Defense Articles

In the past, the 120mm heavy mortar platoon’s key focus was no different than that of a light mortar platoon. The focus of their training was oriented on how fast they could deploy and fire accurately. Although this is still a critical mission-essential task, a heavy mortar platoon brings a key element to the fight that forces them to expand their training focus.

The M1064 (mortar carrier variant of the M113 chassis) makes the heavy mortar platoon an armored maneuver element, which opens the platoon to new missions far from its traditional role. Convoy escort, cordon and search operations, and raids are all missions that a heavy unit must be able to accomplish. The current gunnery training in a heavy battalion, or combined arms battalion (CAB), only tests the platoons in its traditional role. The training needs of the platoon have expanded. To best prepare soldiers for combat, they must be exposed to the types of missions they will be conducting.

Just prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), the 120mm mortar platoons reorganized from six M1064 mortar carriers and two M577 fire direction centers (FDC) to four M1064 and one FDC. It was decided that four mortars could still effectively support a maneuver battalion, which would create more platoons with fewer mortar vehicles.
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Losing one FDC and two mortar vehicles prevents a platoon from effectively operating as separate sections, eliminates the redundancy of fire mission calculations, and reduces the battlespace that the platoon can effectively engage. Whereas a platoon could operate as two separate, three-mortar sections and cover a wide sector, it no longer has this capability due to the loss of one mortar vehicle per section and one FDC. This reduces the linear coverage of the platoon from 900m (75m burst radius per gun) to 600m with a four mortar vehicle platoon. To compensate, often the platoon leader’s M998 becomes a secondary FDC. This only works if it is a cargo back, and even then, it does not have all the utilities of an M577.

After the initial advance into Iraq, mortar firing was severely reduced due to the urban environment, a different battlefield requiting a different skill focus. Iraq is more of an environment for heavy mortar platoons because they bring flexibility to the fight. A 120mm mortar platoon is capable of firing both 81 mm and 120mm ammunition, but more importantly, it brings an armored vehicle to the fight.

Mortar platoons need to shift focus from purely effective mortar firing to survivability. A mortar is useless if the crew cannot get to the battle safely. A simple solution is to apply tank direct fire concepts to the mortar platoon. Any senior mortarman will probably tell you that prior to deployment, he never fired an M2 .50-caliber from a moving M1064. Contact drills and maneuvering in contact are not normal situations for a mortar platoon. The modern battlefield forces the mortar crew to be an active part of the fight. Mortar crewmembers must know how to orient on the move and what to do if they make contact. This is easily trained once they understand that regardless of what occurs out of sector, mortarmen must maintain their sector of fire. Squad leaders must now think and talk to their fellow vehicles, much like a tank commander–they must learn to maneuver.

Maneuvering begins at a basic level that teaches squad leaders and drivers direct fire control. The focus is communication between the crews. Crewmembers have to be taught skills, such as shooting on the move, bounding, and supporting the maneuver of other vehicles. When this concept was introduced to my mortar platoon, it took a few attempts before they grasped the idea. This was something entirely new from the vehicle perspective.

Our platoon first began training with a single vehicle, on the move, shooting multiple targets. The platoon was then placed on the range with another mortar carrier and they fought the range in sections no different from two tanks attacking the range. They quickly grasped the concepts of covering each other on the move and engaging targets in their wingman’s sector due to reloading or terrain.

The platoon practiced advancing and breaking contact as a section and squad leaders quickly learned they had more responsibilities than just their vehicle. Once the squad leaders mastered these tasks, we added the whole crew to the equation. Since a 360-degree live-fire range was not available, this training was conducted as a blank fire. During this segment of the training, the entire crew manned their sector on the vehicle and the section moved out as a unit. Contact would be made and the section sergeant would make the decision to advance through contact or break contact. The focus was to increase the gun crews’ situational awareness about the .50-caliber traversing to engage targets, as well as maintain their sectors of fire.

After two days of training, we added all-inclusive training segments that covered losing a vehicle, actions to establish a perimeter, recovering the crew and weapons, and evacuating wounded. This training made soldiers realize the depth of the new missions they would be conducting in Iraq and how critical it was to master these critical tasks prior to deployment.

The integration and effectiveness of the light mortar is only as good as the ammunition plan, management, and resupply procedures. The amount of ammunition available is an important consideration in the attack of targets. When this is low, missions should be limited to those that contribute to mission accomplishment. When the controlled supply rate (CSR) is high, missions fired may include targets that require the massing of fires without adjustment. The CSR is designed to limit the number of rounds per weapon per day.

CSRs are imposed for two reasons–to conserve ammunition and to avoid a shortage for a tactical operation. During the fire support planning, ammunition requirements must be considered. Thus, it is very important for the mortar section leader to be present to recommend the types and amounts of ammunition that will be required. Combat experiences in World War II and Korea have shown that an on-hand mix of 70 percent HE, 20 percent WP or smoke, and 10 percent illumination ammunition is the most flexible. The basic load of a light infantry company should be approximately 245 HE, 60 WP, and 45 illumination, for a total of 350 rounds, which can be in any combination to best support the mission. The percentage of ammunition used by the unit should be modified by the commander on the basis of the mission. The expenditure of mortar ammunition must be based on the tactical priorities and ammunition availability.

