[Music] precision air strikes have become the big stick of international relations when diplomacy fails and military action is chosen the missile armed strike aircraft is at the center of combat many nations deploy advanced jet aircraft and high-tech missiles but only one has the broad range of technologies and forces to deploy such weapons on a global scale the united states [Music] the ability to launch a global strike at targets around the world depends not only on the aircraft and precision guided weapons but on a sophisticated network of space-based electronic sensors advanced digital communication networks and mobile logistics [Music] an international crisis has occurred the united states has decided to use military force to deal with the problem the global strike course is assembled for action we'll examine how such a strike unfolds we will take a detailed look at the individual weapons of such a strike force [Music] to launch a precision strike detailed timely and accurate information is the key [Music] days or months before an attack spy sensors stare down on the objectives from the cold blackness of space satellites pass overhead unheard and unseen taking electronic images of potential targets and snatching telephone and radio transmissions with their electronic ears in recent years the spy satellites have been joined by a new breed of aerial snoop the uav the unmanned aerial vehicle [Music] with the target information processed thousands of miles away in the pentagon's hidden layers the instructions are sent out to plan the attack [Music] [Applause] missile guidance systems are programmed and strike fighter computers are fed their electronic target data a global strike is a complex operation requiring carefully timed coordinated attacks from many different directions using a variety of systems the first mission in a global strike is to blind the enemy to prevent him from identifying the attack radars are at the heart of modern surveillance systems so it is essential to blind these as soon as possible well if the enemy can't see the aircraft coming in they can't shoot at them they can't shoot them down so if you get the radars you blind the opponent uh the only thing you have to worry about then are guns and short-range missiles on the ground but if you're coming in in a jet aircraft uh and low you're usually you know right past them before they can get a shot at you night is always the best time to attack since american strike systems are designed to operate 24 hours a day in all weather the first step in blinding the enemy is to destroy any radars along the frontier the reason that you want to attack the radars is that the radars first of all alert the enemy to the incoming aircraft and second of all they direct many of his weapons that would be used against the aircraft for example surface-to-air missiles and 80 aircraft guns an ideal tool for such a mission is the apache attack helicopter [Music] the apache is a nocturnal predator designed to operate in the shelter of darkness using its thermal night vision flying to the target at low altitude to avoid radar detection it attacks its target using laser-guided hellfire missiles [Music] with the first layer of the enemy defensive shield removed it is now necessary to blind radars deeper into enemy territory stealth attack aircraft are the spearhead of the strike aircraft such as the f-117 strike fighter and the p2 stealth bomber use advanced aerospace design features to cloak themselves from the prying eyes of enemy radars so [Music] they are not invisible to human eyes but they are virtually invisible to electronic sensors [Music] they attack using the cover of night [Music] as often as possible air forces will do a process called targeting they look for the most central factor this could be an air defense command post uh this could be things like a power plant that powers multiple radars so they look for where things were a single bomb or a single airplane can make a difference the f-170 night walk is designed for precision light attack instead of attacking each enemy radar site individually it attacks the brain centers connecting the radar network by destroying the centers that collect and process the radar data the enemy can be electronically blinded even if some radar sights remain pave way laser-guided bombs are the precision tools for this mission the nighthawk aims a precise laser beam at the target and the laser-guided bomb sees the reflection the seeker mounted on the nose guides the bomb to within inches of the laser signal laser-guided bombs are the weapon of choice when you have a small target that has to be attacked with great precision for example if you have a bridge you definitely want to use a laser guided bomb because it can be directed to within a few feet of the target you want to think of guided bombs not just laser guided and the reason that guarded bombs matter is the number of weapons we have is limited so if you want to hit things you better hit them precisely well lasers and now a satellite gardens with the global positioning system gps allows very accurate placement of weapons so instead of laying down a thousand bombs let's say to hit a bridge you hit the bridge instead of laying down enough bombs to destroy many city blocks you hit the one building you care about not even several feet of earth and concrete can protect against laser-guided bombs [Music] by encasing the warhead in a tube of high-strength steel the bunker busting gbu-28 laser-guided bomb can burrow through dozens of feet of earth through steel reinforced concrete and still destroy a buried hardened target concrete is no shield against such weapons [Music] the ghostly shape of the b-2 stealth bomber gives only a hint of its high-tech attack capabilities unlike the relatively short-ranged f-117 the b-2 spirit can fly from bases halfway around the world to attack targets with precision accuracy the essence of a global strike is the ability to carry out attacks at very long distances yet no matter how large the aircraft fuel capacity is always