Telegraph

Apache hunters ready to seek and destroy

By Sean Rayment (Filed: 14/10/2001)

SOME time in the next few days, the world's most advanced attack helicopter will lead the next and most dangerous phase of the war: the search-and-destroy missions to hunt down Osama bin Laden and his al-Qa'eda fighters.

The latest version of the Apache Longbow, the AH-64D - which has never been used in action before - will form the strike force for the coming ground assaults. They will have the task of subduing and destroying the heavily-guarded terrorist camps in the Afghan mountains, paving the way for troop combat. When al-Qa'eda positions have been pinpointed, the Apaches will swoop in from bases in Uzbekistan and from the American aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk.

Hunting in packs, their combat missions will be short and bloody. The pilots will use the rugged terrain to their advantage, the helicopters able to hug the contours of mountains, remaining undetected by any radar stations that have survived the air campaign. With 16 tank-busting laser-guided Hellfire missiles, 76 70mm rockets or a combination of 30mm automatic cannon with up to 1,200 rounds of high-explosive ammunition, the helicopters are capable of destroying anything in the Taliban's or bin Laden's limited and ageing arsenal.

The element of surprise will be helped by a newly-developed "pencil beam" radar system which will scan for enemy bases. Once locked on to a possible target - 128 have been selected, 16 regarded as the most dangerous - an infrared and thermal imaging system will identify it, transmit the information to the weapons system and initiate a precision attack: the whole process taking less than 30 seconds, night or day and in any weather.

The Apache's weapons have a range of up to five miles. The Apaches will hover in ravines or behind undulations on the ground, only briefly revealing the helicopter's radar dome, located on top of the rotor blades, to scan the battlefield before sinking back under cover. The information safely stored, assessed and sorted, each will then show itself just long enough to unleash its weapons before changing position to assess the results.

Such tactics were used with devastating success in the Gulf war, where battalions of Apaches destroyed more than 500 tanks.

Once the enemy's heavier weapons are out of action, special forces will be ferried forwards in MH60G Pave Hawk helicopters, the special operations version of the Black Hawk, equipped with silent rotor wings. These troops will attempt to "clear" small bunkers and kill or capture fleeing Taliban fighters: the hit-and-run operations will continue until bin Laden's camp is discovered.

Speed is vital, however. Winter will arrive in three weeks and temperatures will fall to -40C, making fighting virtually impossible. Adml Sir Michael Boyce, the Chief of the Defence Staff, has suggested that ground operations might have to be partially abandoned during the coldest months, but could continue until next summer.

Even with overwhelming technological superiority, the missions are highly dangerous: senior officers at the Pentagon and in Whitehall fully expect large numbers of casualties. They know that only ground troops can flush out the terrorists; the much-vaunted "bunker-busters" - 5,000lb GBU Deep Throat JDAM bombs - can only provide part of the answer. Intelligence experts believe that bin Laden will have chosen his cave complex so that it is not vulnerable to air attack.

One senior British Army officer told The Telegraph: "Out in the open, the Taliban is incredibly vulnerable. It will be a turkey shoot. But it will be different if they hide in caves and bunkers."

Clearing a bunker or cave complex is a difficult, lengthy and often bloody process. Using the tried and tested techniques known as FIBUA - Fighting In a Built-Up Area - the special forces will have to ensure that every corner of every "room" has been cleared of either terrorists or booby-traps.

Four-man special forces teams, probably including members of the SAS, will move through the underground complexes, clearing each area with grenades and machinegun fire, while carefully avoiding booby-traps and deciding how to deal with terrorists who surrender, knowing that any one of them could be a human bomb.

The SAS has turned room clearance into a fine art, practising for hours in the "killing house" at its headquarters in Hereford. But taking on a larger complex is an altogether more difficult proposition.

For the average soldier, special forces or not, FIBUA is the worst of all possible battlefield environments. Even when a room appears to have been cleared, there remains the danger of being attacked by enemies springing from secret hatches. The senior officer said: "If Osama bin Laden is located in a cave complex, we will have problems. It simply won't be enough to drop bunker-busting bombs, hoping the cave collapses and kills him. We will need a body. We will have to fight through every inch against an enemy who is prepared to fight to the death.

"Troops will have to deal with suicide bombers as well as armed women and children. Every entrance will be booby-trapped. The noise will be deafening and command and control will be virtually impossible. You have to accept that troops will probably take casualties from their own side and the whole operation could take hours, possibly days."

In Vietnam, American troops spent years attempting to expel Viet Cong troops from a tunnel complex south of Saigon - but the Vietnamese were never beaten and US casualty figures were horrific.

-- Anonymous, October 13, 2001