THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 7, 1995 TAG: 9509070439
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
High-technology has given NATO commanders a way to add punch to their attacks on Bosnia this week, as the Navy confirmed Wednesday that F-14 Tomcats are being used for the first time to deliver laser-guided bombs.
Two Virginia Beach-based F-14s from the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt each dropped a pair of precision, 1,000-pound bombs on targets southeast of Sarajevo on Tuesday. An ammunition dump was among the sites hit and destroyed.
Additional strikes were expected Wednesday, though one pilot said bad weather over target areas was limiting operations.
``The hardest part of the whole operation was coming back,'' said Cmdr. Dick Bedford, commanding officer of VF-41, the F-14 squadron aboard the Roosevelt. ``The weather was marginal.''
Some 14 Tomcats are part of the Roosevelt's air wing, along with 36 F/A-18 Hornets, the new mainstay of naval aviation. Long the Navy's most fearsome aerial dogfighters, the Tomcats have been equipped with bomb racks only since 1991.
But until Tuesday's action near Sarajevo, those racks had gone into action carrying only ``dumb'' bombs, which must be dropped from relatively low altitudes and fall free to their targets. Those bombs are more likely to miss their marks and to damage nearby areas that military and civilian authorities want left alone.
``Our number one requirement is to avoid collateral damage,'' Bedford said in a telephone interview.
And because the dumb bombs are dropped from low-flying planes, their use increases pilots' exposure to anti-aircraft fire and surface-to-air missiles.
Laser-guided bombs, by contrast, can be dropped from higher altitudes and hit targets as small as an open window or a chimney flue. Bedford said the Tomcats flying Tuesday near Sarajevo were operating at more than 10,000 feet when they dropped their bombs.
At that altitude, the planes are considered relatively safe from the shoulder-fired missiles that the Bosnian Serbs have used to fire on some NATO aircraft. Bedford said the attacking planes have flown around several areas where the Serbs are believed to have radar-guided surface-to-air missiles, and, ``we simply took down one that was a problem.''
Though laser-guided explosives are far more expensive than dumb bombs, military experts say their use is more economical because of their precision. Military planners who once tried to predict the number of sorties needed to eliminate a single target can turn that equation around with the smart bombs, hitting several targets during a single sortie.
Because the Tomcats are not equipped with laser-sighting equipment, the precision bombs they dropped Tuesday were guided by a pair of F/A-18s, also from the Roosevelt. Bedford said the Hornets delivered their own payloads first, then circled back around, located and locked on to the F-14 targets and guided their bombs as well.
The Tomcats will begin getting their own laser equipment next year, but for now the ``buddy lasing'' is ``a way to bring more ordnance to a target,'' Bedford said.
Though the F-14 is scheduled to go out of service by 2010, the addition of laser-guided bombs to its inventory should increase its utility to the Navy. The Tomcat can hit targets up to 500 miles away from its carrier, while the smaller Hornet has a range of about 350 miles without refueling.
A new version of the Hornet, to be unveiled later this month, is supposed to close that gap. But the Navy is years away from getting substantial numbers of improved Hornets onto its carrier decks.
The new Hornets also will have improved laser-sighting equipment, comparable to that now used by the Air Force's F-15 and F-16 fighters. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
ROBERT D. VOROS/Staff
``SMART'' BOMBING
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder Tribune
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
by CNB