the critical limit to long-range flight to solve this problem air forces use aerial refuelling aircraft the united states was the pioneer of this practice and has become its most experienced practitioner not only does the use of aerial refuelling aircraft permit long-range missions it also increases the amount of bombs and missiles that a strike aircraft can carry the american armed forces wage is war on a global scale but the problem with fighting wars at very long ranges as far as aircraft are concerned is that you have a choice you can either put a lot of fuel in your aircraft or you can put a lot of bombs now obviously you want to carry as many bombs as possible now what aerial refuel enables you to do is carry as many bombs as you want and then to carry the fuel on the refuelers and refuel in mid-air so you get the best of both worlds you get the very long range that you need from a lot of fuel and on the other hand the bombers are unable to carry a great deal of bombs and other weapons since there is a limit to the amount of payload or fuel a strike aircraft can carry during takeoff they will load up on bombs and munitions but with only partially full fuel tanks once airborne and at cruising altitude they can top off their fuel tanks carrying both maximum fuel and maximum warlords while aerial refuelling may not seem the most dramatic element of global strike it is one of its most vital ingredients when you start to think about the b2 operations you have to keep in mind that they oftentimes fly almost halfway around the globe now when they send a b2 off on its mission they have to decide is it going to carry bombs or is it going to carry fuel obviously they want to carry bombs or missiles or other types of munitions so the selection there is to take off with as many bombs as you can and then once you get up in the air you can refuel the aircraft fill up its fuel tanks the b2's unusual shape is designed to minimize its visibility to enemy radar even if enemy radar signals reach it it is coated with special radar absorbing materials to prevent the radar signal from returning back to the enemy radar base [Music] so it remains invisible to electronic sensors the b2 is designed to attack from high altitude high above the enemy's air defenses this also protects it from other types of electronic sensors such as imaging infrared sensors the b2's weapon of choice is the jdam joint direct attack munition j dam is the cutting edge in strike warfare it is a revolution in aerial ordnance it employs two forms of guidance to obtain its accuracy gps guidance and inertial guidance gps stands for global positioning satellites it is a constellation of satellites in constant orbit around the globe emitting coded radio beams [Music] the gps receiver picks up the beams from several satellites and so is able to determine its precise location on the globe at any given moment this system is familiar to civilians as well since it is used today for navigation by hikers as well as cars boats and airplanes the military version of the system relies on an additional coded signal for a higher level of accuracy than the civilian channels should an enemy try to jam the gps signal but jdam uses a simple inertial navigation system that corrects for any wind drift to help steer the bomb to its target [Music] what has made j dam so revolutionary is not simply its sophistication but also its low cost the technology has come from mass market civilian electronics giving the jdam a price tag 20 times lower than other guided weapons jdam is so cheap that it is signaling the end of dumb bombs for decades military theorists have been predicting the arrival of the smart bomb that day is now in the 1991 gulf war only one munition in 10 was a guided smart weapon today nearly all air delivered munitions are smart there is a whole range of new guided weapons and the whole point of this is the use of the microchip revolution and ordnance now computer technology has become so cheap you can put it in a disposable container like a bomb so this is why you can have systems like sensor fuse weapon like the jdam it is the microchip revolution come to war fighting the b-2 stealth bomber attacks command centers and other vital targets among its missions may also be enemy missile sites and air bases some of these targets consist of widely scattered but weakly protected weapons such as exposed anti-aircraft missile batteries instead of attacking each single piece of equipment with a smart bomb the b2 can use wide area attack weapons such as cluster bombs [Music] in the old days cluster bombs were dumb and simply fell on their target without any guidance due to their broad coverage guidance wasn't necessary but today even dumb bombs have become a little smarter they are fitted with a wind-corrected munitions delivery kit this electronic package contains a set of inertial reference sensors derived from those used in automobile airbag safety systems properly arranged they can sense if the bomb is going off target due to wind drift and if they begin to drift the kit can send signals to the tail fins to steer them back on target the b-2 and the f-117 stealth aircraft are expensive and scarce they are used only for the most vital targets but for a global strike to succeed many targets must be attacked this is the job of the cruise missile hundreds of cruise missiles can be used to attack targets that are too dangerous for aircraft that are not protected by stealth technology during the first wave of the attack the cruise missiles amplify the porosity of the assault without exposing human pilots to danger the workhorse of the cruise missiles is the navy's tomahawk since 1991 the tomahawk has been upgraded with a gps guidance system like that used in the j damn guided bomb [Music] tomahawks come in many varieties some are armed with a single high-explosive warhead for attacking bunkers or other important targets [Music] other versions of the tomahawk carry cluster munitions for attacking large area targets such as airfields or tank parks [Music] the tomahawk