DTN News: Pentagon Boosting Afghanistan 'Eyes In The Sky'

DTN News: Pentagon Boosting Afghanistan 'Eyes In The Sky' Source: DTN News / Reuters By Andrea Shalal-Esa (NSI News Source Info) WASHINGTON, U.S. - April 3, 2010: The Pentagon is focused on getting more trucks, surveillance equipment and other military equipment into Afghanistan to prepare for what will be a critical summer in the war, Defence Undersecretary Ashton Carter said on Friday. Carter, head of Pentagon acquisition, technology and logistics, said the success of the war in Afghanistan would depend largely on being able to get weapons and support services to the U.S. troops headed to the land-locked country, which he described as "the last place where you would like to be fighting a war."

A commercial plane flies past the Pentagon as security watch from the roof in this September 11, 2008 file photo. REUTERS/Jason Reed/Files "This summer is going to be very critical. If we don't get ourselves in there and get set... we can't have success," he told a conference hosted by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, As part of that effort, Carter said he was increasing 20-fold the number of airships hovering over Afghanistan, providing "eyes in the sky" to troops on the ground. Equipped with sophisticated cameras and the ability to stream images to U.S. bases on the ground, the airships would help track any activity that could jeopardize the troops, including the burying of roadside bombs. At the same time, the very visible presence of the airships would keep potential attackers on their guard, Carter said, calling the airships a more affordable way to maintain surveillance than more-expensive unmanned airplanes, which are also being deployed in Afghanistan in large numbers. Carter did not say which airship model would be added. Lockheed Martin Corp builds a 35-meter tethered helium-filled airship known as Persistent Threat Detection System that has been in use by the Army since 2004. Nine of the airships are being used in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Lockheed is building eight more airships under a $133 million one-year contract it won in October 2009, and is in talks with the Army about additional orders. Another aerostat used by the military is made by Aerostar, a unit of South Dakota-based Raven Industries Inc, which last month said it had a tethered airship backlog of more than $10 million. It said the airships would be paired with surveillance equipment and deployed in Afghanistan. The unmanned airships will cut the need for risky on-foot missions by staying in the air much longer and feeding data to commanders through on-board cameras and sensors. These sensors could also "rewind" after an explosion to find who planted the bomb and where they went. Carter said the airships would be under the control of local forward operating bases, not commanders far away, making them a good tool on a fairly localized basis. He said the Pentagon was also accelerating delivery of hand-held metal detectors and ground-penetrating radars, as part of an urgent drive to reduce the number of casualties from road-side bombs or improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The military was also deploying about 1,000 new armoured trucks built by Oshkosh Corp per month, double the initial rate, Carter said. He said Defence Secretary Robert Gates had told him to "make sure that we are doing all we can do" to prevent the large number of IED-related troop deaths and injuries that marked the early years of the Iraq war. The Pentagon was also examining several models of unmanned helicopters that could be used to get supplies to troops without using dangerous convoys on the road, he said. At the same time the military is dramatically increasing its presence in Afghanistan, it was also dealing with the drawdown in Iraq, a major logistical challenge, Carter said. He said the military had already removed 2.2 million pieces of military equipment from more than 350 forward operating bases in Iraq but needed to deal with 1.2 million more pieces by August, deciding if they should return to the United States, stay in Iraq or go elsewhere for use in future conflicts.