Pairing Leaders and Experts to Enhance Aviation Warfighting By BG E.J. Sinclair

    The decision to restructure Army aviation and the ongoing military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq has greatly impacted the way we do business.

    When the Army chief of staff announced at the beginning of this year the transformation of every aviation unit from platoon to brigade, it necessitated a bottom-up review of how we fight. With our aviation formations engaged in combat, we do not lack for information of how aviation soldiers surmount obstacles to get the mission done — but to capture, formalize and train our new aviators on those lessons is a challenge.

     In order to gather, achieve, and integrate those lessons into formal documents, the U.S. Army Aviation Warfighting Center, in conjunction with the Army Aviation Task Force, hosted an Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) Lessons-Learned Conference from June 8 through 10 at Fort Rucker, Ala. Those attending the conference included aviation and infantry brigade and battalion commanders who had deployed and fought in OEF and OIF, along with key subject-matter experts across the aviation community and the Army.

    The Directorate of Training and Doctrine (DOTD) organized the conference with the purpose of identifying and validating aviation lessons learned and operational observations, and begin corrective actions based on senior-leader input. Although many of the findings are classified “for official use only,” some are universally accepted and can be published openly. Commanders and subject-matter experts were invited to validate the observations and offer their tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) to shed light on the follow-on requirements to develop new doctrine. This input will serve as the catalyst for future Army aviation transformation doctrine and training.

    The first day of the conference focused on capturing OEF lessons learned. LTC Emily Palmer of the Center for Army Lessons Learned at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., began the first day session by presenting an overview of lessons learned for OEF and OIF from an Army perspective. COL Anthony Crutchfield, commander of the 10th Aviation Brigade and team leader for predeployment, reception, staging, onward-movement and integration (RSOI), briefed his observations on the topic. COL Perry Wiggins, commander of the 82nd Avn. Bde., and MAJ John White of the 101st Avn. Bde. presented their respective units’ OEF lessons learned. COL Barry Keeling, commander of the 204th Air Traffic Services Group, and COL Don Adkins, commander of the Air Traffic Services Command, provided insight into air traffic control operations. LTC Daniel Williams, commander of 1st Battalion, 3rd Avn. Regiment, wrapped up the first day by briefing observations on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), and the initial attack across the berm into Iraq.

    The second day of the conference covered such OIF topics as RSOI, urban operations, attack operations, logistics and sustainment, and redeployment. COL Gregory Gass, commander of the 101st Avn. Bde., gave a presentation on his unit’s attack operations in OIF. MAJ Kevin Christensen, S3 for the 11th Avn. Regt., provided an overview of the regiment’s after-action review, as well as a more in-depth account of the regiment's first attack in March 2003. COL Michael Moody, commander of the 4th Avn. Bde., and LTC Daniel Williams presented briefings on urban operations.

     The overwhelming evidence shows that small-unit leadership is the key to our success at the officer, warrant officer and NCO level, and that leaders are making it happen. A key finding is that we have to resource our small-unit leaders when task organizing them to work for other organizations. Through modularity, Aviation Transformation addresses this requirement in each organization and at every level, giving aviation soldiers the tools they need to succeed.

    LTC James Johnson, commander of the 1st Bn., 327th Inf. Bde., and MAJ Brian Pearl of 2nd Bn., 502nd Inf., 101st Airborne Div., gave the ground perspective from the brigade combat team (BCT) in Iraq. They believe they key to success in the urban and desert environment was the complete integration of the air-ground team at all levels of command. LTC Alan Stull — former commander of the 404th Avn. Support Bn. of the 4th Inf. Div. in OIF and now assigned to Aviation Logistics Division, Army G4 — wrapped up the second day of the conference by presenting observations on logistics and sustainment.

     COL Raymond Palumbo, commander of the 12th Avn. Bde., kicked off the last day by briefing his observations, focusing on the topic of redeployment. Some of the critical lessons learned included the increased necessity to field Blue Force Tracker (BFT) systems in each aircraft. BFT would greatly enhance situational awareness for both the aircrews and of the controlling headquarters. The ability to track every aircraft on the battlefield would reduce duplication of effort and would increase a tactical operations center’s ability to think ahead and assist aircraft in better accomplish the mission. The requirement for improved long-range communication radios in aircraft also was a key lesson presented by these commanders.

    There is a need for the development of an airspace/airfield command-and-control structure for early entry operations. This concept would allow rapid establishment of an airfield with basic lighting, navigation and communications anywhere on the battlefield. It would form the nucleus for theater airspace requirements.

    The need for embedding joint training at all levels of predeployment training also was addressed. With the new transformation aviation brigade having more than 100 aircraft supporting several ground units of action (UAs), the span of control will cover expanded areas, with units going in every possible direction. Managing today's airspace and integrating it into the joint fight, while supporting ground maneuver in a noncontiguous battlefield, taxes the capabilities of any brigade TOC.

     Unmanned aerial vehicles provided us with the necessary information and situational awareness to shape the battle for selected raids and other planned or on-call missions. They also provided intelligence prior to committing manned assets.

    Other lesson’s learned included matching new equipment fielding with unit-deployment schedules, combining the scout and attack tracks at flight school, improving long-range communications, maneuvering flight and wing man concepts are the norm and not the exception in deep attacks or mobile strikes, integrating unmanned aerial platforms into the scheme of maneuver, and that aviation commanders must lead from the cockpit. Numerous topics of interest were discussed and reviewed. The consensus was that our aviation soldiers are and will continue to be the key element in Army aviation’s success on the battlefield.

     The conference concluded with an overview of future strategies for the Aviation Branch as well as the Army. This conference brought together representatives from across Army aviation units and ground BCTs. Their observations are critical to how we fight as a branch and as an army. The Doctrine Division of DOTD will integrate all the lessons learned into the current rewrite of field manuals to produce the best product for our warfighters in the field.

    This conference was a great success due to the attendees and all the work that DOTD put into it. It is now up to us to turn that success into new aviation doctrine and TTPs that allow our aviation soldiers to fight and win.
 

ABOVE  THE BEST!!! 

BG E. J. Sinclair is the commander of the U.S. Army Aviation Warfighting Center and chief of the aviation branch.