Tag Archives: COIN

That’s some funny looking bugspray

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As reported by Defense Web:

The US government is yet to approve the sale of 12 armed Air Tractor aircraft to Kenya as IOMAX and a US congressman continue to dispute the proposed sale.

The contract, submitted to the US Congress for approval in January, seeks to provide the Kenyan air force with weapons to fight al Shabaab in neighbouring Somalia. However, the contracting of L-3 Technologies has been vehemently opposed by US Congressman Ted Budd who said the contract was awarded secretively and without going through open tender processes.

Further, he said at $418 million, the L-3 package for up to 12 Air Tractor AT-802L and two AT-504 trainer aircraft, weapons and technical support was hugely inflated and awarded to a contractor with no manufacture or conversion experience on the type of aircraft.

Budd said IOMAX, which never submitted a bid although it has previously supplied armed AT-802 aircraft to the UAE, could supply the same package at a much lower cost. Budd’s congressional district falls in the same area as IOMAX’s headquarters.

On Wednesday last week, L-3 Technologies apparently reduced the price of the package and added some new components to the bid.

On Friday, IOMAX said it could provide Kenya with ‘superior’ aircraft, weapons, technical support and program management at a cost of $237 million, which is $181 million lower than the contract ceiling of L-3 Technologies.

What is the “superior aircraft” to the Air Tractor AT-802L, a up-armored crop duster? Who is Iomax?

Glad you asked.

Based on the Thrush S2R-660, another crop-duster, Ionmax’s Archangel runs on a P&W PT61 and can stay aloft for 10 hours in an ISR mode– that’s almost drone endurance without having to have a satlink. When used in a strike mode, the former pestiside pusher has 6 underwing hardpoints and a centerline point for COIN ops and, using EO/IR/LRF/LD sensors, can carry either:

-12 AGM-114 Hellfires or UMTAS AGMs
-10 GBU-58 laser-guided Mk-81 bombs (a 250-pound Paveway II)
-6 GBU-12 laser-guided Mk-82 500-pounders
-48 Roketsan CIRIT 2.75in laser-guided missiles

Or a combination of the above.

Note the CIRIT 4-packs and targeting pods

Those LGBs and Hellfires…

Pretty neat stuff overall.

Understanding the Operational Art of COIN

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ISW has a great PDF up for free, the Operational Art of Counterinsurgency: A View from the Inside by
LTG James M. Dubik, U.S. Army (Ret.).  This monograph provides a framework for understanding operational art in counterinsurgency campaigns, particularly those the U.S. and its allies conducted in Iraq and Afghanistan. It uses the counterinsurgency campaign in Iraq during 2007 and 2008 as a case study. It draws upon the author’s experience in Iraq during this time, as well as interviews with a number of other civil and military leaders who served in Iraq during the surge period.

The term “operational art” describes the practice of using tactical military forces in sequence or
simultaneously; in battles, engagements, and maneuvers; and in a campaign or series of campaigns to achieve strategic aims.  In conventional war, the product of successful operational art is linear:  a front line that progress as enemy units are destroyed or captured, territory held by the enemy is liberated, and enemy capitals are seized.

What one sees as the result of operational art in a counterinsurgency campaign, at least for insurgencies
like those in Iraq and Afghanistan, is significantly different than from a conventional campaign.    Operational art in counterinsurgency appears more impressionistic and mosaic:  a complex series of
tactical, operational, and strategic transitions.  These transitions require the employment of military, political, economic, and diplomatic “forces” in sequence and simultaneously…..(Click here for the PDF)