: . _________ ________ _____________ _____ | __ / : ___________/ _ \ \ __ _ / | \ ____: : \_/ -A : \______ \ | \_ _: \_/ \_/ | \ | \_ D_ / / _/ | / ___/ \_ | : : | _______/ `N _/ \ \_________/ | \________/ _____ | : \__________/ \ \_ : : \__________ \___________/ . CRaZY GaNG . +--------------------------------+ AV8B HARRIER ASSAULT - OPERATIONS MANUAL ---------------------------------------- PART 2 Typed by SHARD N&B SECTION VI - ABOARD THE TARAWA ------------------------------ After the animated sequence which starts the game, the player will be placed in the command center of the Tarawa. The entire game is controlled from this location, including command of the task force and the despatch of aircraft on combat missions. From this location, you have four options: 1. Move around the carrier to visit other compartments. 2. Use the Tactical Amphibious Warfare Data System (TAWADS) to plan or change combat operations. 3. Save the current state of the game, or reload a saved game. 4. Pause the game 5. Quit to DOS. Below deck, a single corridor gives access to all parts of the ship you`ll need to use. To get to it, click on the EXIT sign at the top left hand corner of the screen. (Similar EXIT signs will be found in all the compartments you visit.) Along one side of the corridor are the Pilot's Briefing Room, the Command Center, the Acclimatization Room, and the Hanger. From the other side, a passageway leads to the flight deck. You'll see the corridor from a position about half-way along its length Clicking on the red-coloured arrow marking on the deck will allow you to look in the opposite direction. To enter one of the compartments, click on its name, or in the case of the flight deck, on the sign "TO THE FLIGHT DECK". Note how the shape of the cursor changes from an arrow to a cross as you align it with the name, sign, or arrow. This change is shape shows that the cursor is aligned with a selectable option. At either end of the corridor are elevators. These will take you to three other levels of the ship; PRIMARY FLIGHT CONTROL (PRI-FLY) COMMAND CENTER (COMM. CNTR) CARGO HOLD VEHICLE DECK Clicking on the appropriate switch will take you the level you've selected. Clicking on the EXIT sign at the top left of the screen will take you back to the corridor, directly in the case of compartments in the corridor, or via the elevator in the case of the other decks. Modern warfare is fast moving, and in the heat of battle, time is short. To help you "short cuts" are provided to those parts of the ship you'll need to visit most often. There are telephones in most compartments. Clicking on these will take you immediately to the Command Center. WHAT THE COMPARTMENTS DO Each compartment of the ship has its own specialised function: The Command Center The Command Center has two large wall mounted displays, and three computer consoles. As was the case in the corridor the cursor will change shape from an arrow to a cross to indicate possible selections. The central computer console in the Command Center gives access to the Tactical Amphibious Warfare Data System (TAWADS), a sophisticated integrated computer system designed to provide command and control over the group's aircraft, weapons, sensors and landing craft. TAWADS has two main purposes. Before the campaign begins, it is used for detailed strategic and tactical planning. When TAWADS is ordered to run a plan, it will automatically send the relevant orders to the units which are tasked with carrying them out. No military plan ever survives contact with enemy but must be modified and updated as the campaign proceeds. TAWADS will allow you to assess the progress of the conflict, and to issue direct orders to ground and air forces, ordering them to carry out specific tactical tasks not envisaged in the original battle plan. Full information on the use of TAWADS is contained in the Task Force Commander's Manual. Pausing the Game When the phone rings, or other interruptions disturb the player, its easy to pause the simulation. Just click on the command centre digital clock. (When you're in the cockpit flying a mission, the game can be paused by pressing the P key). Saving the Game The Command Center is the only location where you can save the current state of the game. As you play through a campaign, the computer keeps track of the current position of the fleet, plus the position of all US and Indonesian ground forces, and what they are currentlv doing. It also keeps a record of damage which you have inflicted on the enemy`s fixed bases, and the losses in aircraft, helicopters, vehicles, and men which you have suffered. Finally, it must also note any changes that you have made to the current battle plan. Saving a game takes an electronic "snapshot" of all this information and stores it on the hard disk. You can reload this saved game at any time - this will reset the entire game world back to where you were when the save was carried out. There are at least two reasons for saving a game. After you have been playing for several hours, the Real World may suddenly intrude - the dog demands to be walked, it's time to eat, or time to sleep. It might even be time to use the computer for something so mundane as work. Saving the game before quitting will allow you to continue play at a later date. The other reason for saving is to preserve a record of your success to date. Saving regularly is an insurance policy against things suddenly going wrong. If you make a tactical error, or the Indonesians hit you with a brilliant counter attack, you can effectively reset the clock and try a different strategy. The save/load game screen is called up by clicking on the disk icon on the command center desk (You'll see it to the left of the white telephone). The screen has save/load facilities on the left hand side, and a record of the game-configuration preferences on the right. There are 10 slots available to hold saved games. To save a game, click on one of the slots. It will become highlighted. Click onto the Save Game icon (an arrow pointing at a floppy disk). The current game state will be saved into the hard disk, and the selected slot will now contain the name of your saved state. It should read something like SABER 0/9:50. The name is made up to the name of the plan currently being run, plus the current date and time. The example shown contains Plan SABER at the state it had reached by 9.50am on day 0 of the campaign. A saved game can be retrieved at any time by entering the SAVE/LOAD screen, clicking on the slot which contains the saved game, then clicking on the Load Game icon (an arrow pointing away from a floppy disk. The Preferences section of this screen allows you to permanently configure some features of the game. (These can be configured for the current game session only by the means of a menu accessible by pressing ESC while in the AV-8B cockpit). Each customizable feature has its own icon. Click on these to change a preference for example, click on Joystick Control to set the default control to joystick. Preferences can be saved by clicking on SAVE PREFERENCES. Useful Short Cuts The Command Center also provides three useful "short-cuts" to other parts of the ship: This is the only compartment where clicking on the telephone does not take you to the Command Center. When playing the game, you`ll often be switching between the Pilots Briefing Room and the Command Center, so clicking on the white telephone in the Command Centre takes you directly to the pilots briefing room. If a red light is flashing on this phone, this indicates that fresh missions have been posted on the whiteboard of the Pilots Briefing Room. Clicking on the left-hand wall-mounted display takes you directly to the aircraft cockpit. Pilots' Briefing Room Visit the Pilots' Briefing Room to select the AV-8B missions you want to fly, and to receive pre-flight briefings before take off. Return there after landing to receive a debriefing report summarizing the success of your attack. Central item in this compartment is a large whiteboard used to display information to pilots. On either side are monitor screens which are used to call up further information. Clicking on these selects the type of data displayed on the whiteboard. When you enter the room from the corridor or directly from the Command Center, the whiteboard will show the new missions waiting to be flown. If you want to see this at any other time, click on the right hand monitor screen. Clicking on the left-hand monitor will bring up on the whiteboard