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00:28Precision Air Strike
00:29Precision Air Strikes have become the big stick of international relations.
00:34When diplomacy fails and military action is chosen, the missile-armed strike aircraft is at the center of combat.
00:47Many nations deploy advanced jet aircraft and high-tech missiles,
00:51but only one has the broad range of technologies and forces to deploy such weapons on a global scale.
00:58The United States.
01:06The ability to launch a global strike at targets around the world depends not only on the aircraft and precision
01:12-guided weapons,
01:13but on a sophisticated network of space-based electronic sensors, advanced digital communication networks, and mobile logistics.
01:27This program examines the essential high-tech ingredients of a global strike.
01:57An international crisis has occurred.
02:03The United States has decided to use military force to deal with the problem.
02:13The global strike force is assembled for action.
02:25We'll examine how such a strike unfolds.
02:30We will take a detailed look at the individual weapons of such a strike force.
02:50To launch a precision strike, detailed, timely, and accurate information is the key.
03:04Days or months before an attack, spy sensors stare down on the objectives from the cold blackness of space.
03:13Satellites pass overhead, unheard and unseen,
03:16taking electronic images of potential targets and snatching telephone and radio transmissions with their electronic ears.
03:31In recent years, the spy satellites have been joined by a new breed of aerial snoop, the UAV, the Unmanned
03:39Aerial Vehicle.
03:53With the target information processed thousands of miles away in the Pentagon's hidden layers,
03:58the instructions are sent out to plan the attack.
04:07Missile guidance systems are programmed and strike fighter computers are fed their electronic target data.
04:15A global strike is a complex operation requiring carefully timed and coordinated attacks
04:21from many different directions using a variety of systems.
04:31The first mission in a global strike is to blind the enemy to prevent him from identifying the attack.
04:40Radars are at the heart of modern surveillance systems, so it is essential to blind these as soon as possible.
04:46Well, if the enemy can't see the aircraft coming in, they can't shoot at them, they can't shoot them down.
04:51So if you get the radars, you blind the opponent.
04:54The only thing you have to worry about then are guns and short-range missiles on the ground.
04:59But if you're coming in in a jet aircraft and low, you're usually, you know, right past them before they
05:06can get a shot at you.
05:07Night is always the best time to attack since American strike systems are designed to operate 24 hours a day
05:14in all weather.
05:17The first step in blinding the enemy is to destroy any radars along the frontier.
05:23The reason that you want to attack the radars is that the radars, first of all, alert the enemy to
05:28the incoming aircraft,
05:29and second of all, they direct many of his weapons that would be used against the aircraft,
05:33for example, surface-to-air missiles and 80 aircraft guns.
05:37An ideal tool for such a mission is the Apache attack helicopter.
05:47The case of the
06:32The Apache is a nocturnal predator designed to operate in the shelter of darkness using
06:38its thermal night vision. Flying to the target at low altitude to avoid radar detection,
06:46it attacks its target using laser-guided Hellfire missiles.
07:02With the first layer of the enemy defensive shield removed,
07:05it is now necessary to blind radars deeper into enemy territory.
07:11Stealth attack aircraft are the spearhead of the strike.
07:14Aircraft such as the F-117 Strike Fighter and the B-2 Stealth Bomber
07:19use advanced aerospace design features to cloak themselves from the prying eyes of enemy radars.
07:36fallen-��에 mites of enemy radars.
07:45There were a number of additional powers that may be used to be clear with the need heard.
07:55There were also flying satellites on the ground with a larger scale of the enemy
07:56where the monster's with military shielded,
07:56the squadron and the enemy found their device in the yellow water,
07:56the three powers in the equator of the sea.
08:17They are not invisible to human eyes, but they are virtually invisible to electronic
08:41sensors.
08:44They attack using the cover of night.
08:50As often as possible, air forces will do a process called targeting.
08:56They look for the most central factor.
08:59This could be an air defense command post.
09:02This could be things like a power plant that powers multiple radars.
09:07So they look for where things where a single bomb or a single airplane can make a difference.
09:12The F-117 Nighthawk is designed for precision light attack.