How do we manage 60mm ammunition at company level (that is, How do we know what we have on the ground at any one time.)?
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It is difficult for the commander to keep track of the availability of on-hand mortar ammunition. The primary responsibility should fall on that section sergeant and the FSO/FSNCO for knowing exactly how many rounds are currently carried by the company, where in the company, and what type of rounds. To make it easier for the commander to know what is on the ground, recommended ammunition breakout is as follows: 1st and 2nd squads carry HE pure (2 rounds per man = 36 HE per platoon), and 3rd squad carries illumination and WP (A Team illumination [8 rounds], B Team WP [8 rounds]. This amounts to a basic load of 60mm–not carded by the mortar section–as 108 round HE, 24 rounds illumination and WP. Using a very basic tracking card updated by the FSO/FSNCO, the commander can keep track of the availability of 60mm ammunition within the company and realistically plan future operations.

AMMUNITION RESUPPLY

Even as good as it sounds by doctrine, we know a light infantry company cannot carry a basic load of 350 rounds of mortar ammunition. Companies at the Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) routinely begin rotations with as few as 40 to 60 rounds of 60mm mortar ammunition and almost never get a resupply. When executing the defense, it is with a very small amount of ammunition. To keep the company resupplied with mortar rounds, the company executive officer (XO) and the first sergeant and mortar section sergeant must work together on a daily basis. They must forecast the appropriate number of rounds to be fired daily and make it a standard part of logistics. If the number resupplied is more than the number fired, the ammunition can be kept in the combat trains or carried in the company vehicle until needed. This allows the company to maintain its initial load of ammunition on the basis of the SOP or the current tactical mission. When defense sectors are identified, another basic load can be brought forward.

Although units generally manage to get mortar ammunition onto the battlefield, getting it to the mortar firing positions has been the problem. The fix to ammunition management and resupply must be obtained through a detailed company level control procedure (SOP) for the distribution, drop-off, and retrieval of mortar ammunition. Target suppression is a common task for the mortars. Field Manual (FM) 7-90, Tactical Employment of Mortars, recommends firing five rounds from each tube against a platoon-size enemy element, which should inflict 20 percent casualties. This means that the fire for effect (FFE) should never be less than 10 rounds and will often require much more. This is only one example for one mission. A 60mm mortar section can fire 350 rounds in approximately 9 to 10 minutes at a sustained rate of fire.

How do we get the ammunition to the mortar section?

* Line squads drop when called for ammunition: Using his quick reference card, the mortar section sergeant and the FSO/FSNCO can call for the squads or teams that carry the required ammunition to be dropped off at the mortar firing point location. This works well in the defense, as well as air assaults and airborne assaults as units require time to assemble and thus will have time to drop ammunition with the mortars. This can be chaotic if the landing plans are changed.

* Co-locate ruck drops with mortar firing point: The most success I saw at the JRTC was when in the attack, co-locating the company (or a platoon) ruck drop with the mortars. This allows the mortars direct access to the ammunition they might require. It works very well when mortars are supporting an attack from an established company tactical assembly area, where platoon ruck drops can be established. Thus, mortars have three mortar round caches, in effect. This allows them to shoot, then displace to the next ruck drop, which in most cases would be 150 to 250 meters away from the last firing point. This gives the mortars greater flexibility in supporting the attack. The driving constraint in this method is the maximum range of the 60mm mortar, especially if older, non-ballistically matched lots are issued, where WP and illumination have a maximum range of 950-1500 meters. This method can also succeed when the mortars are task organized under a platoon for security purposes, and establish a mortar firing position in the vicinity of that platoon’s objective release point (ORP).

A program to support advanced technology companies at the Conoco Office and Research Complex in Ponca City was unveiled on Thursday.

The mission of the Ponca City Technology Accelerator is to facilitate the start-up and success of high-tech businesses in northern Oklahoma. Businesses occupying the accelerator will have the potential to generate revenue and create quality jobs in the Ponca City area.

Randy Goldsmith, executive director of the Oklahoma Technology Commercialization Center, on Thursday told local leaders the role his organization will play in overseeing recruitment and operations at the accelerator is a key building block in a state mission to commercialize Oklahoma’s advanced technologies.

Jan Jarrett, director of the Ponca City Economic Development Advisory Board, described the accelerator project as an “exciting and innovative addition to the Ponca City economic development portfolio.”

Partners include the City of Ponca City, the tech center, the Oklahoma Alliance for Manufacturing Excellence and Conoco. The Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology will serve in an advisory capacity.

Goldsmith described the accelerator as a traditional business incubator with a technical emphasis. “Traditionally, incubators have been more about location, brick and mortar and a roof over your head,” he said. “While these physical benefits are a necessary part of the incubation process, the real value is in the linkages, the mentoring and the proximity to those who have blazed a trail for you to follow.”

He emphasized the value of having access to the technical skills of the research staff at Conoco.

In search of Garth Brooks

Where’s Garth? At least two national publications — the National Enquirer and Country Weekly — are asking around the Oklahoma City area for Garth Brooks.

Reports are that Brooks and his wife, Sandy, want to move their family back to their native Oklahoma from Nashville. Both publications have been calling around Oklahoma City seeking information about reports that Brooks, a native of Yukon, intends to (A) build a home in Oklahoma, (B) build a museum and entertainment complex, and (C) put in a telemarketing center to sell Brooks- related music and other merchandise.

The Enquirer has reported that Brooks bought the former location of a Moose Lodge and 12 acres at old Route 66 and Mustang Road in Yukon, which may be the site of the museum, entertainment center and telemarketing center.

The National Enquirer also reported that the best-selling artist in country music is also seeking a home in the area. Country Weekly is chasing down the same rumors.