a list of currently-airborne AV-8Bs. Clicking on any one of these will put you into the cockpit of that aircraft. Turn off its autopilot, and you can fly the mission. Consult the AV-8B Pilot's Manual for full information on how to use these displays. The AV-8B Cockpit. Once you`re in the cockpit and airborne, there are four ways of getting back to the ship: The most obvious to is complete the mission, then land (either manually or under autopilot control). After landing, pressing Ctrl-D or waiting for a short time will take you back to the Pilots Briefing Room for a debriefing session which will tell you how well the mission went. The only type of mission which does not result in any debrief is a Combat Air Patrol. (Having flown the mission you'll already know how many aircraft you shot down.) If you want to skip the debrief press Ctrl-C after you land. This will take you directly to the Command center. Like all pilots sent to war, you run the risk of being shot down. Using the ejection seat to escape from a crashing AV-8B should see you returned to the Pilots Briefing Room for a debriefing session. Whether you land in the sea or on East Timor, a rescue helicopter will almost certainly get to you, and return you to the ship. Like AV-8Bs, the small force of pilots is a valuable resource. If you crash, either due to pilot error or by being shot down, you'll be returned to the Command Center - dead pilots don't need debriefing sessions! If you press ESC, then select Commander from the menu which appears, you go back to the command center, while the computer takes over the task of automatically flying your aircraft. You can jump out of a Harrier at any time, return to the command center, then rejoin the mission from the currently active missions displayed in the pilots room. (The phone shortcut from the Command center to the Pilots Briefing Room makes it quick to get back to the aircraft.) Acclimatization Room This compartment contains an AV-8B flight simulator. Here you can practce flying the AV-8B. Clicking on the up and down arrows on the simulator control console allows you to select the type of training mission you want to fly. The simulator will then put you in the cockpit of an aircraft which has been correctly set up for the sortie. At the end of each training mission you are returned to the Acclimatization Room. Hangar Deck From here, the AV-8Bs are raised on the deck-edge elevator to the flight deck. Tarawa carries eight aircraft, and this view will show you the number currently available to fly missions. Clicking on the ARM icon will raise and aircraft to the flight deck, then take you to the Weapon Loading Screen, and then into the cockpit to begin a Combat Air Patrol. Flight Deck Walking onto the flight deck takes you into the Weapon Loading screen, then into the cockpit to begin a Combat Air Patrol mission. No waypoints will be set in the Nav system. One Harrier will always be available to fly a Combat Air Patrol. Primary Flight Control (PRI-FLY) The island is the tall superstructure on the starboard (right hand) side on the Tarawa. A glassed-in compartment high up on the island acts as the shipboard equivalent of the Control Tower at a land-based airfield From here, the Air Officer (known as the "Air Boss") controls flight operations. Seated in a padded chair, he can turn to look out of any of the windows, observing the entire flight deck. Once the amphibious landings get under way, the flight deck will be a busy place at times. Try to stop by Pri-Fly and watch the flight deck operations. Pressing Keys F1 F2 F3 F4 will allow you look out of the various windows. Esc returns you to the elevator. Cargo Hold By visiting the Cargo Hold, you'll get an idea of how much of the on-board stores are still available for use. The number of crates visible gives a general indication of the amount of stores available, and you can assume that the proportion of the stores available on board the other ships in the task force are similar to those on Tarawa. If the Cargo hold starts to look empty, the cargo holds on the other amphibious ships will be in a similar condition. Vehicle Deck The vehicle deck shows the next group of vehicles available to go ashore with the Marines. When the campaign begins, you'll see a group of LVTs (Landing Vehicle Tracked) ready to go ashore. As was the case in the Cargo Hold, this view gives an indication of the vehicle availability for the entire task force. Simulation Viewpoints As you`ve already seen, the game allows you to jump from one aircraft to another, or back to the Tarawa. These are not the only views of the simulated world you can look at. Several keys flip you to more spectacular viewpoints. Before trying this, you'd be advised to hit the A key to engage your aircraft's autopilot. It's easy to crash while admiring the visuals. Pressing the V key switches to an outside view of your aircraft. You can move around your AV-8B by pressing the appropriate function keys. F3 and F4 will position you 60 degrees on either side of the nose of your aircraft, F5 and F6 will put you 60 degrees on either side of the tail. F7 and F8 with smoothly rotate the view left or right respectively, while F9 and F10 rotate the viewpoint up and down. Pressing the 0 key effectively places a TV camera in the sky at your current location, and provides a movie-like view of your aircraft flying off into the distance. The J key switches to the enemy's viewpoint. This takes you to the selected or designated target. In air combat, this key will take you into your opponents cockpit, so gives you a quick way of checking that you`re not about to be shot down. If you launch a guided missile, the M key will show you the view seen from the missile seeker. It's not particularly useful, but it can be spectacular. SECTION VII - FLIGHT TRAINING ----------------------------- Primary Training If you've never flown a flight simulator, you need to understand the basic rules of how to fly an aircraft. (If you already understand these, you can go directly to the heading "Using the Part-Task Simulators"). An aircraft must be maneuvered in three dimensions - pitch (nose up or nose down), yaw (nose left or nose right), and roll (nose rotated to move one wing down and the other up). In a conventional aircraft, these movements are generated by hinged control surfaces whose position is controlled from the cockpit. The control column often referred to as the joystick - is used for pitch and roll control. Yaw is controlled by the rudder pedals. Luckily for computer based flight simulations, the part played by yaw is relatively minor. Most flying maneuvers are commanded using the control column. Dozens of old movies on TV will have made you familiar with how to control an aircraft in pitch, showing pilots pulling back on the control column to bring an aircraft out a dive. Pulling back the control column causes the elevators moveable surfaces on the aircrafts horizontal tailplane to deflect upwards into the flow of air caused by the aircraft's forward speed. The result is similar in effect to moving the rudder of a boat: The nose moves in the direction in which the hinged surface was moved. The airflow pushes against the raised elevator, pushing the tail of the aircraft downward, and lifting the nose. Cockpit scenes from old movies showing dive bombers in action illustrate the opposite rule - pushing the control column forward causes the nose of the aircraft to fall. Given that an aircraft has a moveable rudder surface on its vertical tail, it would be reasonable to assume that steering to right and left is done by moving the rudder to right or left. That works with a boat, but on an aircraft produces a skidding turn which is not particulary useful The way to turn an aircraft is to roll it in the required direction. This is done by moving the control column from side to side. To fly to the right, move the control column to the right. A hinged control surface near the right wingtip will rise, while a similar surface on the left wing will droop. These surfaces are known as ailerons, and always respond to control column movements by moving in opposite directions In this case the right aileron will force the right wing down, and the left airelon will cause the left wing to rise. This will start the aircraft turning to the right. Pulling back on the control column will tighten the turn. Once you get close to the desired bearing, reduce the back pressure on the control column, and move it to the left until the wings return to