09:18Instead of attacking each enemy radar site individually, it attacks the brain centers connecting the
09:24radar network.
09:25By destroying the centers that collect and process the radar data, the enemy can be electronically
09:32blinded even if some radar sites remain.
09:36Paveway laser-guided bombs are the precision tools for this mission.
09:46The Nighthawk aims a precise laser beam at the target and the laser-guided bomb sees the reflection.
09:56The seeker mounted on the nose guides the bomb to within inches of the laser signal.
10:02Laser-guided bombs are the weapon of choice when you have a small target that has to be attacked with
10:06great precision.
10:07For example, if you have a bridge, you definitely want to use a laser-guided bomb because it can be
10:12directed to within a few feet of the target.
10:14You want to think of guided bombs, not just laser-guided.
10:17And the reason that guided bombs matter is the number of weapons we have is limited.
10:22So if you want to hit things, you better hit them precisely.
10:25Well, lasers and now satellite gardens with the Global Positioning System, GPS, allows very accurate placement of weapons.
10:33So instead of laying down a thousand bombs, let's say, to hit a bridge, you hit the bridge.
10:39Instead of laying down enough bombs to destroy many city blocks, you hit the one building you care about.
10:46Not even several feet of earth and concrete can protect against laser-guided bombs.
10:58By encasing the warhead in a tube of high-strength steel, the bunker-busting GBU-28 laser-guided bomb can
11:06burrow through dozens of feet of earth,
11:09through steel-reinforced concrete, and still destroy a buried, hardened target.
11:16Concrete is no shield against such weapons.
11:27The ghostly shape of the B-2 stealth bomber gives only a hint of its high-tech attack capabilities.
11:35Unlike the relatively short-ranged F-117, the B-2 Spirit can fly from bases halfway around the world to
11:43attack targets with precision accuracy.
11:47The essence of a global strike is the ability to carry out attacks at very long distances.
11:53Yet no matter how large the aircraft, fuel capacity is always the critical limit to long-range flight.
11:59To solve this problem, air forces use aerial refueling aircraft.
12:04The United States was the pioneer of this practice and has become its most experienced practitioner.
12:11Not only does the use of aerial refueling aircraft permit long-range missions,
12:15it also increases the amount of bombs and missiles that a strike aircraft can carry.
12:22The American Armed Forces wages war on a global scale.
12:25But the problem with fighting wars at very long ranges, as far as aircraft are concerned, is that you have
12:31a choice.
12:32You can either put a lot of fuel in your aircraft or you can put a lot of bombs.
12:35Now obviously you want to carry as many bombs as possible.
12:38Now what aerial refueling enables you to do is carry as many bombs as you want and then to carry
12:43the fuel on the refuelers and refuel in mid-air.
12:45So you get the best of both worlds.
12:47You get the very long range that you need from a lot of fuel.
12:50And on the other hand, the bombers are enabled to carry a great deal of bombs and other weapons.
12:56Since there is a limit to the amount of payload or fuel a strike aircraft can carry during takeoff,
13:02they will load up on bombs and munitions, but with only partially full fuel tanks.
13:07Once airborne and at cruising altitude, they can top off their fuel tanks, carrying both maximum fuel and maximum war
13:15loads.
13:16While aerial refueling may not seem the most dramatic element of global strike, it is one of its most vital
13:22ingredients.
13:23When you start to think about the B-2 operations, you have to keep in mind that they oftentimes fly
13:28almost halfway around the globe.
13:30Now when they send a B-2 off on its mission, they have to decide, is it going to carry
13:33bombs or is it going to carry fuel?
13:35Obviously they want it to carry bombs or missiles or other types of munitions.
13:39So the selection there is to take off with as many bombs as you can.
13:43And then once you get up in the air, you can refuel the aircraft, fill up its fuel tanks.
13:47The B-2's unusual shape is designed to minimize its visibility to enemy radar.
14:00Even if enemy radar signals reach it, it is coated with special radar absorbing materials to prevent the radar signal
14:08from returning back to the enemy radar base.
14:11So it remains invisible to electronic sensors.
14:17The B-2 is designed to attack from high altitude, high above the enemy's air defenses.
