Longbow's Rendezvous with Destiny: Task Organizing for Effective Air Assault Security.
Abstract
The attack helicopter battalions within the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) sequentially transition to the AH-64D beginning January 1999 and lasting through May 2002. During this period, air assault operations will be conducted with three types of combat aviation aircraft: AH-64A Apaches, AH-64D Longbows, and OH-S8D(I) Kiowa Warriors. The division's challenge is to effectively task organize these different aircraft in ways that optimize and complement their unique capabilities. This study proposed a task organization of combat aviation aircraft based upon the relative constants of doctrine, airframe capabilities and division TTP. The four courses of action (COA) analyzed and compared were: (1) COA "Apache", the division's traditional task organization of pure Apache teams; (2) COA "Longbow" a Longbow-pure task organization; (3) COA "Warrior/Apache", a task organization of Kiowa Warrior and Apache; and (4) COA "Warrior/Longbow", a task organization of Kiowa Warrior and Longbow. Each COA was applied to a general scenario using the division's current air assault security TTP and analyzed based upon three evaluation criteria: situational awareness, complementarity, and preserving the force. The comparative analysis determined the most effective course of action to be COA "Warrior/Longbow." This study drew three conclusions: (1) properly task-organized air assault security teams have enormous potential to contribute to the division's situational awareness during air assault operations; (2) despite the AH-64D Longbow's technological enhancements, it still possesses weaknesses which can be mitigated by effectively task-organized security teams; (3) shared situational awareness and complementarity of aircraft capabilities significantly improves the force protection of the division's aircraft and the assaulting ground element.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 16, 1998
- Accession Number
- ADA366364
Entities
People
- David R. Moore
Organizations
- United States Army Command and General Staff College