"Eunometic" wrote in message
om...
Ed Rasimus wrote in message
. ..
On Mon, 07 Jun 2004 22:55:36 GMT, Otis Willie
wrote:

Air Force fighter pilots train in tactic that scopes out enemy
targets, By Franklin Fisher, Stars and Stripes

(EXCERPT) Pacific edition, Monday, June 7, 2004

OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea ? The U.S. Air Force in South Korea is
honing a tactic that sends fighter planes behind enemy lines to find
and destroy mobile ground targets.

Called ?Killer Scout,? and dating to the 1991 Gulf War, it differs
from another air-to-ground mission known as close-air support, in
which ground troops call in fighter support.

Gosh, maybe we weren't doing armed recce in SEA. And maybe they didn't
do it in P-47s in WW II.

Or, maybe it's Fast FACing that wasn't being done?

Or was it called BAI?

I forget.

I know, let's make it round and call it a wheel. Don't think it's been
invented before. Anyone got patent paperwork?


Different armies have different reconaiseance ideas. The British
SAS's role for instance was to stay behined enemy lines and while not
being detected report on enemy opperations. (their celebrated
fighting abillity is a last use tactic; they are not commandos). It
is the same with some types of spy flights.

German tactics dating from the Franco Prussain war through to the
second world war also included fighting for information. Special
reconaisence groups, while trying to be stealthy, would attack the
ememy thereby guaging their response, disposition as well as
inflicting casualities. This also had the effect of confusing the
enemy who did not know what was a major attack or not. In some cases
these probing attacks would turn into a major attack if a weakness was
found. Bismarks remark to Moltke "lets see how big the table cloth is
that we've pulled upon" during one of the battles of the Franco
Prussain war sums up their fluid style of warfare.

It seems to me that the idea of an armed scout is just an extension of
this and possibly driven by the need to locate SCUD like IRBM. It also
seems an idea that would only work in an environment of total aerial
superiority. How would it be possible to have the performance to
avoid destruction and the armament to cause harm in one vehicle?
Probaly will be armed with a light but powerfull guided missile.
Raptor would be too big and Maverick too small. Martell seems about
right but it has been out of production for 35 years. The perfect
platform: Possibly the SEAD Tornados or F15E type aircraft loaded
with sensors.

F-15Es with 9xGBU-12s each and a Litening target pod worked pretty well
during OIF.