so we can hold onto our force structure and units, to try and build some quality of life for our soldiers, and to make certain that we’re maintaining readiness.

  Readiness to us means that we’re training our soldiers, and maintaining our equipment up to standards [i.e., adequate supplies of repair parts]. Right now we’re doing very well with all of that, and our readiness reports are indicative of that. But obviously, any military organization has to keep its eyes on the future if it’s going to continue to evolve at the right pace. The challenge is to find the correct balance. The balance has to be among the mix of unit structures, the readiness of that army, the quality of life of its soldiers, and also the modernization of its equipment. The biggest modernization program in our future will be the RAH-66 Comanche helicopter, which will dramatically change how we do our business.

  Tom Clancy: Can you review some other programs and give your comments?

  General Keane: NAVISTAR Global Position System [GPS]. GPS has just been tremendous! We started using it out in the Gulf War back in 1991, and in that particular theater of operations with its lack of topographical features, GPS was a significant enhancement to our operations. So much so that now it is a way of life. If you go down into an infantry outfit today, while outwardly the soldier looks the same with a rifle, helmet, pack, etc., those soldiers are also moving around with night-vision goggles [the PVS-7B], a night aiming device for their weapons [the PAC-4C], a laser pointer to designate targets for PGMs, and perhaps a Portable Lightweight GPS Receiver [PLGR] to locate their position. As it stands today, GPS receivers are in all of our helicopters, in our entire combat vehicle fleet, and in the hands of our soldiers at all levels, whatever their function.

  Javelin Antitank Missile. Javelin is a really great initiative, a true “brilliant” PGM which will be man-portable for our soldiers. We really wish that we had been able to field it sooner, everyone in the Army knows that, but it just was not possible. Clearly it’s going to replace the old M47 Dragon weapons system, and will give our foot soldiers the ability to destroy any tank on the battlefield. The key feature of the Javelin is the use of “fire-and-forget technology” and an imaging infrared seeker to lock on to the target before launch. It’s a “brilliant” weapon in the sense that if the operator finds a target, the missile will lock on to the thermal signature of that target, and then home in on that specific target with a minimum of launch signature. That’s a tremendous advantage and should give us an enormous capability right down in the hands of our infantry.

  Command and Control Systems. To no one’s surprise, one of the technology e
xplosions that’s taking place at the moment is in the world of digital communications and information. Our experimental force out at Fort Hood is on the “bow wave” of that technology. As we work our way through this revolution, there’s probably going to be an explosion of technology. Ultimately we’ll have soldiers as well as vehicles on the battlefield that will be able to “look” at a target or other item of interest. Their onboard camera/sensor system will feed that to a computer which will transmit information digitally back to command posts at various levels with everyone seeing the data/pictures “real-time.” These operations centers will be extraordinary examples of technology, with state-of-the-art visual/graphic displays and data-fusion technology being able to rapidly call down fire in just a matter of seconds.

  This will finally mean that we’ll have a good idea of where the enemy is, as well as knowing the locations of our own troops. You know, in a general sense these are things that we have always known, but in a specific sense, we have not. That’s remarkable for an army that is somewhat nomadic and complicated in the sense that it contains tens of thousands of personnel, vehicles, and pieces of equipment.

  General John M. Keane at Fort Bragg with one of his XVIII Airborne Corps troopers.

  OFFICIAL U.S. ARMY PHOTO

  As we came to the end of our visit with General Keane, we were curious about the future of XVIII Airborne Corps. In particular, with the coming of the 21st century and the high OpTempos of the previous few years, how does he see the corps’ units evolving? Also, his comments into the future soldiers and their technologies were insightful.