level. Centering the controls after demanding a maneuver does not return the aircraft to the straight and level. At first sight, this may seen hard to understand, but an automobile provides a simple analogy. If your driving north, and use the steering wheel to turn onto an eastbound road, returning the wheel to its central position once you're headed eastwards does not bring you back to running north. Like the steering wheel on an automobile, the controls of an airplane are used to order a change of direction. Centering them tells the aircraft that the change of direction has been completed. In a real aircraft, the rudder is controlled by the rudder pedals. In our simulation, you must use the < and > keys. These move the rudder left and right respectively. In a normal flight simulation, the rudder has little effect. Its main function is to make small horizontal aiming corrections, or to final heading corrections when landing. On the AV-8B, it serves another purpose, one which is unique to V/STOL aircraft. Lift the nose of a conventional aircraft too far and the speed will start to fall. As the speed of the aircraft falls, so does the speed with which the air flows over the wings and movable control surfaces. Just as a boats rudder loses effectiveness at slow speed, so do elevators, ailerons and the rudder. Fly slower still, and the flow of air over the wing is no longer fast enough to maintain the lift needed to support the aircraft. Effectiveness of the control surfaces falls away steadily but in the case of wing lift the deterioration is quite sudden. The upper surface of a wing is slightly humped in cross section, and at speed the airflow across the upper surface will cling to the wing on the rear side of the hump. If the speed of the aircraft gets too slow this process breaks down. Instead of staying at the surface of the wing, the air breaks away from the wing along the highest point of the hump. This sudden breakaway sharply reduces wing lift. In technical terms the wing is said to be "stalled". Deprived of lift, the aircraft will lose height, and its nose will drop, and the resulting shallow dive will build the speed back up until the wing functions normally. At low level, that height loss can cause you to crash If you were turning at the time of the stall, the aircraft will enter a spin. Ejection may be the only course open to you. By moving the nozzles of the Pegasus engine downwards, an AV-8B pilot can substitute engine thrust for wing lift, flying at ever - decreasing speeds below the stall until the aircraft is in a hover. At these low speeds, the control surfaces have no effect, so control is automatically transferred to a system of nose, tail and wingtip mounted reaction jets. Similar to the thrusters used to orientate spacecraft, these reaction jets allow control to be maintained even in the hover. Using the rudder in the hover can send the aircraft pirouetting round - a trick often demonstrated when the Harrier appears at air shows. Like an automobile, an aircraft has controls for increasing or reducing speed. The throttle controls engine thrust, so works like the accelerator pedal of an automobile. The other control you need to know about is the airbrake. This is a hinged surface which swings downward beneath the fuselage of the AV-8B. It creates drag, reducing the aircrafts speed much faster than throttling back can. If this is the first flight simulation you've purchased, try the exercises offered by the Part-Task Simulators described below. The take off exercise will give you the chance to fly around and try out the controls without falling foul of an Indonesian F-16. Once you can maneuver the aircraft, and have fired a few weapons in practice, try your hand at combat missions, opting to fly the Simple Model. This will be easier to control than the Advanced Model. The autopilot is there to help you both in the training exercises and in combat. Don't hesitate to use it, particularly when it's time to land. Using the Part-Task Simulators Like USMC pilots assigned to fly the AV8B, you'll learn to fly the aircraft by carrying out a series of exercises on Part Task Simulators (PTS). These are designed to help to learn the different aspects of flying and combat. You'll find the Part Task Simulators in the Acclimatization room of the USS Tarawa. There are five different PTSs, each of which will take you through one main aspect of the operation of the AV-8B Harrier. Information on recommended flight procedures, and how to aim and fire the weapons is contained in the AV-8B Pilot's Manual, which you should consult before starting your training exercises. Take-Off This places you in the cockpit of an AV-8B with no underwing stores. This lightly loaded condition will allow you to practice vertical as well as short take-offs. Although able to carry out vertical takeoffs and landings, the AV-8B can carry a heavier weapon load if it makes a short take off run. The PTS will allow you to try. This section teaches how to take off and land under heavy load conditions, using the vectored thrust to keep take off and landing distances to a minimum. Hovering manoeuvering in the hover, making the transition to forward flight, then the transition from forward flight back to the hover can all be practised in this PTS. Landing Landing an aircraft aboard a ship is never easy but Harrier's ability to fly at very slow forward speed supported by downward thrust eliminates two of the hazards of conventional carrier landings - the high approach speed and the need to catch a braking wire with the fighters tail hook. To quote Mike Gaines, defence editor of the magazine Flight International, "It is a lot easier to stop and land than to land and try to stop." Landing is made harder when the ship is stationary since this requires the pilot to perform a hover. This simulation teaches the trainee to approach the carrier from the correct angle and height, then to get down without crashing into the island or any other aircraft on the deck. You will start in the cockpit of an AV- 8B with no underwing stores. You will be flying at a height of around 250ft, and Tarawa is directly ahead of you, about five miles away. The nearest ship visible directly ahead of you is not Tarawa. Don't waste time trying to land on it! Simple Weapons This PTS places you in the cockpit of an AV-8B flying at around 550ft altitude and heading toward a barge target about seven miles away. The aircraft is armed with Mk81 iron bombs. Hydra rocket launchers and its 25mm cannon. Fly this exercise several times, trying each of these weapons in turn. Diving attacks with guns and rockets are the best way of knocking out small targets, but in combat exposes the aircraft and pilot to the dangers of light AAA fire and the risk of failing to pull out in time, and flying into the ground. Practice your tactics before trying them out against an enemy who shoots back. Guided Weapons You're at the same height and facing the same target as in the previous exercise, but now your aircraft is armed with laser-guided versions of the Mk81 bomb (shown in the HUD as "Mk81L", and AGM-65E Mavericks. Try attacking the target barge with both types of weapon. Air Combat In this case, your target is an unmanned drone aircraft, programmed to fly a circular flight path. This will allow you to practice approaches from different angles, engaging the drone either with an AIM-9M Sidewinder or with the 25mm cannon. SECTION VIII - TASK FORCE COMMANDERS MANUAL ------------------------------------------- As commander of Operation Ocean Saber, you have two responsibilities Before the outbreak of hostilities, you must devise an overall plan for the amphibious landing and the subsequent ground battle with the enemy's forces. This will specify the movement of the assault ships and their escorting warships, the targets to be attacked from the air, also the landing points, subsequent movements, and targets for the ground and airborne troops. Once the plan is complete, you can start the simulation. As this proceeds under the control of the computer, your job as commander is to monitor the air and ground war you'll have to "fine tune" the battle plan, responding to the movements of the enemy and the successes or failures of your own forces. CREATING A BATTLE PLAN When planning a campaign, the first step is to locate the most important targets of the map. These are the major towns, the air bases, and the most important fixed military bases. Having noted their position, identify the nearest beaches