14:23This also protects it from other types of electronic sensors, such as imaging infrared sensors.
14:30The B-2's weapon of choice is the JDAM, Joint Direct Attack Munition.
14:39JDAM is the cutting edge in strike warfare.
14:43It is a revolution in aerial ordnance.
14:46It employs two forms of guidance to obtain its accuracy, GPS guidance and inertial guidance.
14:58GPS stands for Global Positioning Satellites.
15:02It is a constellation of satellites in constant orbit around the globe, emitting coded radio beams.
15:11The GPS receiver picks up the beams from several satellites and so is able to determine its precise location on
15:17the globe at any given moment.
15:21This system is familiar to civilians as well, since it is used today for navigation by hikers, as well as
15:27cars, boats and airplanes.
15:30The military version of the system relies on an additional coded signal for a higher level of accuracy than the
15:37civilian channels.
15:41Should an enemy try to jam the GPS signal, the JDAM uses a simple inertial navigation system that corrects for
15:48any wind drift to help steer the bomb to its target.
15:54What has made JDAM so revolutionary is not simply its sophistication, but also its low cost.
16:00The technology has come from mass market civilian electronics, giving the JDAM a price tag 20 times lower than other
16:08guided weapons.
16:09JDAM is so cheap that it is signalling the end of dumb bombs.
16:15For decades, military theorists have been predicting the arrival of the smart bomb.
16:20That day is now.
16:22In the 1991 Gulf War, only one munition in ten was a guided smart weapon.
16:29Today, nearly all air delivered munitions are smart.
16:34There is a whole range of new guided weapons, and the whole point of this is the use of the
16:41microchip revolution and ordnance.
16:44Now computer technology has become so cheap, you can put it in a disposable container like a bomb.
16:53So this is why you can have systems like sensor-fused weapons like the JDAM.
16:58It is the microchip revolution come to war fighting.
17:02The B-2 stealth bomber attacks command centers and other vital targets.
17:07Among its missions may also be enemy missile sites and air bases.
17:12Some of these targets consist of widely scattered but weakly protected weapons, such as exposed anti-aircraft missile batteries.
17:22Instead of attacking each single piece of equipment with a smart bomb, the B-2 can use wide area attack
17:29weapons such as cluster bombs.
17:36In the old days, cluster bombs were dumb and simply fell on their target without any guidance.
17:42Due to their broad coverage, guidance wasn't necessary.
17:46But today, even dumb bombs have become a little smarter.
17:50They are fitted with a wind-corrected munitions delivery kit.
17:54This electronic package contains a set of inertial reference sensors derived from those used in automobile airbag safety systems.
18:03Properly arranged, they can sense if the bomb is going off target due to wind drift.
18:07And if they begin to drift, the kit can send signals to the tail fins to steer them back on
18:14target.
18:23The B-2 and the F-117 stealth aircraft are expensive and scarce.
18:28They are used only for the most vital targets.
18:34But for a global strike to succeed, many targets must be attacked.
18:40This is the job of the cruise missile.
18:45Hundreds of cruise missiles can be used to attack targets that are too dangerous for aircraft that are not protected
18:51by stealth technology.
18:52During the first wave of the attack, the cruise missiles amplify the ferocity of the assault without exposing human pilots
19:00to danger.
19:02The workhorse of the cruise missiles is the Navy's Tomahawk.
19:10Since 1991, the Tomahawk has been upgraded with a GPS guidance system like that used in the JDAM guided bomb.
19:20Tomahawks come in many varieties.
19:22Some are armed with a single high explosive warhead for attacking bunkers or other important targets.
19:31Other versions of the Tomahawk carry cluster munitions for attacking large area targets such as airfields or tank parks.
19:47The Tomahawk is a versatile weapon that can be launched from many different platforms.
19:54Attacked submarines can sneak undetected close to enemy shores, launching Tomahawks from special vertical launches on the bow of the
20:03submarine.
20:05Even from torpedo tubes.
20:11Further offshore, warships can carry and launch Tomahawks by the dozen.
20:17The Burke-class destroyers and the Aegis cruisers carry the Tomahawks in special vertical launch cells deep in the bowels
20:25of the ship.