is a versatile weapon that can be launched from many different platforms attack submarines can sneak undetected close to enemy shores launching tomahawks from special vertical launches on the bow of the submarine even from torpedo tubes further offshore warships can carry and launch tomahawks by the dozen the burke class destroyers and the aegis cruisers carry the tomahawks in special vertical launch cells deep in the bowels of the ship the cruise missile has revolutionized modern warships in decades past warships and attack submarines could only attack naval targets or objectives very close to shore with cruise missiles they are now part of the global strike and can attack targets hundreds of miles inland the tomahawk is a very important system it can either be used independently as in some of the attacks in 1998 on afghanistan or it can be used in conjunction with aircraft now remember the navy doesn't have stealth aircraft so when the navy is operating alone they'll use the tomahawks to take out missiles air defense systems and then right behind them come the fa-18s you can also use them in conjunction with the air force's stealth fighters you can use them in areas where air defenses are not yet suppressed or to avoid especially in smaller situations having a pilot shot down [Music] so [Music] [Music] cruise missiles can also be launched off aircraft such as the b-52 bomber [Music] some of these are strategic cruise missiles that were originally designed for use in thermonuclear war their nuclear warheads have been removed and replaced by conventional high explosives they are called calcum for conventional air-launched cruise missiles the best way to avoid getting a b-52 within range of enemy missiles or radars is to equip them with a weapon that allows them to you know basically drop their load a way far away uh from any you know possible danger uh this was the reason why you know you came up with those air launch cruise missiles in the first place the advantage of cruise missiles is that they allow bombers to attack targets from hundreds of miles away [Music] so the bombers are never exposed to enemy anti-aircraft defenses but can stand off and attack from outside harm's way the calcum is expensive and it is so large that it can only be carried on large strike aircraft such as the b-52 bomber as a result since the 1991 gulf war the u.s armed forces have begun developing a variety of smaller cruise missiles that can be carried by smaller strike aircraft [Music] the first of these is the jaisal joint standoff weapon this is essentially a flying dump truck carrying a heavy payload of submunitions like other new standoff weapons it relies on gps for guidance the basic version of json carries a payload of submunitions to attack wide area targets [Music] it can also carry smart payloads such as the bat smart munition which is designed to attack pinpoint targets such as tanks the air force is also developing the jasm or joint air-to-surface standoff missile [Music] this resembles the jso in size and appearance but uses a more sophisticated terminal guidance system to allow it to attack hardened targets with a single high-explosive warhead the jasm it takes the gps ins guidance which was developed for the j dam bomb and puts an engine on it puts wings on it makes it go further it so it's then a standoff weapon it's intended to be cheap use the same guidance that's proven so successful in afghanistan i don't believe any jasmines will be ready for the war against iraq maybe a few prototypes the first stage of a global strike is the deep attack with cruise missiles and stealth aircraft that suppresses the enemy's air defenses and decapitates the enemy's command structure by shattering the headquarters and communications networks the next phase of the strike is the close combat phase with the air force and navy strike aircraft attacking enemy military forces this is the job of the strike fighters [Music] [Music] the us navy's workhorse strike fighter is the fa18 hornet [Applause] since the 1991 gulf war the navy has introduced the new e and f models called the super hornet the super hornet is larger and heavier than the basic hornet designed to carry more payload to longer ranges the super hornet is a robust versatile aircraft designed to operate in the harsh naval environment blasting off from carrier catapults places a great screen on an aircraft and the super hornet has been designed to take repeated punishment even in peacetime training what aircraft carriers do is they bring a lot of aircraft to within striking range of some target and they bring them on u.s territory navies are mobile us territory that's the key thing about navies and they can stay there there is substantial fuel ordnance other supplies on board they can also take it from other ships in fact you can imagine a kind of conveyor belt in which it's aircraft carriers plus ammunition ships delivering things to wherever it is we're attacking it's a very powerful combination naval air power is an essential ingredient in a global strike [Music] the ability of the aircraft carrier to move around the world enables american defense planners to project power globally [Music] land-based aircraft require nearby friendly bases sometimes these are not available for diplomatic reasons aircraft carriers can operate close to hostile shores in regions where the united states has few reliable allies since the 1991 gulf war the navy has been simplifying its air wings by using the hornet as its standard combat aircraft in the past the f-14 tomcat performed the defensive fighter mission [Music] while the hornet performed the offensive strike mission today the super hornet performs both the fighter and strike mission the workhorse of the u.s air force strike force is the f-16 falcon the f-16 is a smaller and lighter aircraft than the hornet powered by a single jet engine as opposed to the hornet's twin engines the f-16s basic technology has not changed much since the 1991 gulf war but its combat power has been considerably enhanced by the addition of