Counterfire Requirements in an Insurgency

Abstract

The U.S. and its coalition allies, conduct most operations from, "secure locations," often called forward operating bases (FOBs) of Firm bases. However, constant enemy indirect fire attacks of rockets, artillery, and mortars have limited, even neutralized, the effectiveness of most U.S. operations primarily due to the second and third order consequences of these attacks. More often than not, indirect fire attacks occur on or near densely populated urban areas. Urban areas provide insurgents with certain advantages like concealed mobility. Perpetually, U.S. forces cordon and search areas in an effort to locate the origin of indirect enemy fire. Searches consume valuable time and result in further exposure of forces to follow-on direct and/or indirect fire attacks. What makes these deadly attacks so problematic is that without identifying within a hundred meters the origin of an attack, attacking with incorrect information creates collateral damage and counterattacking allows casualties to escalate. The U.S. military has not been able to defeat the unconventional indirect fire threat facing our troops in both Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). The enemy's use of "shoot-and-scoot" indirect fire tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) presently rank second in terms of casualties and wounded in action (WIA) in both OIF and OEF. Countering these fires has surfaced as a critical tactical shortfall. The author proposes the adoption of a prototype lightweight countermortar radar, or (LCMR), that was originally developed to meet a Special Operations Command (SOCOM) requirement in 2002 to counter the indirect fire threat. The LCMR is a lightweight, portable, omni-directional counterfire radar that can detect the origin, trajectory, and point of impact of an indirect fire attack from any location and direction.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 07, 2006
Accession Number
ADA503301

Entities

People

  • B. Kincaid
  • G. S. Benson
  • J. O. Evans

Organizations

  • Marine Corps University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Afghanistan Conflict
  • Artillery
  • Collateral Damage
  • Combat Operations
  • Combatant Commanders
  • Counter-Battery Radar
  • Indirect Fire
  • Insurgency
  • Iraqi-War
  • Lessons Learned
  • Marine Corps
  • Radar
  • United States
  • United States Central Command
  • United States Special Operations Command
  • Urban Areas
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Irregular Warfare and Special Operations Cyberspace Operations against Adversarial Threats.
  • Sensor Fusion and Tracking Systems.
  • Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Autonomous Capabilities and Mission Reconnaissance.