20:28The cruise missile has revolutionized modern warships.
20:32In decades past, warships and attack submarines could only attack naval targets or objectives very close to shore.
20:40With cruise missiles, they are now part of the global strike and can attack targets hundreds of miles inland.
20:49The Tomahawk is a very important system.
20:52It can either be used independently, as in some of the attacks in 1998 on Afghanistan, or it can be
21:01used in conjunction with aircraft.
21:03Now, remember the Navy doesn't have stealth aircraft, so when the Navy is operating alone, they'll use the Tomahawks to
21:12take out missiles, air defense systems, and then right behind them come the FAA teams.
21:18You can also use them in conjunction with the Air Force's stealth fighters.
21:23You can use them in areas where air defenses are not yet suppressed, or to avoid, especially in smaller situations,
21:33having a pilot shot down.
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25:19The first of these is the JSAW, Joint Standoff Weapon.
25:26This is essentially a flying dump truck carrying a heavy payload of submunitions.
25:32Like other new standoff weapons, it relies on GPS for guidance.
25:39The basic version of JSAW carries a payload of submunitions to attack wide area targets.
25:51It can also carry smart payloads such as the bat-smart munition which is designed to attack pinpoint
25:57targets such as tanks.
26:02The Air Force is also developing the JASM, or Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile.
26:11This resembles the JSAW in size and appearance, but uses a more sophisticated terminal guidance system to allow it to
26:19attack hardened targets with a single high-explosive warhead.
26:24The JASM, it takes the GPS INS guidance, which was developed for the JDAM bomb, and puts an engine on
26:34it, puts wings on it, makes it go further.
26:38So it's then a standoff weapon.
26:41It's intended to be cheap, use the same guidance that's proven so successful in Afghanistan.
26:48I don't believe any JASMs will be ready for the war against Iraq, maybe a few prototypes.
27:03The first stage of a global strike is the deep attack with cruise missiles and stealth aircraft that suppresses the
27:10enemy's air defenses and decapitates the enemy's command structure by shattering the headquarters and communications networks.
27:20The next phase of the strike is the close combat phase with the Air Force and Navy strike aircraft attacking
27:27enemy military forces.
27:29This is the job of the strike fighters.
27:58The US Navy's workhorse strike fighter is the F-A-18 Hornet.
28:09Since the 1991 Gulf War, the Navy has introduced the new E and F models called the Super Hornet.
28:19The Super Hornet is larger and heavier than the basic Hornet, designed to carry more payload to longer ranges.
28:28The Super Hornet is a robust, versatile aircraft designed to operate in the harsh naval environment.
28:40Blasting off from carrier catapults places a great strain on an aircraft.
28:45The Super Hornet has been designed to take repeated punishment, even in peacetime training.
28:51What aircraft carriers do is they bring a lot of aircraft to within striking range of some target.
28:57And they bring them on US territory.
28:59Navies are mobile US territory.
29:01That's the key thing about navies.
29:04And they can stay there.
29:05There is substantial fuel, ordnance, other supplies on board.
29:11They can also take it from other ships.
29:14In fact, you can imagine the kind of conveyor belt in which it's aircraft carriers plus ammunition ships delivering things
29:22to wherever it is we're attacking.
29:24It's a very powerful combination.
29:32Naval air power is an essential ingredient in a global strike.
29:42The ability of the aircraft carrier to move around the world enables American defense planners to project power globally.
30:22Land-based aircraft require nearby friendly bases.
30:28Sometimes these are not available for diplomatic reasons.
30:33Aircraft carriers can operate close to hostile shores in regions where the United States
30:39has few reliable allies.
30:42Since the 1991 Gulf War, the Navy has been simplifying its air wings by using the Hornet as its standard
30:50combat aircraft.
30:55In the past, the F-14 Tomcat performed the defensive fighter mission, while the Hornet performed
31:04the offensive strike mission.
31:08Today, the Super Hornet performs both the fighter and strike mission.
31:14The workhorse of the U.S. Air Force strike force is the F-16 Falcon.