new weapons the f-16 can carry the whole range of smart weapons including the paveway laser-guided bomb the jdam the json some remarkable new weapons have been added to this arsenal one of the most amazing of these is the sfw or sensor fused weapon the sfw is a cluster munition designed to attack hard targets such as tank formations each sfw contains 10 submunitions after the sfw is released from the f-16 its outer shell splits open to reveal the submunition each of these descends towards the target and a small parachute helps orient and slow its fall when it reaches the right altitude over the target the parachute falls away and small jets in the submunition begins spinning it on each submunition are four skeet smart munitions the submunition spins in order to hurl the skeets over a wide area this unusual deployment method allows the sfw to scatter 40 skeets over a large area called its footprint each skeet smart munition has a miniature millimeter wave radar sensor that can detect the metallic reflection of a tank once it spots the tank the skeet is detonated the high explosive in the skeet is specially shaped so it explosively forms a metal plate into a dense high-speed metal slug that can penetrate the tank's armor this incredibly complex process happens in a matter of seconds what had been a formation of powerful main battle tanks is now a field of burning ranks [Music] for missions deeper behind enemy lines the u.s air force depends on the strike
eagle this is a special two-seat version of the famous f-15 eagle fighter the weapons officer in the back seat is a specialist in the use of advanced guided weapons some guided weapons such as the gbu-15 and the agm-130 use electro-optical seekers to permit pinpoint attack [Music] the weapons officer in the strike eagle can monitor the flight path of the missile seeing exactly what the missile sees if the missile starts to veer from course the weapons officer can steer it to the precise impact point one of the strike fighters most determined opponents is the enemy fighter aircraft to defend against enemy fighters the u.s air force employs the f-15 eagle the f-15 is much the same as it was in the 1991 gulf war but its combat power has been enhanced by the arrival of two potent new missiles the aim 9x and the amram the a9x is the latest version of the famous sidewinder family of missiles it is designed for close-range dogfights [Music] the sidewinder first saw combat nearly 50 years ago the new aim 9x has little in common with the early sidewinders except in its name m9x is the latest us attempt at a very highly maneuverable missile in the past you had to point your airplane at the target what you do in am9x is the power wears a helmet he looks at the target wherever it is wherever you can see it the airplane registers where he's pointed the seeker in the missile slews around to that direction you fire the missile even if the target is in a very awkward location the missile is violently enough maneuverable to turn around and get it well that makes an enormous difference in air-to-air combat the big change in the aim 9x is its maneuverability it is so maneuverable that it can make a complete 90 degree turn only a short distance away from the f-15 this enables the eagle to attack targets during maneuvering dogfights the other innovation on the aim 9x is its imaging infrared seeker this seeker is so sophisticated that it cannot be bluffed by flares or other types of infrared countermeasures that might have defeated earlier sidewinders and it is so precise that it can be programmed to attack a specific part of the enemy fighter such as the cockpit or the engine but the eagle pilot really does not want to wait until the last minute to engage an enemy fighter it is far better to attack an enemy fighter from beyond visual range before the enemy pilot can see the eagle the weapon of choice for the long range mission is the new amran missile [Music] the amram uses an active radar seeker a miniature version of the radar that the eagle pilot uses to detect enemy fighters once the eagle radar detects an enemy fighter at ranges of over 30 miles the data is fed into the amram's flight control computer the amram is then launched and navigates itself to the target turning on its radar in the final phase of the flight to find the enemy fighter this ability explains why the amram is called a fire and forget missile the advent of these revolutionary new missiles is something of a mixed blessing they turn inexpensive and simple fighters into effective rivals of larger and more sophisticated aircraft of the types flown by the united states as a result they have led to yet another round in the never-ending technology arms race of fighter designs to counter these missiles the us air force is beginning to field the world's first true stealth fighter the f-22 raptor [Music] although the f-117 is sometimes called a stealth fighter it is as we saw earlier an attack aircraft not optimized for air-to-air combat on the other hand the f-22 is designed primarily for aerial combat the f-22 has certainly been politically controversial but the air force remains committed to it the reason the air force is committed is it is an air-to-air fighter intended to keep air superiority now we have not had a serious challenge to american air superiority for many decades and the air force wants to keep it that way the reason the air force has made this their priority is they realize that if enemy fighter planes can gain superiority everything else falls apart very quickly fortunately in the past our lessons we've done this to the enemy we've taken air superiority over germany in 1944 of the other adversaries since then if you do not have air superiority all our a-wax all our tankers all the vast number of air-to-ground aircraft that we rely on are all at risk the air force is looking to the f-22 as an antidote to the new generation of air-to-air missiles these new active radar missiles like am ram r-77 and mika are so lethal that the air force wants some form of shield for its fighter planes and