Global Positioning System Reference
In-Depth Information
map coordinate standards, or bombing errors resulted. 40 Whether the gps was
permanently installed or improvised, gps-equipped planes constituted a tiny
fraction of some 1,600 attack aircraft used by U.S. and coalition forces, but
they led others in their formations to precise launch coordinates, which in
some cases reportedly doubled bombing accuracy. 41
gps capability influenced planning for the first strikes of the air campaign—
raids to destroy two Iraqi early warning radar sites near the western border,
opening a window for squadrons of strike fighters headed deep into Iraq. Plan-
ners lacked detailed maps of the target locations, and they wanted eyewitness
confirmations that the attacks had achieved complete destruction—something
long-distance missile strikes alone would not provide. 42 Four Air Force Special
Operations Pave Low helicopters equipped with gps led eight Army Apache
attack helicopters on terrain-hugging, under-the-radar flights across the desert.
Since the tightly drawn mission plan required hitting two sites forty miles apart
within twenty seconds of each other, the task force leader used the time from
a gps satellite's atomic clock to call out the synchronization mark for all cockpit
clocks as the mission began. 43 The Pave Lows dropped chemical glow sticks on
the ground about ten miles from each site, marking precise points where they
broke off their lead and the Apaches inputted predetermined targeting coordi-
nates for their Hellfire missiles. 44 The Apache crews followed up the Hellfire
strikes by hitting the sites with one hundred smaller, unguided rockets and four
thousand rounds of cannon fire to finish the job before darting back toward the
border as coalition jets screamed overhead toward Baghdad. 45
gps improved the military's ability to locate and retrieve troops and equip-
ment caught behind enemy lines. At the start of the ground campaign, an eight-
man Army Special Forces team was inserted deep into Iraq, about two hundred
miles south of Baghdad, to monitor military traffic on a highway. Discovered
by civilians and later engaged by more than 150 Iraqi soldiers, the team
requested air cover and an “emergency exfiltration,” which arrived in time to
save everyone thanks to having precise coordinates of their location. 46 In a
similar incident that same day a Navy Seal team was being picked up after
completing a mission of the coast of Kuwait when they accidentally dropped
an expensive piece of equipment into the water. Stopping to retrieve it risked
detection and compromising the mission, so they recorded the precise loca-
tion using gps coordinates and returned the following night to recover it. 47
Navy vessels used gps not only to navigate to specific launch points as
required for the tlam's terrain-matching system but also to accurately map
 
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