31:25The F-16 is a smaller and lighter aircraft than the Hornet, powered by a single jet engine
31:31as opposed to the Hornet's twin engines.
31:35The F-16's basic technology has not changed much since the 1991 Gulf War, but its combat
31:42power has been considerably enhanced by the addition of new weapons.
31:53The F-16 can carry the whole range of smart weapons, including the Paveway laser-guided bomb, the J-DAM,
32:03the J-SAL.
32:10Some remarkable new weapons have been added to this arsenal.
32:14One of the most amazing of these is the SFW, or sensor-fused weapon.
32:19The SFW is a cluster munition designed to attack hard targets such as tank formations.
32:27Each SFW contains ten submunitions.
32:31After the SFW is released from the F-16, its outer shell splits open to reveal the submunition.
32:38Each of these descends towards the target, and a small parachute helps orient and slow its fall.
32:45When it reaches the right altitude over the target, the parachute falls away, and small jets in the submunition begin
32:53spinning it.
32:54On each submunition are four skeet smart munitions.
32:59The submunition spins in order to hurl the skeets over a wide area.
33:04This unusual deployment method allows the SFW to scatter 40 skeets over a large area called its footprint.
33:12Each skeet smart munition has a miniature millimeter wave radar sensor that can detect the metallic reflection of a tank.
33:20Once it spots the tank, the skeet is detonated.
33:24The high explosive in the skeet is specially shaped so it explosively forms a metal plate into a dense, high
33:31-speed metal slug that can penetrate the tank's armor.
33:35This incredibly complex process happens in a matter of seconds.
33:39What had been a formation of powerful main battle tanks is now a field of burning wrecks.
33:53For missions deeper behind enemy lines, the US Air Force depends on the Strike Eagle.
34:01This is a special two-seat version of the famous F-15 Eagle fighter.
34:07The weapons officer in the back seat is a specialist in the use of advanced guided weapons.
34:14Some guided weapons, such as the GVU-15 and the AGM-130, use electro-optical seekers to permit pinpoint attack.
34:30The weapons officer in the Strike Eagle can monitor the flight path of the missile seeing exactly what the missile
34:37sees.
34:42If the missile starts to veer from course, the weapons officer can steer it to the precise impact point.
34:53One of the Strike Fighter's most determined opponents is the enemy fighter aircraft.
34:59To defend against enemy fighters, the US Air Force employs the F-15 Eagle.
35:10The F-15 is much the same as it was in the 1991 Gulf War, but its combat power has
35:16been enhanced by the arrival of two potent new missiles.
35:19The AIM-9X and the AMRAAM.
35:27The AIM-9X is the latest version of the famous Sidewinder family of missiles.
35:32It is designed for close-range dogfights.
35:37The Sidewinder first saw combat nearly 50 years ago.
35:43The new AIM-9X has little in common with the early Sidewinders except in its name.
35:49AIM-9X is the latest US attempt at a very highly maneuverable missile.
35:54In the past, you had to point your airplane at the target.
35:57What you do in AIM-9X is the pilot wears a helmet.
36:00He looks at the target, wherever it is, wherever you can see it.
36:03The airplane registers where he's pointed.
36:06The seeker in the missile slews around to that direction.
36:10You fire the missile.
36:11Even if the target is in a very awkward location, the missile is violently enough maneuverable to turn around and
36:17get it.
36:18Well, that makes an enormous difference in air-to-air combat.
36:21The big change in the AIM-9X is its maneuverability.
36:27It is so maneuverable that it can make a complete 90 degree turn only a short distance away from the
36:33F-15.
36:36This enables the Eagle to attack targets during maneuvering dogfights.
36:41The other innovation on the AIM-9X is its imaging infrared seeker.
36:47This seeker is so sophisticated that it cannot be bluffed by flares or other types of infrared countermeasures
36:53that might have defeated earlier sidewinders.
36:57And it is so precise that it can be programmed to attack a specific part of the enemy fighter,
37:03such as the cockpit or the engine.
37:06But the Eagle pilot really does not want to wait until the last minute to engage an enemy fighter.
37:12It is far better to attack an enemy fighter from beyond the visual range,
37:17before the enemy pilot can see the Eagle.