on which you can send Marines ashore. Can any of these inland targets be "taken out" by units landed by helicopter? Once these airborne forces have landed, and completed their mission, will they be strong enough to beat off counter attacks? Once ashore, your Marines will advance to attack the inland targets which you've assigned to them. Use the Tactical Amphibious Warfare Data System (TAWADS) to identify the enemy forces based at these locations, and work out how large an attacking force you`ll need, and how much air support you can afford to provide with the numerically small fleet of AV8Bs. Some targets can be destroyed by air attack using the AV-8Bs. Identify these, and decide in which order they should be attacked. How are you going to deal with the Indonesian Air Force? Attack it on the ground and accept the losses which will result from flying against heavily defended air bases? Or wait for it to come up and fight? Many of the Indonesian units are mobile, and will only appear on the TAWADS map if they lie along the route of an AV-8B or helicopter mission which has been flown. To locate those in areas not overflown by current operations, you may want to launch aircraft on reconnaissance missions to these areas. Having listed your priorities, determine where to position the fleet. The AV-8Bs can travel to a distant target quite quickly but the slow-moving landing craft cannot. The closer you are to a planned beachhead, the faster the landing craft can make the round trip to the shore and back. Having the ships repeatedly rush from one end of East Timor to another to get aircraft and landing craft close to their targets will waste time - try to develop a single integrated plan under which the ships will cruise along the shore, launching their attack missions. The battle plan contains several components. At the top level are the movements planned for the ships of the task force. These fleet movements are specified as a linked set of numbered waypoints. At most waypoints, the task force will launch one or more combat operations. The heart of the plan you devise will be a route off shore along which the fleet will sail. This route will consist of a series of interlinked waypoints. At each waypoint, you will have created one or more operations - air or ground missions which must be launched from this location. These can be assaults by ground forces, attack or transport missions by the fleet's helicopter force, or air missions for Tarawa's AV -8B Harriers. These operations in turn will follow routes which are themselves a series of linked waypoints, some of which mark the position of targets which must be attacked. Each combat operation is based on a ship in the task force. When the task force reaches the appropriate waypoint, the combat operations associated with that waypoint are automatically launched. It's impossible to "muddle through" a major amphibious operation Before starting the campaign, it's essential that you have a clear and coherent plan. The US, British and French units which General Schwarzkopf sent deep into Iraq during Operation Desert Storm knew when they crossed the border where they were going, what to do when they got there, and what to do after that. If you want to win, make sure the Marine units you send ashore are equally well informed. TAWADS will allow you to create and position waypoints for the fleet, the AV-8Bs, the helicopters, and the ground forces. It will automatically handle much of the detail, such as waypoint arrival and departure times, freeing you to concentrate on shaping the overall plan. By the time you've created a plan of your own, you'll realise why the job of commanding a Marine Expeditionary Brigade is normally given to a Brigadier General. It's not easy. Since the software comes with at least one pre-defined campaign, you may find that examining these will give you ideas on how to construct your own plan. For example, battle plan SABER sends Harriers to the fixed bases to bomb them heavily then relies on ground forces to mop up the remaining mobile units. This is one potential solution - others may be better. It's essential that your plan should be balanced. Sending ground forces onto East Timor without air cover will result in them taking heavy losses as they attempt to destroy the fixed bases. You can`t just leave the job to the infantry. Don't let the spectacular air component of Desert Storm fool you into thinking that the fight against the Indonesians can be left to air power. General Swarzkopf had hundreds of aircraft at his disposal - you have only eight! If you rely on air power to attack fixed/mobile units on Timor you will probably miss the supporting mobile units. After the AV-8Bs have gone, the mobile forces will get to work to repair the damaged bases. FIGHTING THE CAMPAIGN Once a plan has been devised, you can start the simulation running. Once activated, it will automatically generate detailed mission instructions. The computer will act as your staff passing commands to the units tasked with carrying out the individual parts of your plan They in turn will try to achieve what you have asked them to do. As the fleet reaches each waypoint, it will launch all the operations due to begin at that location. As your ground forces are committed to battle, the multi layer expert systems within the software will react to your actions, taking action with its own forces in real time. Moving in a realistic manner these computer controlled enemy units will defend their ground, advance to fight your forces, or retreat. As the campaign gets under way you'll then have to monitor the intelligence information and decide how to counter the enemy's moves In running the battle you`ll have three main sources of information. 1. The TAWADS map display 2. Intelligence reports. 3. Pilot briefs. TAWADS will allow you to assess the progress of the conflict, and to issue direct orders to ground and air forces, ordering them to carry out specific tactical tasks not envisaged in the original battle plan. It will be your job to modify the battle plan, responding both to the movements of the enemy and to the successes or failures of your own forces. You may have to send out new units or alter the orders of units in the field in order to reinforce a critical part of the battlefield, exploit a breakthrough, or stop a retreat. Like a good military commander, the expert systems controlling the enemy forces will not waste time in indecision. They will monitor the movements of the US forces, and once combat begins will try to identify tactical weaknesses, and move enemy forces to exploit these. Its view of tactical priorities may not be the same as yours. Look out for the unexpected and remember that the enemy may respond faster than you anticipate. Don't forget that as task force commander you have more information on what the enemy is doing than your commanders on the ground. Your guidance is essential to the efficient operation of your troops. Every action you take effects the world you are playing in thereby giving you a feeling of realism never encountered before. Your decisions and actions, successes and failures will swing the whole conflict one way or the other. THE COMMAND CENTER The Command Center has two large wall-mounted displays, and three computer consoles. As was the case in the corridor the cursor will change shape from an arrow to a cross to indicate possible selections. The central computer console in the Command Centre gives access to the Tactical Amphibious Warfare Data System (TAWADS), a sophisticated integrated computer system desigued to provide command and control over the group's aircraft, weapons, sensors and landing craft. The monitor on the left-hand side is for Tarawa's Air Data Computer. Clicking on this screen shows the current state of fleet of eight AV-8B Harriers based on the ship. It will report on aircraft lost in action or accidents. The monitor on the right-hand side is for the Ground Data Computer. Clicking on this will display the latest combat reports from the Marine units operating on shore. These messages will detail major gains or losses of territory made by the Marines, and report casualties. Remember to check these monitors regularly. If one or more unread messages are waiting on either of the monitors, the monitor will scroll, and its cursor will flash. If it isn't flashing, there are no fresh reports for you to look at. USING TAWADS The TAWADS system has 11 operating modes: BATTLE PLAN SELECTION Selection, overview and activation