Article

2003-03-10 Iraq

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Posted by Steve 2003-03-10 09:16 am|| || Front Page|| [2 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Interesting... I wonder how they coordinate so rockets from multiple helicopters aren't targetting the same vehicles. Or if it differentiates between a "dead" vehicle and a "live" vehicle.

Posted by Dar Steckelberg 2003-03-10 09:40:14|| 2003-03-10 09:40:14|| Front Page Top

#2 Dar, one computer is in charge and assigns targets. If it moves, its alive and gets a second missile. If it sits still, the computer counts it as dead until visual confirmation. Someone will eyeball all targets and select the ones that need a second shot.

Posted by Steve 2003-03-10 10:01:59|| 2003-03-10 10:01:59|| Front Page Top

#3 Thanks, Steve. Guess I skipped over the part about information being "emailed"--clearly the reporter doesn't understand the process exactly either.

Posted by Dar Steckelberg 2003-03-10 10:11:27|| 2003-03-10 10:11:27|| Front Page Top

#4 Sounds like they are in a hurry. Tick..tick..tick....

All that hardware in one place....

Posted by john 2003-03-10 10:59:00|| 2003-03-10 10:59:00|| Front Page Top

#5

By next week, the last of eight ships carrying the division's 275 helicopters, 3,800 military vehicles, and 450 shipping containers of supplies like ammunition - along with equipment from other units - is expected to arrive.
Just in time.

Posted by Steve 2003-03-10 15:46:12|| 2003-03-10 15:46:12|| Front Page Top

#6 Target data can also be e-mailed from one Longbow to another.

"Hello, you've got target!"

Gives Sammy and the Republican Guard a new meaning for "A-O-Hell."

Posted by Anonymous 2003-03-10 16:23:20|| 2003-03-10 16:23:20|| Front Page Top

#7 In case anyone's too lazy to click on the link, the part of the article that wasn't excerpted concerned a foofooraw about whether the helicopters' blades should be preserved from sand by painting them over or covering the edges with tape. This caused quite a ruckus and it was bounced all the way up to (if I remember right - I don't have my hard copy of today's WaPo in front of me) the division's aviation commander (or it might have been the division's chief of logistics), who decided to use tape, only to have the pro-tapes get egg all over their faces when it was found that the warehouse with all the tape had had its roof cave in during last month's blizzard on the East Coast, but nobody appeared to have bothered to check on that. Moral: make damn sure you actually have what you say you need on hand, because you may not be able to run down to the corner Home Depot to stock up if you don't have it in storage.

Posted by Joe 2003-03-10 18:14:38|| 2003-03-10 18:14:38|| Front Page Top

#8 DOH!

Posted by AF General Homer Simpson 2003-03-10 21:29:44|| 2003-03-10 21:29:44|| Front Page Top

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