that shield is stealth f-22 protects itself by using stealth to defend itself against active radar missiles and even if the enemy fighter should find the f-22 at close range the radar seeker on the missile will have a difficult time locking on to the f-22 because of its anti-radar [Music] features in contrast the raptor is designed to take maximum advantage of both the amram and its stealth features by using a new generation radar the f-22 can detect enemy fighters at very long ranges without giving away its presence so the raptor pilot will electronically see the enemy fighter first in aerial combat the first aircraft to fire its missiles is usually the victor the aerial battlefield is a complex environment in modern wars with a confusing mixture of friendly aircraft enemy aircraft standoff missiles and smart weapons flying through the air there is a considerable risk that one friendly fighter will mistake another friendly aircraft for the enemy to coordinate the air battle the us armed forces depend on airborne command and control aircraft such as the e3 awax the aywax is fitted with a large radar dome that surveys the air for hundreds of miles it is the airborne electronic eyes of the air commander but it is far more than merely an electronic sensor inside the a wax is a complex of electronic processing equipment and experienced air force officers who use the data to create an accurate picture of the air battle using this data the aywax officers serve as electronic coaches for the friendly aircraft friendly fighters can be steered against enemy fighters long before their own radars can see the enemy friendly strike aircraft can be warned about the presence of enemy fighters so they can take evasive action in time so the aywax is both the brains and the eyes of the air commander what you're seeing in modern wars is that less visible part a wax and other kinds of aircraft also that do intelligence gathering jobs a lot of intelligence gathering that you don't really think of as combat now is more combat oriented because it tells people what matters where to shoot so there's a whole slew of electronic reconnaissance aircraft that are really sensing what targets are a wax is part of that net the air force uses a wax to directly control fighters but there's a larger control function also that operates out of ground control centers all of those things are integrated together those airplanes are often called combat support and that makes you think that well they're not that important it's like fueling airplanes what you find in places like afghanistan and what you will probably find in iraq is that those supporting aircraft are absolutely crucial and that's a major change in the way air combat is working [Music] as we saw earlier the army's apache helicopter often plays a vital role in the initial air campaign by eliminating troublesome radar sites along the frontier [Music] but the apaches real role is to provide airborne fire support for attacking ground troops [Music] the apache's most vital mission is to eliminate enemy armored vehicles due to its speed and range it acts like a modern cavalry force ranging far and wide over the battlefield and extending the army's power deep behind enemy lines since the 1991 gulf war the new ah-64d longbow version has appeared in service this version uses the new longbow radar to improve its targeting ability in all weather conditions it also uses an improved version of the hellfire missile capable of being fired under the most difficult conditions and with a warhead powerful enough to destroy the most heavily armored tank [Music] the apache is not large enough to carry standoff cruise missiles the heavy fire power roll falls to the army's field artillery [Music] besides conventional tubed artillery the army depends on a variety of rocket and missile weapons the multiple launch rocket system or mlrs earned the nickname of steel rain in the last gulf war for its imposing firepower [Music] we can fire unguided artillery rockets or the much larger attackums missile since the 1991 war the attackings has been improved to give it greater range [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] as impressive as these weapons may be even more futuristic weapons are being tested the predator started off life as a reconnaissance drone and served as such over bosnia it sent back real time video photographs over a data link now we would find many times that they would see a potential target but by the time it got the information back to the person looking at the video they called up a headquarters and the headquarters called up a fighter bomber the target was gone therefore they decided uh just before 9 11 that they would check putting two small missiles of hellfire missiles similar to that used on helicopters under the wing of a predator this way if a predator finds a target on its reconnaissance mission the person seeing the video can authorize it to attack it thereby cutting down the reaction time that allowed many targets to escape in places like bosnia and kosovo the next generation of ucav the boeing a45 bears as little resemblance to the predator as a chariot does to a sports car [Music] the boeing ucav is a small pilotless stealth strike platform armed with a variety of precision guided munitions it can be sent on missions too dangerous even for stealth aircraft this unusual aircraft may very well represent the future of global strike the conduct of global military operations requires the coordinated efforts of thousands of high-tech warriors backed up by a massive network of support services when international crises call for military action u.s high-tech aircraft are able to destroy a fortified target with a single state-of-the-art missile [Applause] her warships are able to launch a barrage of gps guided weapons to targets hundreds of miles away and digitally equipped infantry can land safely with the support of sophisticated artillery and helicopters anywhere at any time the united states armed forces are prepared for a global strike [Music] you
2022-02-15