of Battle plans. BATTLE PLAN CONTROL Control over fleet movements and access to battle plan operations. OPERATION DETAILS Allows the creation, review and modification of operations associated with the selected fleet waypoint. HARRIER WAYPOINTS Entry and amendment of individual helicopter movements of an AV-8B. HELICOPTER WAYPOINTS Entry and amendment of individual helicopter operation movements. GROUND FORCE WAYPOINTS Entry and amendment of individual operation movements by ground forces. AIR PLAN Give new instructions to an immediate and unscheduled AV-8B sortie. OVERIDE Give new instructions to a ground unit for immediate action. INTELLIGENCE Provides information on a designated unit or location. KEY Explains the symbols used on the tactical map. MENU Customises the running of TAWADS. Each of these modes opens a command window offering tactical information, and most have two levels of control functions. The first level of control are the options available by clicking on the icons contained within the window. Every window has at least one icon (EXIT or CLOSE), and some have several. The second level of control is via a submenu. Not normally visible, this can be opened by clicking anywhere in the grey background of the window. This small menu will list the control options available in this particular TAWADS mode. Display Conventions On the TAWADS tactical map, the routes between mission waypoints are drawn automatically. Ground and air routes and waypoints shown in yellow are currently active. Those shown in light grey are planned operations which have yet to begin, while those in dark grey are history and have already been completed. With its default display options active, TAWADS does not display missions which have been completed. The waypoints and route for the fleet are shown in blue. Inputting Your Commands The main interface with TAWADS is a two-button pointing device - either a mouse or a joystick. The keyboard is used only to enter names of Plans and Operations. The left-hand button on the mouse provides the Select function; that on the right provides the View function. The location of the buttons on a joystick varies from one model to another. Later you'll be shown a simple way of determining which provides the Select function, and which the View function. The buttons can be used in the normal three ways - to single click, double click, or drag. If the manual simply tells you to click, use the left-hand button as normal. The pointer is generally free to move over the entire display, however during certain operations the pointer movement will be restricted to a limited area (for example, during menu operations). STARTING TAWADS The centre computer console in the Command Center is the TAWADS display. The green shape visible on the screen is an electronic map of the island of Timor. Clicking on this screen will provide a full screen TAWADS display. If no battle plan is being executed as will be the case the first time you look at this screen - a rectangular battle planning window will be open at the top left hand corner of the map. The TAWADS synthesized map is a simple contour view of the active combat area in this case the island of Timor. Overlaid on this basic map are symbols indicating the position of towns, villages, and roads. A small white shape off shore marks the current position of the US naval force. EXPLORING TAWADS The TAWADS interface can be a bit daunting when first seen, so let's try a simple walk-through of its main features without actually trying to fight a campaign. A window in the battle-planning window should show "SABER", the name of the pre-loaded battle plan. If it doesn't, click on the SELECT icon (the up and down arrows) until SABER is displayed. Now click on GO. The battle-planning window will close, the battle has begun. You'll notice that the fleet has now moved up to the coastline of East Timor. You`ll see various coloured lines and symbols overlaid on the map. These represent the opening moves of battle plan SABER. For the moment lets get rid of them and declutter the screen. Clicking on the MENU icon will open the Options Menu. Click on DISPLAY OPTIONS, and you'll see a list of features which can be overlaid on the map. The default conditions at startup are for Cultural features, Military Units, Plans Forward and Plans Current to be displayed. Click on Plans - Forward to remove these. The menu will close. Reopen it, and click on Plans Current to eliminate these. Now you should have a reasonable decluttered map to explore. With the map set to its initial relatively small scale, it will still be fairly cluttered, even on a 17" monitor. The first thing you'll want to do is to centre the map on an area of interest, and change the scale to make more detail visible. There are two ways of doing this. Surrounding the map are control icons. These provide access to the major functions of the system. A single click on any icon performs the function associated with that icon. The two icons at the bottom left of the screen provide control over the map view. Clicking on the up, down, right or left arrows within the MAP SCROLL ICON scrolls the map view in the appropriate direction. Clicking on the MAP ZOOM ICON with the select button decreases the scale of the map, zooming in by a factor of two. Clicking on the same icon with the view button unzooms the view. A little experimentation at this point will show joystick users which button is which. The button which makes the view of the island get larger is the select button; that which makes the view of the island larger is the View button. A small horizontal marker at the top of the map gives an idea of the amount of terrain being viewed. As the zoom setting is changed this line can indicate anything from tens of meters to hundreds of kilometers (km). Other data displayed on the map surround shows is the current date and time, also the system mode and selected battle plan. Trying Out the Map To get an idea of how to use the map, use the MAP SCROLL icon to bring the eastern tip of the island to the centre of the screen. Click on the MAP ZOOM icon several times to zoom in. You'll soon be able to see the individual ships in the fleet, plus several other types of symbol - red diamonds, blue rectangles, and faster-moving orange airplane symbols. These are military units taking part in the battle. Clicking on the KEY icon at the top right will open a window listing the symbols. (This can be closed when no longer required by clicking on its CLOSE icon.) Keep zooming in, and place names will appear. You`ll see that the town nearest the eastern tip of the island is Tutuala. (You may have to use the MAP SCROLL icon to re-center Tutuala.). Zoom in further, and you`ll start to see finer detail. For example, there is a small wood some ikm north east of Tutuala. Click right on the MAP ZOOM icon until Lore becomes visible in the bottom right corner of the map. We will use this to become familiar with another way of moving around and zooming on the map. Place the cursor on Lore, then use the View button to drag it to the centre of the screen. (As you do this, the cursor will change from being a single arrow to a tiny version of the MAP SCROLL icon.) When you release the View button, the map will move to bring Lore to the location where you released the button. If you think of this process as "Dragging Lore into View", you will have a neat way of remembering how its done - a drag operation with the View button. Move the cursor onto Lore, then click the view button. This will magnify the map by a factor of two centered about the pointer position. Double click with the view button reverses the magnify operation. To find out more about any location on the map, you need to use the INTELLIGENCE icon. To see this feature in action, click on Lore to expand the scale. Clicking on the INTELLIGENCE icon will open a window giving details of enemy strength in the town. Use your pointing device to explore the map, zooming in and out to examine some of the towns and villages, checking the identity of the military units you encounter. You'll soon become accustomed to using the map controls, and will be ready to tackle the task of planning an operation. TAWADS OPERATING MODES Let's look at each of these TAWADS operating modes in more detail. To help you find the information you need to control combat operations, a standard format is used to describe each mode: STARTUP - how to enter this mode. PURPOSE - a Summary of what this mode does. LIMITS ON POINTER