The City of Yukon says a building permit was issued to Yukon Career Opportunity for a telemarketing center at the former Moose Lodge, which is now undergoing renovation work. The Canadian County District Court Clerk’s office said the property was sold to T. M. Holdings of Oklahoma City in May.

Both Yukon Career Opportunity and T. M. Holdings have the same address — 3232 W. Britton Road — the home of Tapp Companies. Managed by President Barry Tapp, that firm is a developer of the Silver Springs Crossing commercial complex on the Northwest Expressway — which will have rapid access to the Yukon location once the Kilpatrick Turnpike extension opens next year to Route 66.

Tapp also is developing a 75-acre tract at the other side of Yukon, the southeast corner of Interstate 40 and Garth Brooks Boulevard. Staples, Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse and possibly Kohl’s Department Store will join several restaurants in the new shopping/service center and office complex, according to Tapp.

Obviously that, too, could make a good site for a museum complex.

Tobacco suit impact

A new wave of class-action lawsuits that could bankrupt tobacco companies if they are victorious could also affect payments to Oklahoma and other states from the national tobacco settlement, Attorney General Drew Edmondson says.

Edmondson said there have been questions about the impact of a recent class-action ruling in Florida against the tobacco industry that awarded plaintiffs $145 billion in punitive damages to sick smokers. When the jury decision was announced, tobacco company lawyers predicted that amount would break the industry.

The ruling would have no immediate impact on Oklahoma, which is slated to receive $200 million over 20 years, he said.

And there are provisions in Florida law that set the maximum appeal bond per defendant in a civil case at $100 million and bar punitive damages from bankrupting a business, Edmondson said. “That is still a lot of money, but at least by the larger defendants is certainly doable,” Edmondson said.

Edmondson said he didn’t know how long the appeal would take, but said the punitive damages provision may be used as a basis for appeal.

Even if the tobacco companies are ultimately forced to pay the $145 billion and go bankrupt in the process, Oklahoma would still get its share of the master settlement, Edmondson said. “The way we are looking at it now is if the verdict is upheld upon appeal and if one of the companies can’t stand the economic hit and goes belly up, we believe that the worst that would happen to Oklahoma and to the other states is that the flow of money would be disrupted,” he said.

Oklahoma participated in a master settlement agreement between several states and the country’s leading manufacturers of tobacco products. The states filed suit to recover Medicaid dollars spent to treat tobacco-related illnesses.

The current state budget includes $101 million in tobacco money, and Oklahoma is scheduled to get another payment of nearly $70 million in April 2000.

The attorney general predicted that it could take a few years for the issues to be resolved in bankruptcy court but once that happened the flow of tobacco settlement money would resume, “perhaps with retroactive payments.”

Money for military projects

A defense appropriations bill approved Thursday by the Senate includes $27 million for projects at Tinker Air Force Base, Fort Sill and the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant.

The bill also includes $90 million for F-16 upgrading at the Oklahoma Air National Guard and at bases in Des Moines, Iowa, and Toledo, Ohio. The amount for each base won’t be determined until later.

The funding for the military projects was approved 90-10 and the bill now goes to President Clinton.

Programs at Fort Sill will receive $15 million with $10 million for the air-to-air Starstreak missile program. The funding will allow completion of live-fire, side-by-side tests.

“If the Army decides to buy this missile, production will be done on it in Lawton,” said U.S. Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla.

The other expenditure for Fort Sill is for the Red Cross-operated facility at the post. The facility is one of two centers handling delivery of emergency communications for military personnel and their families. The funding will supplement the Red Cross’ fund-raising efforts to allow the center to operate at capacity.

At Tinker, the bill includes $6 million for the blade repair facility where personnel identify problems and make improvements to engine blade overhaul and repair operations, $3 million for a program that develops new sources for weapons systems spare parts and $3 million for a program using sensors to monitor ground water, air and water treatment processes for hazardous materials.

At McAlester, $3 million is allocated for the Trajectory Correctable Munitions program to be located at the plant. The technology allows an artillery projectile to be corrected or altered in midflight. The funding is for tests to help determine if the program is best suited for the Army’s needs.

Nickles said that if the Army decides to use the technology, the work would be done at McAlester.

Returning to Enid

A former Enid city official who left to become a banker is returning as Enid’s city manager.

City commissioners voted to name Bill Gamble to replace Andy Anderson, who has been named city manager in Norman.

Gamble had served as interim city manager before Anderson was hired. He then stayed on as director of the city’s mass transit system and later as its public works director.

Esterline Technologies (NYSE:ESL) (www.esterline.com), a leading specialty manufacturer for aerospace/defense markets, today announced that it has finalized the acquisition of the Electronic Warfare Passive Expendables Division of BAE SYSTEMS North America. The $67.5 million asset purchase was originally announced July 15. Closing of the sale today followed completion of regulatory reviews and approvals.

The acquisition consists of two businesses; one located at Lillington, North Carolina, another at East Camden, Arkansas. At the Lillington facility, approximately 65 employees produce radar countermeasure chaff used by aircraft to help protect against radar-guided missiles. At East Camden, about 235 employees produce a variety of aircraft-dispensable flares designed to protect against infrared-guided missiles. The two operations produce annual revenue of approximately $45 million.

