Deadly digitised tank faces Iraqi armour

In the Iraqi desert 100 miles north of at Camp Doha here in Kuwait, is Medina Ridge, site of a 1991 Gulf War battle in which a brigade of M1 Abrams tanks destroyed more than 100 Iraqi tanks and armoured personnel carriers in minutes from a mile and a half away, well out of the Iraqis' range.

Now, on the eve of a possible rematch, the lopsided technological advantage enjoyed by U.S. tank commanders 12 years ago has become even more overwhelming as Army forces have digitized the battlefield and spent billions of dollars making high-speed data the key to rapid manoeuvre and precision attack.

The upgraded M1A2 Abrams tanks, equipped with powerful computers, laser designators and improved infrared sights, can operate either as reconnaissance sensors, passing target coordinates back to command headquarters, attack helicopters or artillery units, or as killers, destroying Iraqi armour with even greater precision and range than they did in 1991.

The army's computer revolution, still gathering momentum on the digital battlefield, is even more advanced in the realm of materiel, with computers, data networks and radio frequency tags enabling a FedEx-like tracking system that commanders now describe as "precision-guided logistics.''

Like an Abrams tank tracking an Iraqi target at the opposite end of the battlefield, logistics officers commanded by Army Maj. Gen. Claude Christianson at Camp Arifjan, a newly opened materiel hub 40 miles south of here, can track a shipping container loaded with ammunition, food, spare parts, and tools on the other side of the world in real time and tell what's in the front half from what's in the back.

"War has changed dramatically since Desert Storm,'' said Col. John F. Antal, director of operations for the U.S. Army's 3rd Corps, explaining that the ability to see targets at great distances and hit them with extreme accuracy "freezes the enemy, placing them on the horns of a dilemma.''

"They can hide in small groups, with a tank here or there. Or they can mass to fight us,'' Antal said. "If they hide, we'll dig them out. If they choose to mass, we'll kill them with our precision-guided munitions.''

The backbone of the digital Army is a network that enables commanders across the battlefield - and around the world - to track the movement of friendly forces as a battle unfolds and plot their relationship to enemy targets as the hostile forces emerge.

In the 4th Infantry Division, now set to deploy to Turkey for a possible invasion of Iraq from the north, every Abrams tank, Bradley Fighting Vehicle or battlefield Humvee is equipped with a Global Positioning System receiver, a data link and digital information screen, much like GPS systems now available commercially in automobiles.

The difference, for commanders, is that each vehicle-mounted computer screen plots not only their locations, but those of all other friendly forces moving in concert with them - and bounces that data off satellites to command posts all over the world.

Instead of a road map, these tactical computer screens typically display downloaded satellite imagery of the terrain being traversed.

Across this glowing, high-resolution photograph, "friendly'' tanks, Bradleys and Humvees move as blue dots. Enemy targets, identified miles in the distance by digital sensors or scout troops, are entered into the network by headquarters analysts and appear as red dots.

"As a commander in the old days, I spent most of my time on the radio trying to figure out where my friendly force was,'' said Antal, whose Corps command oversees both the 4th Infantry and the 1st Cavalry, the Army's two leading digital divisions.

"That may sound funny, but when you're spread out over 15 kilometres,'' it is not easy to do.

With the new tactical intranet, Antal said, "I have a common operating picture. I see all of the 'blue' forces - and being able to see all of the blue forces is a tremendous advantage.''

If a tank commander wants to deploy his forces in a flanking manoeuvre, Antal said, he used to have to verbally explain the move over the radio to every tank in the unit. Now he can draw it on his computer screen with an electronic pencil and have that diagram immediately transmitted to every other tank.

"A picture is worth 1,000 words,'' he said. "It's kind of the difference between DOS and Windows.''

© Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service