In the air war, an overwhelming information advantage

ABOARD THE USS CONSTELLATION-In the last war against Iraq, Navy Capt. Mark Fox remembers a plane would fly daily from Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia to the USS Saratoga aircraft carrier, carrying a computer disk with the list of that day's air missions. Nowadays, Fox, commander of the air group based aboard the aircraft carrier Constellation in the Persian Gulf, checks his e-mail for the day's schedule of missions.

"Today, we are far better at having electronic means [for communicating], as opposed to carrier pigeon-type airplanes flying and helicopters delivering the air tasking orders. It's hard to remember that in 1991 we had no e-mail," says Fox, who oversees more than 200 Navy and Marine aviators and 70 fighter planes already flying daily missions over the southern no-fly zone in Iraq and poised to strike deeper if the United States launches an invasion. Enhanced communication systems are one of several factors that will give the United States an overwhelming advantage in the air campaign against Iraq, Fox said.

Fox says both Navy and Air Force air commanders are regularly in touch with the Combined Air Operations Center at Prince Sultan Air Base through e-mail and real-time electronic chat systems that allow them to "de-conflict" any issues about who's flying where. "That helps us to be far more efficient and effective with the way that we attack certain targets. It also allows us to use the right force for the right place," he says.

In 1991, information was not always shared well within the Navy itself. For example, Fox recalls dropping bombs on an air hangar in western Iraq and watching them hit their target. But he received no confirmation of the strike from the Navy.

Fox says he ended up confirming the hit a few days later by asking F-14 pilots patrolling the region to take photographs for him. "Now we have a much tighter feedback loop when we employ weapons against a target. Within hours or at least a day we have some sort of an idea of whether we were able to accomplish the [goals] we set for ourselves," he says.

Fox says with better planning and sharing of information, the U.S. should not have to send out fighter pilots simply to look for targets, such as happened in the "great Scud missile hunts" of the Gulf War. He said those aerial searches for Iraq's best weapon, while important, were inefficient and time-consuming.

American pilots' best asset in the air will be experience. Unlike the Gulf War, Fox says, every pilot in the region will have flown over Iraq, patrolling the no-fly zone, before an attack is launched. Fox notes, however, that the regular flights have also given the Iraqis time to "go to school" on how U.S. fighter planes operate.

Fox says his pilots are not showing any strain from flying about 80 sorties per day since arriving in the region in mid-December. "We don't know when we will be called on, so the challenge for us has been to keep the proper focus but not burn our people out. We're in a very sustainable environment right now. We can do this essentially-I choke to say the word-indefinitely," he says.