Remarks by Congressman Mark Kirk
Lexington Institute Capitol Hill Electronic Warfare Forum
October 5, 2001

With the War on Terror, we are going to see how important Electronic Warfare (EW) is in making sure that our American military wins.

After so many conflicts and so many victories, I am beginning to wonder why other countries have not figured out the "EW factor" in making sure that they, like us, have such an unbelievable ability to protect uniformed men and women who are flying over the beach and into harm’s way. As the squadron Air Intelligence Officer for VAQ-209 and as someone who has flown in EA-6B Prowlers, let me just mention a couple of things that I wish we would have next time we go into battle.  As a new Member of the House Armed Services Committee, I am getting my "sea legs in Congress" and beginning to push for more EW upgrades.

I think probably the most critical thing that we really were missing while flying against Serbia and Iraq was the ability to update aircrews inbound to their targets on the changing threat. 

The mission from Aviano Air Base in Italy to Kosovo or from Incirlik Air Base in Turkey into Iraq took two hours or more.  The situation could change fairly radically given the presence of mobile Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAMs).  In the Iraqi situation, Saddam's SAMs did not move around much but in Kosovo enemy SAMs moved constantly.  My favorite opponent was the Serbian SA-6 operator located outside of Ponikve, Serbia. I called him "Slavko the Destroyer" as he was extremely mobile. He was moving about every two days and that was making our tactical situation very difficult.

On one mission, Woody (our best pilot) had been told that the Ponikve SA-6 was far to his east. It wasn’t.  Woody flew right through the middle of the SA-6 threat ring and ate two four packs of SA-6 missiles. He dodged eight SA-6 missiles in just one engagement.  It was a fine piece of flying but I wish I had been able to alert him on Slavko's updated location -- preventing the whole engagement.  I learned of the change as Woody was inbound to his target.  Slavo had broadcast a short burst at a new location to calibrate his equipment. Our theater sensors delivered the new location to me through our MAT antenna back at the squadron.  It showed Slavko's new position but there was no way to tell Woody once his mission began.  I could not give him the updated threat picture.  I hope that we can update the Prowler to give threat updates to the crew who are already inbound to their targets.  This would make us more effective and would help save lives. 

I must say the national EW sensor systems missed a lot, especially outside of Pristina. There was one battery that the national systems never saw. As you know, the Prowler’s ability to collect intelligence is limited.  But we were the only ones who were able to sniff out that SAM battery.  It was dangerous right up until an allied AGM-130 television-guided bomb went through the door of the radar van.  I would hope that as we upgrade the national collection systems and make sure updates go into the cockpit that we also make sure that things the aircrew sees will feed back into the theater threat picture.  This is a priority and when we do this, we will have a much higher chance to locate newer low-wattage threat emissions.

On situational awareness in the cockpit, I flew one EC-130 "Compass Call" mission and drooled all over their display panels and their ability to dynamically respond to what was happening.  For those not familiar with the Prowler cockpit, it is the old, late 1970’s flat monochrome green screen as opposed to the festival of colors that you see on Compass Call. Compass Call's threat display and sensors give the operator the ability to dynamically respond to the threat and I know that the Prowler ICAP-III program will help provide that to tactical aircrews in the future.  This, too, is a priority especially if you are going up against more capable systems like the SA-10 SAM.  SA-20s now in production in Russia are even more capable.

The last big need is to upgrade the High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM).  The HARM turned out to be a weapon that was designed especially for the Serbs and somewhat for the Iraqis.  The moment HARM was fired, the enemy "respected it" -- they turned off their radars and gave us a good "soft kill."  We all like "hard kills" i.e. colorful explosions destroying the target but a "soft kill" i.e., rendering the enemy ineffective just as you approach him is almost as good. We obviously we would like the enemy air defense batteries to "eat" a HARM missile but the whole point of our mission was to get the enemy to turn off their radars as the strike package aircrews approached the threat envelope.  We certainly got that. 

Nevertheless, one of the things that you like to have after a mission -- the "Aviano Electronic Attack Wing" flew 770 missions - is the ability to tell commanders how many threat radars we killed.  Our answer was always, “Don’t know, probably none.”   Each mission resulted in a soft kill.  Upgrading HARM to zero in on a radar even after it is turned off may give us both soft and hard kills next time.

For those looking at the current campaign, I have seen the SAM threat picture for Afghanistan.  It is not very daunting and we may let our guard down on EW because of that.  Only lower-grade SAM systems are there. But when you look at the SA-10s and SA-20s in countries the War on Terror may take us to, aircrews face a fearsome threat.  We must maintain the ability to master new enemy air defense systems.

We learned on September 11th that the intelligence picture we saw -- of a dangerous world -- was accurate.  Unfortunately, we ignored it.  If we are to continue the War on Terror, allied aircrews will face very robust, advanced surface-to-air missile systems.  U.S. and allied forces need to be able to handle them.  One of my deputies in Kosovo was killed in the Pentagon.   My other deputy luckily was not.  One of the things we were planning before the hit on the Pentagon was a brief on these new advanced SAM systems.  I think Members of Congress need to see the capability of these new threats to allied aircrews and especially their real ability to burn through our current jamming. 

I am very worried about these new systems.  I know that the Kosovo campaign would have shifted radically had advanced SA-10 SAMs ever shown up in theater. As the squadron's Intelligence Officer, I was asked one question each morning: where are the SA-10s and have the Russians delivered them to Serbia or not?  That would have radically changed the situation.  For the future, we have got to plan on facing such fearsome SAM batteries in the next conflict. 

Over the long term, we have to replace the Prowler.  An Analysis of Alternatives is underway at the Pentagon.  I have a pretty model of a F-18G “Growler” on the desk.  I am not pre-judging anything but a successor is needed.  The only thing I will pre-judge is that we have got to upgrade.  Just because other militaries are not investing in EW does not mean that we should not continue to advance.  Among American aircrews from Aviano to Incirlik, tactical EW support aircraft are critical “go/no-go” items.  In short  -- no Prowler, no mission. 

In Operation Allied Force, the assumption was aerial tanking aircraft availability was the key factor limiting allied sorties against Serbia.  It turned out not to be. It was available tactical EW aircraft.  After we lost an initial aircraft in Allied Force, we got a memo which my squadron framed.  On it, LT General Short -- the aerial commander of Allied Force -- basically said “Thou shalt not enter my theater of war without thy Prowler attached.”  That was a key sign of how valuable these assets are.

As we look to the future, information upgrades in the cockpit, better situational awareness, and better HARM missiles are the priorities.  We will need a whole new advanced generation of EW assets because the United States is clearly ahead and we need to stay there.  EW is one of the key reasons why we do not lose people or planes. When you talk to British aircrews, they will tell you they are so happy that American Prowlers were there.  They know that American EW aircraft make the difference between getting hit and not, between losing brave pilots or bringing them home.

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