Robert W. Cremin, Esterline CEO, said, “…these operations are a perfect fit with our long-standing and growing position in aerospace/defense advanced materials.” Cremin said, “…the plants will operate as divisions of our Southern California-based Armtec Defense Products subsidiary, the world’s leading manufacturer, and the U.S. Army’s sole source provider, of combustible ordnance products for tank, artillery, and mortar ammunition.”
Cremin said that Esterline plans to maintain the existing personnel and resources at the East Camden and Lillington facilities. He said, “…our customers have come to depend on our ability to develop, manufacture and deliver on time the highest quality energetic materials available, and our future success depends on our ability to continue to meet those expectations.”

With the acquisition, Esterline employs nearly 5,000 people worldwide, with revenues from continuing operations now running at an annual rate of $500 million. Approximately 40% of revenues are generated from military related markets; 40% from commercial aerospace activity; and 20% from industrial applications of its technologies.

This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on the current intent and expectations of the management of Esterline, are not guarantees of future performance, and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Esterline’s actual results and the timing and outcome of events may differ materially from those expressed in or implied by the forward-looking statements due to changes in aerospace/defense industry demand and other risks detailed in the company’s public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended October 26, 2001.

Ground forces raid airfield

U.S. Army Rangers stage rapid nighttime attack in Kandahar

By TOM INFIELD AND JONATHAN S. LANDAY

Knight Ridder News Service

Saturday, October 20, 2001

Washington — A company of Army Rangers staged a nighttime attack on the Kandahar airfield in southern Afghanistan early today, signaling a new and more dangerous phase of the U.S.-led war against the Taliban military and Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network.

There was no immediate word on casualties in the attacking force, but the Pentagon said two U.S. military personnel were killed in neighboring Pakistan in a helicopter accident.

Defense officials said the helicopter “was not part of the force that went into Afghanistan” but was in the air Friday night to provide rescue assistance, if needed, during the raid. Pakistan has allowed the United States to base search-and-rescue helicopters at three of its air bases.

President Bush, at an economic summit in Shanghai, China, said: “The important thing for me to tell the American people is these soldiers will not have died in vain.” Names of the dead were not released, pending notification of their families.

The deaths bring to three the number of U.S. service members killed since the U.S. military campaign against the al-Qaida terrorist network and the ruling Taliban militia began Oct. 7. Master Sgt. Evander Andrews of Solon, Maine, was killed last week in a forklift accident while building an airstrip in Qatar, in the Persian Gulf.

In today’s raid on Afghanistan, more than 100 U.S. troops were involved in an operation that began and ended under the cover of darkness and lasted “a few hours,” a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity said. Another U.S. official said the raid involved about 200 troops and that their target was the airfield at Kandahar, which is the base of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.

A senior administration official noted that the hit-and-run raid was intended partly to demonstrate that American forces can attack at will, even in the heart of the Taliban regime.

“This is a beginning,” the official said. “It was a message that they (the Taliban and bin Laden) cannot feel secure in their home base or anywhere else.”

Skilled in small-unit tactics, helicopter assaults and close-in combat, the Rangers and other U.S. Special Forces can operate for considerable periods behind enemy lines, gathering intelligence, marking targets for aircraft with hand-held lasers, or training and working with local forces.

They also can provide support to the Army’s Delta Force, a super- secret unit trained in “snatch” operations that could be sent in to abduct bin Laden or his top aides.

In addition to parachute assaults, Rangers are equipped to carry out reconnaissance missions, assist anti-Taliban forces inside Afghanistan and support covert operations designed to turn local Afghan leaders against the Taliban.

U.S. Army Ranger companies generally number about 200 men. A company consists of four platoons: three line platoons and a weapons platoon, plus a headquarters section that coordinates operations, communication and close air support.

Large arsenal of firepower

Ranger platoons carry a much larger arsenal of firepower than a standard light infantry unit. Each squad generally consists of nine men: a squad leader, two sergeant-rank fire team leaders, two grenadiers armed with M4 carbines and M203 40mm grenade launchers, two riflemen and two squad automatic weapons gunners whose 5.56mm machine guns can spit out as many as 1,000 rounds a minute.

During combat, each squad gets an added three-man machine gun team.

The weapons platoon in each company typically carries three 84mm anti-tank, Swedish-made “Gustav” recoilless rifles, capable of taking out a tank or armored vehicle at 600 yards. Three 60mm mortar teams provide indirect fire support for close operations.

The Rangers in today’s raid on the Kandahar airfield likely parachuted in with a minimum of food and water and a maximum amount of ammunition.

Raids such as the one of Kandahar are designed to hit hard and fast, killing as many of the enemy as possible and gathering whatever documents and other intelligence soldiers can find.

Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Friday night that introducing commando forces into the conflict would affect the Taliban “militarily and psychologically.”

“This is going to be a gradual process,” Levin (D-Mich.) said on CNN’s “Larry King Live.” “As we’re tightening the noose, it seems to me a lot of important things can be done, including the gathering of the support of a number of opposition forces in Afghanistan.”

The U.S. also has some two dozen Special Forces soldiers in northern Afghanistan assisting the Northern Alliance, a loose coalition of fighters seeking to push the Taliban from power, senior officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Air attack continues

For a second straight Friday, U.S. jets slowed the pace of their attacks on the Muslim holy day, when the faithful gather in mosques for sermons.

U.S. jets, however, resumed their attacks after midnight, blasting targets northeast of Kabul before dawn today. At least eight large explosions rattled the city.

Refugees streamed toward Afghanistan’s borders by the thousands Friday, taking advantage of the easing in the airstrikes to escape Kandahar and Kabul.