MOVEMENT - the area of the display over which the pointer can be moved. DESCRIPTION - a fuller description of the purpose of this TAWADS operating mode. COMMAND ICONS - the function of each of the icons contained in this window SUBMENU the command options available from this windows hidden menu. BATTLE PLAN SELECTION STARTUP - Automatic on the first use of TAWADS. Subsequently by clicking on the PLAN icon on the map surround. PURPOSE - Selection, overview and activation of battle plans LIMITS ON POINTER MOVEMENT - restricted to the battle planning window. DESCRIPTION - Opened over the top left corner of the map, the Battle Plan Selection window allows the commander to review existing battle plans, create a new plan from scratch, and activate a chosen battle plan. A brief outline of the selected battle plan is shown in the lower half of the window. Command Icons SELECT Click left to select the next battle plan Click right to select the previous plan. OUTLINE Edit the outline description of the battle plan. GO Instructs TAWADS to activate the selected plan. EXIT Closes this window. Submenu Clicking anywhere on background of the Battle Plan Selection window will open a menu offering the following functions : Review/Change Battle Plan Review or change the operational details of the selected plan - clicking on this will take TAWADS into the Battle Plan Control mode described in the next section. Add New Battle Plan Create a new battle plan - the system has a maximum capacity for 99 plans, so feel free to create lots of new ones. You will be prompted to enter a name for the plan. Type this, then press RETURN. This newly- created plan will contain no orders. To create the orders which will make up a new plan, re-open this menu, and click on REVIEW/CHANGE BATTLE PLAN option. Remove Plan Remove an unwanted battle plan from the TAWADS computer. If you decide not to carry out any of the above functions, you can exit from this menu by clicking outside of it. BATTLE PLAN CONTROL STARTUP via the map surround PLAN icon when a battle plan is active, also via the Battle Plan Selection sub-menu "review/change" option. PURPOSE - provides control over fleet movements and access to battle plan operations. LIMITS ON POINTER MOVEMENT Map and Battle Plan Control window. DESCRIPTION - The movement of the task force is directed by a set of waypoints defined by the battle plan. A waypoint is a map location where something is scheduled to happen - once arrived there, a military unit is to make a change of course, loiter, or carry out some action. Waypoints are used to direct the fleet, and to provide start points for operations. The fleet waypoints are shown as a linked set of diamonds on the sea. All waypoints are numbered. Waypoints which the fleet or other forces have not yet reached can move moved, but not waypoints that your units have passed. By definition, these are now part of history, so cannot be altered. Fleet waypoints can be selected using the pointer select button. The lower part of the Battle Plan Control menu will show the time at which the fleet is due to arrive and depart this waypoint. Fleet waypoints can be moved by dragging them with the Select button. This will automatically update the displayed fleet arrival and departure times. Double-clicking on a waypoint will take TAWADS into Operation Details mode. Described later in this section, this will allow you to review change, or add operations associated with this waypoint Command Icons EXIT - closes the Battle Plan Control window. If your designing a battle plan, this will save any changes you have made to the plan. Submenu Clicking anywhere on the background of the Battle Plan Control window will open a menu offering the following functions: Review/Change Operations This is the most common function used in plan updating. It activates the Operational Details window control function, allowing review/change to all operations initiated at the currently selected waypoint. Double clicking on a waypoint on the map also activates this function. Add New Waypoint This adds a new waypoint to the plan. When building a plan, you'll normally want to add the new waypoint at the end of the existing set of waypoints, so this is where the new waypoint will normally be placed by TAWADS. If you`re modifying an existing plan, you may want to insert a new waypoint between two existing waypoints. This can be done by selecting the waypoint before where you want the new waypoint to be. For example if you want to create a new waypoint between waypoints 5 waypoint and 6, click on waypoint 5, open the submenu, then select ADD NEW WAYPOINT. A new waypoint 6 will appear close to waypoint five, and the later waypoints in the plan will automatically be renumbered, and the later waypoints in the plan will be recalculated. In every case the newly-created waypoint will be positioned close to an existing waypoint - either the last waypoint of the intermediate waypoint you selected. You'll now need to drag it to the final location where you want it to be positioned. TAWADs will automatically compute the new arrival and departure times for this and any subsequent points. Remove Waypoint This will remove the selected fleet waypoint from battle plan. Before removing a waypoint, make sure you have removed any operations associated with this waypoint. Change Departure Time Normally TAWADS will automatically plan a departure time which allows a long enough interval for all the operations you've planned for this waypoint. If you add more operations, TAWADS will increase the time at this waypoint to accommodate the extra operations. Sometimes, you may want the fleet to loiter at a waypoint for a predetermined period of time. Clicking on Change Departure Time will open a submenu showing the current arrival and departure time. Clicking on the minutes displayed in the departure time with the left button will add a minute to the time spent at this waypoint; clicking with the right button will subtract a minute. Clicking on the hour or the day will change these values in the same way. OPERATION DETAILS STARTUP - via the Battle Plan Control window's submenu, or by double clicking on a waypoint while in Battle Plan Control mode. PURPOSE - Allows the creation. review and modification of operations scheduled to start at the selected fleet waypoint. LIMITS ON POINTER MOVEMENT - restricted to the Operational Details window. DESCRIPTION - This mode allows you to create, review, modify or delete any of the individual military operations scheduled to take place from this waypoint. You can add new missions, remove unwanted ones, alter the order in which the individual operations are to be carried out, alter the scale of a ground operation, or assign an operation to a different ship of the task force Command Icons Select Click left to select the next operation from the currently selected fleet waypoint. Click right to select the previous operation from the currently selected fleet waypoint. The aircraft or troop movements associated with the selected operation are shown in bright green on the map. Submenu Clicking anywhere on the background of the Operational Details window opens a menu offering the following functions: Edit Mission This allows you to review or change the selected operation. Clicking on it takes TAWADS into either the Harrier Waypoints, Helicopter waypoints, or Ground Forces Waypoints mode. Consult the relevant heading later in this section for further information. Alter Detail Allows you to alter: The name of a Harrier operation, The name of a Helicopter operation and the ship from which it is to be launched. The name, launch ship, and scale of a Ground operation Add New Operation Add a new operation to the battle plan, to be initiated from the currently selected waypoint. The creation of a new operation follows a pre defined structure. Name Mission names are generated automatically by TAWADS. The selected alphanumeric code reflects the mission type, waypoint and the new mission's position is the list on operations due to begin at this waypoint. Type Select operation type from menu. The options are: Ground Assault Helicopter Harrier Select Ship If there is more than one possible ship from which an operation can be based then you will be required to select from a menu of possible bases. In the case of Ground Assault operations, there will be a third set of options: Operation Size Select the size of the planned landing. The options are: Limited (one landing craft) Medium Scale (two landing craft) Full