37:20The weapon of choice for the long-range mission is the new AMRAN missile.
37:33The AMRAN uses an active radar seeker,
37:37a miniature version of the radar that the Eagle pilot uses to detect enemy fighters.
37:47Once the Eagle radar detects an enemy fighter at ranges of over 30 miles,
37:52the data is fed into the AMRAN's flight control computer.
37:56The AMRAN is then launched and navigates itself to the target,
38:01turning on its radar in the final phase of the flight to find the enemy fighter.
38:06This ability explains why the AMRAN is called a fire-and-forget missile.
38:13The advent of these revolutionary new missiles is something of a mixed blessing.
38:18They turn inexpensive and simple fighters into effective rivals of larger and more sophisticated aircraft
38:25of the types flown by the United States.
38:28As a result, they have led to yet another round in the never-ending technology arms race of fighter designs.
38:36To counter these missiles, the US Air Force is beginning to field the world's first true stealth fighter,
38:43the F-22 Raptor.
38:51Although the F-117 is sometimes called a stealth fighter,
38:56it is, as we saw earlier, an attack aircraft, not optimized for air-to-air combat.
39:03On the other hand, the F-22 is designed primarily for aerial combat.
39:07The F-22 has certainly been politically controversial, but the Air Force remains committed to it.
39:15The reason the Air Force is committed is it is an air-to-air fighter intended to keep air superiority.
39:22Now, we have not had a serious challenge to American air superiority for many decades,
39:28and the Air Force wants to keep it that way.
39:30The reason the Air Force has made this their priority is they realize that if enemy fighter planes can gain
39:38superiority,
39:39everything else falls apart very quickly.
39:42Fortunately, in the past, our lessons, we've done this to the enemy.
39:47We've taken air superiority over Germany in 1944, other adversaries since then.
39:54If you do not have air superiority, all our AWACS, all our tankers,
39:59all the vast number of air-to-ground aircraft that we rely on are all at risk.
40:04The Air Force is looking to the F-22 as an antidote to the new generation of air-to-air
40:08missiles.
40:09These new active radar missiles like AMRAAM, R-77, and MECA are so lethal
40:14that the Air Force wants some form of shield for its fighter planes, and that shield is stealth.
40:19F-22 protects itself by using stealth to defend itself against active radar missiles.
40:26And even if the enemy fighter should find the F-22 at close range,
40:30the radar seeker on the missile will have a difficult time locking on to the F-22
40:35because of its anti-radar features.
40:41In contrast, the Raptor is designed to take maximum advantage of both the AMRAAM and its stealth features
40:48By using a new generation radar, the F-22 can detect enemy fighters at very long ranges
40:54without giving away its presence.
40:56So the Raptor pilot will electronically see the enemy fighter first.
41:00In aerial combat, the first aircraft to fire its missiles is usually the victor.
41:11The aerial battlefield is a complex environment in modern wars,
41:15with a confusing mixture of friendly aircraft, enemy aircraft, standoff missiles, and smart weapons flying through the air.
41:24There is a considerable risk that one friendly fighter will mistake another friendly aircraft for the enemy.
41:29To coordinate the air battle, the U.S. armed forces depend on airborne command and control aircraft such as the
41:37E-3 AWACS.
41:40The AWACS is fitted with a large radar dome that surveys the air for hundreds of miles.
41:48It is the airborne electronic eyes of the air commander, but it is far more than merely an electronic sensor.
41:56Inside the AWACS is a complex of electronic processing equipment and experienced Air Force officers
42:03who use the data to create an accurate picture of the air battle.
42:08Using this data, the AWACS officers serve as electronic coaches for the friendly aircraft.
42:14Friendly fighters can be steered against enemy fighters long before their own radars can see the enemy.
42:21Friendly strike aircraft can be warned about the presence of enemy fighters so they can take evasive action in time.
42:28So the AWACS is both the brains and the eyes of the air commander.
42:35What you're seeing in modern wars is that less visible part.
42:39AWACS and other kinds of aircraft also that do intelligence gathering jobs.
42:44A lot of intelligence gathering that you don't really think of as combat now is more combat oriented
42:50because it tells people what matters, where to shoot.