Ron Redmond, a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency, said 3,500 Afghans, most from Kandahar, arrived Friday at the Pakistani border town of Chaman by morning. The total marked the highest refugee flow in a single day from Afghanistan since the bombing began Oct. 7.

On the military front, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld again acknowledged that air power alone would not be enough.

“It’s not going to be fast,” Rumsfeld said Friday en route to a visit with crews of B-2 stealth bombers at Whiteman Air Force Base in central Missouri. “It’s going to take time. The people on the ground there are very tough. They have been fighting each other — and others — for a very long time. They’re survivors.”

He added: “It is going to be a lot easier in my view to try to persuade a number of them to oppose the Taliban and to oppose al- Qaida — than to, in fact, defeat them.”

Rumsfeld refused to discuss any U.S. ground operations in Afghanistan.

At the Pentagon, Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem, deputy director of operations on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Northern Alliance had made no headway in recent days toward capturing the key northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, despite U.S. airstrikes on Taliban positions there. Northern Alliance officials confirmed that assessment.

U.S. hits Kabul positions in battle’s biggest strikes

10 missing, 20 injured after bomb goes astray, hits alliance village

By WILLIAM BRANIGIN

Washington Post

Sunday, October 28, 2001

Jabal Saraj, Afghanistan — U.S. warplanes hit Taliban positions in Kabul and on the front lines north of the capital with the heaviest airstrikes yet in the 3-week-old bombing campaign, sending huge fireballs into the sky and triggering bursts of Taliban mortar and rocket fire against the opposition Northern Alliance.

At least one U.S. bomb went astray, hitting a village in Northern Alliance territory less than two miles from the front line, according to journalists at the scene. Ten people were reported missing and 20 wounded when the bomb landed in the village of Ghanikhel in Kapisa province as night was falling.
Earlier, bombs struck a military compound across from the long- abandoned U.S. Embassy in Kabul and an ammunition depot on the eastern edge of the city, creating bright red explosions. Airstrikes also reportedly hit targets in the southern and central parts of the capital. Taliban fighters roamed the streets in pickup trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns, putting up token resistance to the bombing.

Starting shortly after dawn and continuing into the evening, wave after wave of U.S. jets pounded the Taliban front-line trenches and gun emplacements that border the strategic Bagram air base, 25 miles north of Kabul, and prevented its use by the Northern Alliance.

The airstrikes drew paltry anti-aircraft fire from Taliban positions. But the hard-line Islamic movement retaliated by opening fire on the alliance’s front line on the northern side of the base, once the largest in Afghanistan and the landing zone for Soviet troops during their 1979 invasion.

“This is the heaviest day of air attacks on this front so far,” a Northern Alliance commander, who identified himself as Mustafa, told reporters.

A senior U.S. military officer confirmed that targeting of Taliban forces north of Kabul had been intensified in support of the Northern Alliance rebels. He said an increased number of B-1 and B-52 bombers had participated in the latest raids.

In seven days of front-line bombing, the United States has tried to help the Northern Alliance dislodge Taliban troops from Kabul and Mazar-e Sharif. So far, the Northern Alliance push has met with little success. A senior U.S. official said Friday that a contingent of U.S. Special Forces was helping the rebels plan a stepped up attack, but there was no report of unusual ground activity along the battlefront Saturday.

Stray bomb reported

At least one bomb went astray and struck a two-story house several miles behind the Northern Alliance lines. Angry villagers said 10 people were missing in the rubble and 20 were injured.

British Sky News broadcast pictures from the village showing a young girl with a bloodied face and hand, lying on the ground near piles of rubble and the remaining walls of a house on the edge of the village.

In Washington, Pentagon spokesmen said they had no information on a stray bomb.

When the Sky News TV crew arrived at the scene, the villagers heard the journalists speaking English on their satellite telephones and became hostile.

“Our families have lost loved ones,” a villager told them. “Now American families should lose loved ones.”

Security officials intervened and the journalists were allowed to leave.

It was at least the fourth time in seven days of U.S. airstrikes on Taliban positions north of Kabul that a bomb had fallen on the wrong side of the front line. There were no reports of casualties in the other incidents.

With key allies in the Middle East, and even on Capitol Hill, beginning to question the effectiveness of the campaign, President Bush held his daily National Security Council meeting by videoconference from Camp David.

Britain’s defense secretary, Geoff Hoon, said Saturday that Britain was prepared for a long and difficult war, as it began to mobilize 600 elite troops for an expected ground mission in Afghanistan.

Speaking to the British Broadcasting Corp. from Oman, Hoon declined to predict how long the military campaign against the Taliban would last, saying it “that will take as long as it takes.”

“I don’t think it would be sensible to make a judgment at this stage as to what the outcome is going to be.”

Preparing for long haul

After proclaiming that American airstrikes had “eviscerated” Taliban forces, Pentagon spokesmen are now trying to prepare the American public for a long haul by describing the Taliban as battle- hardened survivors.

To hear the United States’ most important military allies speak, the hope is not to wrap up the fighting before the Muslim holiday of Ramadan begins in mid-November but to try to prevail before Ramadan 2002.

“It is the most difficult operation ever undertaken by this country post-Korea,” Adm. Michael Boyce, the chief of the British Defense Staff, warned his nation on Friday. “It may not be the most dangerous because we are not facing an enemy like the Iraqi army, but it is the most difficult in terms of the objectives we’ve set ourselves.”