Scale (three landing craft) Depending on the type of mission being added, TAWADS will now enter either the Harrier Waypoints, Helicopter Waypoints, or Ground Forces Waypoints mode, so that you can define waypoints and targets for this operation. Consult the relevant heading later in this section for furthur information. Remove Operation Remove selected operation from the battle plan. (This is not possible if the operation is already active or finished). Operation Schedule An Operations Scheduling window will open listing all the operations planned from this waypoint. These will be listed in date/time order and the list is scrollable by clicking on the up and down arrows at either end of the vertical orange scroll bar. If an operation has not yet begun. its priority may be changed. Select the operation to be re scheduled by clicking on the appropriate line in the listing. The line will turn red to show that it has been selected. Clicking on the clock face icon at the top left corner of the Operations Scheduling window with the right button will advance the operation one position up the list: clicking the left button will demote it one position further down the list. When satisfied with the changes, click on this window's Exit icon. HARRIER WAYPOINTS STARTUP from the Edit Mission or Add New Operation functions of the OPERATION DETAILS window's submenu, or directly from the AIR PLAN icon on the map surround. PURPOSE - entry and amendment of individual operational movements of an AV-8B. LIMITS ON POINTER MOVEMENT - Map and Harrier Waypoints window DESCRIPTION - The Harrier Waypoints window shows the current operational instruction, which is highlighted red on the map. In planning your route, remember that the AV-8B has no forward looking radar able to provide terrain-avoidance information. If mountains lie between an aircraft and its target, you should add one or more navigational waypoints to the planned route in order to take the flight path around these. Waypoints on the planned flight path may be designated as primary or secondary targets. Waypoints marking targets should be positioned as accurately as possible on the map, since these mark the point to which the aircraft Nav system will guide you. The more accurately the waypoint is positioned, the closer the target will be to your flight path, making it easier to locate visually in the forward view Command Icons EXIT returns control to the OPERATION DETAILS function. Submenu Clicking anywhere on the background of the Harrier Waypoints window opens a menu offering the following functions: Navigation Waypoint Defines the currently selected waypoint as a navigation waypoints. Primary Target Defines the currently selected waypoint as a Primary Target. Secondary Target Defines the currently selected waypoint as a Secondary Target, one which is to be attacked if any ordnance is left after successfully attacking the Primary Target. Remove Waypoint Deletes the currently-selected waypoint from the aircraft flight path. HELICOPTER WAYPOINTS STARTUP - from the Edit Mission or Add New Operation functions of the OPERATION DETAILS window's submenu. PURPOSE - entry and amendment of individual helicopter operations movements. LIMITS ON POINTER MOVEMENT Map and Helicopter Waypoints window DESCRIPTION - The Helicopter Wavpoints window current operational instruction, which is highlighted red on the map. Waypoints on the planned flight path may be designated as navigational waypoints, landing sites for troops, or targets to be attacked. In planning your route, remember that the helicopters have no forward looking radar able to provide terrain avoidance information. If mountains lie between an aircraft and its destination, you should add one or more navigational waypoints to the planned route in order to take the flight path around these. Command Icons EXIT - returns control to the OPERATION DETAILS function Submenu Clicking anywhere on the background of the Harrier Waypoints window opens a menu offering the following functions: Navigation Waypoint Defines the currently selected waypoint as a navigation waypoint. Drop Troops This mission will be flown by a transport helicopter, which will land troops at the selected waypoint. Attack This mission will be flown by an AH-1W Cobra attack helicopter, or by a transport helicopter fitted with rocket pods and machine guns or cannon rigged to fire from the fuselage windows. The aircraft will attack a ground target at the specified waypoint. Remove Waypoint Deletes the currently selected waypoint from the aircraft flight path. GROUND FORCE WAYPOINTS STARTUP - from the Edit Mission or Add New Operation functions of the OPERATION DETAILS window's submenu. PURPOSE - entry and amendment of individual operational movements by ground forces. LIMITS ON POINTER MOVEMENT - Map and Ground Force Waypoints window DESCRIPTION - The Ground Force Waypoints window shows the current operational instruction, which is also highlighted red on the map. On reaching a waypoint, the Marines can engage the enemy forces based there, then either hold the position, or move on to attack another waypoint. Command Icons EXIT - returns control to the OPERATION DETAILS function. Submenu Clicking anywhere on the background of the Ground Force Waypoint window opens a menu offering the following functions: Navigation Waypoint Defines the currently selected waypoint as a navigation waypoint. Since the Marines will be coming ashore by landing craft, the first waypoint must be beachhead. Troops can only be landed on beaches. Engage & Occupy The Marines will engage any enemy forees at this location, and after defeating them will hold and defend this position until given furthur orders. Engage and Continue The Marines will engage any enemy forces at this location, and after defeating them will move on to the next waypoint. Remove Waypoint Deletes the currently selected waypoint from the ground movement plan. AIR PLAN STARTUP - from INTELLIGENCE window when an operational unit is selected on map. PURPOSE Give new instructions to a ground unit for immediate action. LIMITS ON POINTER MOVEMENT Map and Harrier Waypoints window DESCRIPTION - If an AV-8B must be immediately despatched - for example, to re-attack a target which was not destroyed by an earlier strike, or to cope with a newly-detected target not contained in the Battle Plan, clicking on the Air Plan icon will give immediate access to the HARRIER WAYPOINTS mode. The Harrier Waypoints window shows the current operational instruction, which is highlighted red on the map. In planning your route, remember that the AV-8B has no forward-looking radar able to provide terrain avoidance information. If mountains lie between an aircraft and its target, you should add one or more navigational waypoints to the planned route in order to take the flight path around these. Waypoints on the planned flight path may be designated as primary or secondary targets. Waypoints marking targets should be positioned as accurately as possible on the map, since these mark the point to which the aircraft Nav system will guide you. The more accurately the waypoint is positioned, the closer the target will be to your flight path, making it easier to locate visually in the forward view. Command Icons EXIT - returns control to the OPERATION DETAILS function. Submenu Clicking anywhere on the background of the Harrier Waypoints window opens a menu offering the following functions: Navigation Waypoint Defines the currently selected waypoint as a navigation waypoint. Primary Target Defines the currently selected waypoint as a Primary Target. Secondary Target Defines the currently selected waypoint as a Secondary Target, one which is to be attacked if any ordnance is left after successfully attacking the Primary Target. Remove Waypoint Deletes the currently-selected waypoint from the aircraft flight path. OVERIDE STARTUP from the Intelligence icon on the upper right border of the tactical map. PURPOSE - Give new instructions to a Marine unit operating on East Timor. LIMITS ON POINTER MOVEMENT - none. DESCRIPTION - During combat the commander may wish to issue a last-minute change or orders to ground forces already sent into action, overriding their current orders with a new assignment of higher priority. The ground unit to be given the new command must be selected on the map using the Select button. Opening the Intelligence window (if it is not already open) will confirm the identity and current status of the unit). Submenu Clicking anywhere on the