42:53So there's a whole slew of electronic reconnaissance aircraft that are really sensing what targets are.
42:59AWACS is part of that net.
43:01The Air Force uses AWACS to directly control fighters.
43:05But there's a larger control function also that operates out of ground control centers.
43:10All of those things are integrated together.
43:12Those airplanes are often called combat support.
43:15And that makes you think that, well, they're not that important.
43:18It's like fueling airplanes.
43:20What you find in places like Afghanistan and what you will probably find in Iraq is that those supporting aircraft
43:27are absolutely crucial.
43:29And that's a major change in the way air combat is working.
43:34As we saw earlier, the Army's Apache helicopter often plays a vital role in the initial air campaign by eliminating
43:41troublesome radar sites along the frontier.
43:46But the Apache's real role is to provide airborne fire support for attacking ground troops.
43:56The Apache's most vital mission is to eliminate enemy armored vehicles.
44:04Due to its speed and range, it acts like a modern cavalry force ranging far and wide over the battlefield
44:11and extending the Army's power deep behind enemy lines.
44:17Since the 1991 Gulf War, the new AH-64D Longbow version has appeared in service.
44:30This version uses the new Longbow radar to improve its targeting ability in all weather conditions.
44:36It also uses an improved version of the Hellfire missile capable of being fired under the most difficult conditions
44:44and with a warhead powerful enough to destroy the most heavily armored tank.
44:51The Apache is not large enough to carry standoff cruise missiles.
44:57The heavy firepower role falls to the Army's field artillery.
45:28Despite conventional tube-to-to-to-to-to-to-the Army, the Army depends on the variety of
45:32of rocket and missile weapons the multiple launch rocket system or mlrs earned the nickname of steel
45:40rain in the last gulf war for its imposing firepower
45:46it can fire unguided artillery rockets or the much larger attackums missile
45:54since the 1991 war the attackums has been improved to give it greater range
46:08so
47:51As impressive as these weapons may be, even more futuristic weapons are being tested.
47:57The Predator started off life as a reconnaissance drone and served as such over Bosnia.
48:05It sent back real-time video photographs over a data link.
48:11Now, we would find many times that they would see a potential target, but by the time it got the
48:17information back to the person looking at the video,
48:20they called up a headquarters and the headquarters called up a fighter bomber.
48:25The target was gone.
48:27Therefore, they decided just before 9-11 that they would check putting two small missiles,
48:34a hellfire missile similar to that used on helicopters, under the wing of a Predator.
48:39This way, if a Predator finds a target on its reconnaissance mission, the person seeing the video can authorize it
48:49to attack it,
48:50thereby cutting down the reaction time that allowed many targets to escape in places like Bosnia and Kosovo.
48:58The next generation of UCAV, the Boeing A45, bears as little resemblance to the Predator as a chariot does to
49:07a sports car.
49:36The next generation of UCAV, the Boeing A45, bears as little as a car.
49:57The Boeing UCAV is a small, pilotless, stealth strike platform armed with a variety of precision-guided munitions.
50:06It can be sent on missions too dangerous even for stealth aircraft.
50:12This unusual aircraft may very well represent the future of global strike.
50:24The conduct of global military operations requires the coordinated efforts of thousands of high-tech warriors,
50:33backed up by a massive network of support services.
50:42U.S. high-tech aircraft are able to destroy a fortified target with a single state-of-the-art missile.
50:49U.S. high-tech aircraft are able to launch a barrage of GPS-guided weapons to targets hundreds of miles
51:02away.
51:07And digitally equipped infantry can land safely with the support of sophisticated artillery
51:16and the helicopters.
51:23Anywhere,
51:27at any time,
51:30the United States Armed Forces are prepared for a global strike.
51:50The U.S. high-tech aircraft were prepared for the equipment of hundreds of miles away.
51:53And we are prepared for the equipment of GPS-guided weapons to recharge theogenic units.
52:03Anywhere,搭аешьs
52:03of the aircraft must be преateail another aircraft class to key mês on the SWG.
52:34Transcription by CastingWords
52:46CastingWords
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