Pakistan’s intelligence service raised questions about the effectiveness of earlier bombing in southern and eastern parts of the country, according to a senior government official.

In its first comprehensive assessment of the U.S. bombing operation, the intelligence service has delivered a report to the country’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, concluding that the U.S.- led military campaign has not succeeded in diminishing the Taliban’s morale or their support in those regions, the official said.

In northwestern Pakistan, more than 5,000 people left the village of Temergarah in buses and trucks Saturday morning, bound for the Afghan frontier and vowing to fight a holy war against the U.S., news services reported. Hundreds were reported crossing into Afghanistan over mountains Saturday evening, Pakistani border police said.

The pounding U.S. military assault on and around Kabul came a day after the Taliban reported that it had captured and executed a renowned Afghan guerrilla commander, Abdul Haq, and two of his companions after they entered eastern Afghanistan from Pakistan to enlist Pashtun tribal leaders in efforts to create a post-Taliban government.

The reported executions dealt a serious blow to those efforts, limiting the options of anti-Taliban forces in recruiting prominent Pashtuns for the proposed new government. The Taliban is dominated by Pashtuns, the country’s largest ethnic group, while the Northern Alliance consists mainly of Tajiks and other ethnic minorities.

In Washington, about 300 people paraded through downtown carrying signs and shouting opposition to the U.S. military strikes in Afghanistan. The demonstration was organized by International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism).

Knight Ridder News Service, the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

AFGHANISTAN

21ST DAY OF ATTACKS

SATURDAY’S TARGETS:

SAYOD: U.S. planes attacked at least five Taliban troop concentrations near Sayod, a village 25 miles north of Kabul.

KABUL: Bombs struck a military compound across from the U.S. Embassy and an ammunition deport on the eastern edge of the city. Airstrikes also reportedly hit targets in the southern and central parts of the capital.

On Dec. 29, 1941, almost three weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that plunged the United States into World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in one of his famous “fireside chats,” told Americans: “We must become the Arsenal of Democracy.”

With that directive, he marshaled the economic might of the nation to an epic display of mass production the world had never known. By the time the war — the greatest in the history of human conflict — was over, American engineers and assembly-line workers had built 124,000 ships, 300,000 war planes, 41 billion rounds of ammunition, 100,000 tanks and armored cars, 2.4 million military trucks, 434 millions tons of steel and 36 billion yards of cotton textiles.

In tackling this prodigious task Michigan, then with only 4% of the nation’s population, obtained more than 10% of nearly $200 billion in major contracts by the U.S. and foreign governments from June 1940 to September 1945.

Wayne, Washtenaw, Oakland and Macomb counties accounted for more than 70% of the state’s production. And of Detroit, historian Alan Clive wrote: “No American city . . . carried out more war work.” Engineers in the metropolitan Detroit area made a monumental contribution to Allied victory, more than vindicating FDR’s historic exhortation.

Their success traces back to World War I when, even without Mr. Roosevelt’s ringing exhortation to inspire them, they made their first contributions to an Allied victory in history’s first global conflict.

After the war erupted in 1914, Detroit factories took munitions orders from England, France and other European governments. Consequently, the entry of the United States into the conflict in 1917 found several factories ready to step up to a wartime footing. “Practically every plant of any size was swung over to this business,” records a City of Detroit historical account. “And in spite of the fact that approximately 60,000 skilled workmen left for the fighting front, the industrial army at home was near 275,000.”

Nuts & bolts of power

America’s entry into the first World War sent into battle Detroit’s highly developed system of standardization, high tolerances and interchangeability — the nuts and bolts of mass production. The automobile industry, lacking any experience in military manufacturing, unleashed a flood of trucks, ambulances, field-kitchen trailers, artillery subassemblies, tanks, airplanes airplane engines and submarine chasers. This material tipped the war decisively in favor of America’s exhausted allies and established the United States as a world power.

Railroad-equipment-builder American Car & Foundry Co. was one of the first Detroit factories to get into defense work. In 1915 it began filling orders for artillery shells from Britain. France had a contract with the Dodge Brothers to build recoil mechanisms for howitzers. Buick was building subassemblies for tanks and tractors for Britain. And Packard was developing the Liberty aircraft engine.

In 1917, when the U.S. became a co-belligerent, American Car went on three shifts a day to make shells. The Ford, Lincoln, Dodge and General Motors plants joined with Packard to mass-produce 8- and 12-cyl. Liberty aircraft engines. Fisher Body built airplane fuselages, and the Ford plant at River Rouge constructed Eagle subchasers for the Navy. GM also turned out 20,000 trench-mortar shells a month while 90% of its truck production went off to war. The army adopted the Cadillac V-8 as its standard staff car. And the Buick Model 16AA ambulance became as familiar on European battlefields as the “Jeep” would become two decades later.

Auto companies were the first to become involved in making products for what would become World War II. They supplied Britain and France with war material during the 1930s without interrupting the production of cars and trucks for the domestic market. But following Pearl Harbor, they confronted the daunting task of totally reconverting all their facilities to war work.

Within days of the Dec. 7 attack, the government charged the auto companies with building 75% of all aircraft engines, more than one-third of all machine guns, nearly 80% of the tanks and tank parts, half of the diesel engines and all of the motorized units for the army.

The reconversion of the auto industry was mastermined by William S. Knudsen, a former GM president.

Most auto builders date their transformation to a memorable meeting in Detroit on Oct. 25, 1940. Everyone who had anything to do with the manufacture of automobiles attended — from primary producers, parts and appliance fabricators to tool and die makers.

Mr. Knudsen outlined principles and practices for farming out subcontracts. And when America entered the war, these principles enormously streamlined the participation of thousands of small industries in the national defense program.

Mr. Knudsen announced that he intended to use the auto industry to back up the airplane industry. As a result, DeSoto, Chrysler, Hudson and Goodyear Rubber Co. were soon building a long line of parts for Glenn L. Martin Co. of Baltimore. Murray Corp. did the same for Boeing’s B-17 Flying Fortress. and Fisher Body Div. of GM backstopped partsmaking for North America.

Within months, engineers and designers from GM, Ford and Chrysler and from hundreds of parts and subcontracting firms swarmed through the plants of the aircraft industry. They made rough sketches, took notes and soaked up airplane expertise and know-how.

Consequently, two years after the Pearl Harbor attack the auto industry was turning out:

* Complete B-24, Grumman TBF Average and F4F Wildcat aircraft and Waco CG4 gliders;

* Parts for the B-17, Martin B-26, North American Mitchell B-25, Curtiss SB2C Hell Diver, Douglas A-20 Boston, Curtiss C-46 Commando, Consolidated C-87 Express, Douglas C-64 Skymaster and Vought OS2U Kingfisher;

* Engines for the North American P-51 Mustang, Curtiss BT-14 Valiant, and for Britain’s Avro Lancaster, DeHavilland Mosquito and Vickers-Supermarine Spitfire.

On Jan. 20, 1942, the newly created War Production Board halted production of passenger cars and light trucks. Thereafter, auto engineers spent the war mass-producing products to vanquish the Axis powers.

They turned their brains and hands to making arms and ammunition, military vehicles, artillery and airplanes and equipment ranging from the gyro-compasses and rangefinders to top-secret devices for atomic bombs.

The honor roll in this colossal undertaking is extensive. A few citations must stand proxy for the many.

Ford fabricated the biggest airplane plant in the world — Willow Run, MI, which built four-engined B-24 Liberator bombers. A mile long, quarter-mile wide and costing $100 million, the plant was larger than the combined prewar plants of the major airplane manufacturers of the day — Boeing, Douglas and Consolidated. The facility built in excess of 8,500 Liberators — more than one every hour.

Chrysler constructed its tank arsenal in Warren, MI, in 10 months and began shipping units by September 1941. The arsenal built more than 25,000 tanks.

Mass production of the Browning .30-caliber machine gun went to GM’s Brown-Lipe-Chapin, AC Spark Plug, Frigidaire and Saginaw Steering divisions. In mid-November 1940, Saginaw produced its first model — seven months ahead of schedule. In March 1942, when the contract called for delivering 280 weapons, Saginaw shipped 28,728 — and dropped the price per copy from $667 to $141.44.

In tackling production of the famous Swedish-designed Oerlikon cannon, Pontiac Div. engineers virtually redesigned the entire piece. Their simplified breech casing cut machine time from 240 hours to 90. The new design reduced total production time by 35 hours and trimmed $166 from the unit cost.

Packard engineers completely redrafted the blueprint for Britain’s Rolls-Royce Merlin aircraft engine. They did so in order to achieve the one-tenthousandths-of-an-inch tolerances demanded by Detroit’s mass producers. Packard delivered the first nine Merlins at a cost of $6.25 million, with the company “reaping” a profit of $6,206 on the deal.

From Sept. 1, 1939, when the war erupted in Europe, until August 1945, when Japan surrendered, the auto industry delivered almost $50 billion worth of war material. Nearly 40% of it consisted of aircraft and aircraft parts, about 30% was military vehicles and parts, and 13% went into tank production. Marine equipment, guns, artillery and ammunition were among the other major items.

Bagram, Afghanistan — The U.S. military has stopped handing over confiscated weapons to Afghan militia fighters following criticism it was strengthening regional warlords at the expense of the national government.

The change was made quietly last week, Col. Roger King, the spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said Friday. He said American commanders decided the practice conflicted with U.S. efforts to train a new Afghan national army.

Critics worried that arming the private militias would fuel fighting between rival warlords, destabilize Afghanistan and undermine the fragile government of President Hamid Karzai.

Almost every day, U.S. forces searching along Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan find caches of weapons and ammunition. On Thursday alone, Special Forces based in the town of Urgun found 148 82mm mortar rounds, 700 rounds of heavy machine-gun ammunition and five anti-personnel mines.
Most of the finds are in poor condition and are destroyed. But until the policy was changed, fighters traveling with the U.S. forces were given their pick of the usable weapons and ammunition, followed by other militia fighters in the area. The Afghan National Army, which still has fewer than 2,000 fighters, was last.

King said U.S. commanders on the ground had been trying to make sure the forces aiding them were well supplied.

“There was some interpretation in the field of what constituted the Afghan National Army to include the AMF (Afghan militia forces) guys we were working with. So there were some areas where the AMF were allowed to swap out some weapons,” he said.

“For clarity’s sake, we’ve gone back out and said, ‘This is it, this is cut and dried: It either goes to the Afghan National Army at the Kabul military training facility . . . or it is destroyed.’ ”

The announcement was welcomed by international analysts. “I think the United States knows it made a mistake,” said Christopher Langton, head of defense analysis at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. “This is a move toward giving the national army the authority and the status it needs.”

However, he said the international community still needed to clear up how weapons would be shared among veteran anti-Taliban commanders who dominate Karzai’s government.

Some commanders still are fighting each other, making vast parts of northern Afghanistan dangerous for international aid workers.

King said the change might hurt the readiness of Afghan soldiers aiding the Americans, but it might also force them to turn to the Ministry of Defense for weapons, reinforcing the central government.

Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim himself commands a private militia. He has questioned the need for a national army but has changed his public stance under international pressure.

Weapons cache largest found in Afghanistan

Bagram, Afghanistan — Romanian troops have found the biggest stash of weapons yet in Afghanistan — two caves stuffed with thousands of rockets and more than 1.25 million rounds of ammunition.

The weapons were found Wednesday and Thursday during searches outside the village of Hazarkhel, about 220 miles southwest of Kabul, U.S. military spokesman Col. Roger King said Friday.

The Romanians found some 3,000 107mm rockets, about 150 mortar rounds, 30 anti-tank mines and the ammunition, King said, adding that all the weapons were blown up at the site.

The 107mm rockets have become staples in the guerrilla war being waged by remnants of al-Qaida and the ousted Taliban against coalition troops.
Judge ‘distressed’ over Ashcroft remark

Detroit — A federal judge said Friday that he was “distressed” by Attorney General John Ashcroft’s public praise of a key government witness at the trial of four men accused of acting as a “sleeper” terrorist cell.

Defense attorneys criticized the attorney general’s remarks and U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen said he would take up the issue after the trial, whose participants are under a gag order.

The judge polled the jurors, who said they were unaware any government official had made remarks about the case.

At a news conference Thursday in Washington, Ashcroft called witness Youssef Hmimssa’s cooperation “a critical tool” in efforts to combat terrorism. “His testimony has been of value, substantial value,” Ashcroft said.

Hmimssa is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to federal fraud charges in three states.

KHALIS, Iraq — Hundreds of U.S. forces launched a series of raids Tuesday to hunt down bandits, gangsters and Saddam Hussein loyalists, capturing at least 24.

Meanwhile, the number of American troops killed in postwar Iraq surpassed the toll of those killed in major combat, reaching 140 with the deaths of a soldier in a roadside bombing and another in a traffic accident.

When President Bush declared an end to major combat May 1, the U.S. death toll stood at 138. Since then, 140 more soldiers have died, counting both deaths announced Tuesday. The total number of U.S. soldiers killed since the Iraq war began March 20 is 278.

One soldier killed Tuesday was riding in a support convoy hit by a bomb in the town of Hamariyah, 16 miles northwest of Baghdad, the military announced. Two other soldiers were wounded in that attack. The other U.S. fatality was a soldier struck by an Iraqi motorist while changing a flat in a convoy from Tikrit to a forward base, the military said.

In another incident, a third soldier was taken to a military hospital with an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The two dozen suspected Iraqi criminals were swept up near Baqouba, 42 miles north of Baghdad, in “Operation Ivy Needle,” a campaign launched by the 4th Infantry Division.

Hundreds of troops, backed by helicopters, tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles chased a convicted murderer and gangster named Lateef Hamed al-Kubaishat — known as Lateef by U.S. forces, said Col. David Hogg, commander of the 4th Infantry Division’s 2nd Brigade.

Lateef escaped capture, but the military said it caught seven men it was seeking and seized arms. A later raid on a gunrunner’s home netted three men after troops surrounded the house. The three tried to flee, with one firing a heavy machine gun, but he was wounded in the leg.

“Their primary focus is probably criminal activity, but they have attacked coalition forces through direct and indirect means,” Hogg told The Associated Press. “As long as he (Lateef) is in place, we will not be able to establish the conditions for the Iraqi police to establish law and order in the area.”

The gang claimed responsibility for a bomb that exploded outside police headquarters Aug. 10 in Baqouba, killing one U.S. military policeman, U.S. forces said. Lateef is also accused of selling weapons, burning down the Baqouba courthouse to destroy criminal records, and murdering a prostitute whom he accused of fraternizing with U.S. troops in the area.

Lateef was imprisoned and serving multiple life sentences for murder until Saddam granted amnesty to all prisoners in October as the United States ratcheted up its case for invading Iraq, according to U.S. intelligence officers.

Ivy Needle was designed to neutralize paramilitary forces, Saddam loyalists, Fedayeen Saddam militia and other subversive elements, 4th Infantry spokeswoman Maj. Josslyn Aberle said.

No U.S. soldiers were reported killed or injured in the operations.

They consist of “surgical strikes on remote areas throughout the 4th ID area of responsibility, where in the past we haven’t had enduring military presence,” Aberle said.

In other raids, U.S. troops detained 22 people in northern and eastern Iraq, Aberle said. Of those, two had been targeted as ex- regime loyalists, five were suspected of planning attacks against coalition forces, and 13 others were arrested for trying to loot the former Iraqi military’s ammunition dumps around Tikrit.

In Iraq’s second holiest Shiite city, Karbala, Marine Lt. Col. Matthew Lopez handed over command to Bulgarian Lt. Col. Petko Marinov, whose 250-member force will begin patrolling the city. The Bulgarian soldiers are part of a larger, 9,500-member international force led by Poland that will try to secure the zone in south- central Iraq that has been under the control of U.S. Marines.

A formal hand-over to a Polish commander for the entire zone will take place Sept. 3.

Polish forces, however, have already come under attack. Several mortar shells were fired Monday night at a Polish base in Karbala, missing their target and causing no damage or injuries, Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski said in Warsaw.