background of the Intelligence window opens a menu offering the following function: Overide Selects the new primary target - this is done by clicking on the new target. This change of plan takes place immediately CONFIGURATION MENU STARTUP - from the MENU icon on the upper left border of the tactical map. PURPOSE - customizes the operation of TAWADS. LIMITS ON POINTER MOVEMENT - individual menus. DESCRIPTION - The operation of TAWADS can be configured to meet the preferences of the player. Submenu Clicking on the MENU icon on the upper right border of the tactical map will open a menu containing the following options: Stop Time This pauses the simulation. Normal The simulation runs in real time - this is the normal operating mode when playing the game. Fast The simulation runs at four times normal time. This can be useful while units are on the move, but little else is happening for example, if landing craft are heading from the assault ships to the beachhead. Step 1 Min This is an alternative method of temporarily speeding up the game. Step Next Mission This advances the game to the point where the next mission is about to be launched. This allows the player to "fast forward" through parts of the plan in which no operations are to be launched. For example plan SABER contains relatively few night missions for the AV-8Bs. If none are scheduled, selecting "Step next mission" will advance the simulation to dawn of the next day. Speeding up time is something a commander will want to do quite often, so you can jump directly to this function by clicking on the digital clock on the upper border of the TAWADS map display. Pressing any key during time advance will stop the advance and return you to normal time. Display Options This lists the features which can be overlaid on the map: Cultural features (towns, villages, airports, etc. ) Military Units (friendly and enemy) SAM Zones (Areas of terrain protected by surface to air missiles) Plans - Forward (Military movements due to take place) Plans - Current (Military movements currently taking place) Plans - Past (Completed military movements) The default conditions at startup are for Cultural features, Military Units, Plans Forward and Plans Current to be displayed. Preferences The sole option available here is to adjust the interval of time within which you must make a second click on the mouse of joystick button for this to be recognised as the second action of a "double click". The default is 0.2 sec, but you can choose 0.3, 0.4 or 0.5. If you regularly double-click when using other software (such as applications running under Microsoft Windows), this allows you so set the mouse double click speed to the value you've become used to. INTELLIGENCE STARTUP - from the INTELLIGENCE icon on the upper right border of the tactical map. PURPOSE - to provide information on friendly and enemy units operating in East Timor. LIMITS ON POINTER MOVEMENT - none. DESCRIPTION - Towns, villages, airfields, plus US and Indonesian ground units are shown on the map as symbols. To obtain more information on any of these, click on the Intelligence icon. This will open an intelligence window at the upper right corner of the map, and show information on the selected unit or location. Click on a unit or location using the SELECT button to have the Intelligence window provide a report. You can call up reports on as many units and locations as you wish and can leave the window open while the game runs - it will continue to display information on the last object you selected. Command Icon Close Submenu Strategic Overview: Switches the intelligence window to show strategic information about the overall process of the campaign. Selecting any object on the map switches the window back to tactical mode. Command Overide: If a ground unit has been selected, clicking anywhere on the background of the intelligence window opens a menu offering the OVERIDE function. (See the section on OVERIDE for details of this mode.) KEY STARTUP - from the KEY icon on the upper left border of the tactical map. PURPOSE - explains the symbols used on the tactical map. LIMITS ON POINTER MOVEMENT - none. DESCRIPTION - Towns, villages, airfields, plus US and Indonesian ground units are shown on the map as symbols. To find the meaning of these, click on the KEY icon to open the KEY window at the bottom left corner of the map. This window can be left open while the game is running Command Icon Close. Submenu None. SECTION IX - INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING ---------------------------------- Lower the blinds, lock the door and post sentries to make sure we won`t be disturbed by those not cleared for Secret material. The spooks of the Defense Intelligence Agency have prepared the following classified presentation to guide you through your mission; THE INDONESIAN ARMY Current total strength of the Indonesian Army is around 210,000. Provincial and District commands have at their disposal some 80 battalions. Nominal strength of a battalion is around 1,500 - 2,000 men. Most are infantry units, but there are also four airborne battalions, plus eight artillery battalions, and eight for air defense. East Timor covers some 7,700 square miles. Normal Indonesian Army force level in this region is between 20,000 - 30,000 soldiers, probably 10 - 15 battalions in all. For years, counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency have been major tasks both for the Indonesian Army and its Special Warfare Command and for specialised anti-terrorist units such as the Armys Detachment 81 Special Forces, the Navy's Kesatuan Gurita, and the Air Forces Satgas Atbara, and the Satgas Gegana (Counter terrorist Task Force) of the National Police. Years of combat experience has made Indonesia's commando units probably the world's most effective counter-insurgency force. Over almost three decades, almost all of the Army's senior commanders have served in East Timor and regard the campaign as valuable training for the service. In its anti-guerrilla operations, the Army makes extensive use of helicopters to move its commando forces. Under a scheme designated Territorial Counter-Guerrilla Warfare, the commandos have demonstrated an impressive ability to move, fight and survive by using tactics copied from their guerrilla opponents. This sort of extended anti-guerrilla campaign has proved costly in financial terms. The East Timor National Council of Maubere Resistance has estimated that the annual cost to the Indonesian Government of its counter-insurgency campaign is $1,200 million. Given Indonesia's long standing and expensive military struggle to end the rebellion, the rulers of Indonesia will almost certainly use their large reserve of forces to reinforce East Timor once Ocean Saber gets under way. The Kostrad (Indonesia's strategic reserve) consists of three infantry brigades, three airborne brigades, two regiments of field artillery, an air-defense artillery regiment, and two engineering battalions. There are also two brigades of Marines, Assuming a typical size of 6000 men per brigade, this provides a reserve force of at least 30,000 men. The Indonesian Air Force has a fleet of around 19 Lockheed C-130 Hercules Transports. Each of these four-engined aircraft can carry more than 100 soldiers or up to 20 tons of cargo on a typical mission. These will almost certainly be used in attempts to ferry soldiers and marines into East Timor landing them at the airfields on the north coast. Other reserves exist in the form of the Wanra (People's Resistance) and Kamra (People's Security). These are local auxiliary forces supporting the Army and Police respectively. Lightly armed and with minimal training neither should pose any threat to the Marines, and are unlikey to be met in combat. Indonesian battalions are identified by three digit numbers, and like their US equivalents consist of companies subdivided into platoons. By monitoring radio traffic between units, the general operating area of each battalion has been established, and this information is contained in the databanks of the TAWADS system. Identification does not stretch to companies or platoons, since communications at this level are largely by phone or messenger, rather than radio. Intelligence can thus establish that a town is being held by the 239th battalion, but not that the cook house was being guarded by the 3rd platoon, 5th company To label unidentified enemy units, the US Marines use the following scheme: U/, bn For example: U/7, 239 bn U/1, 409 bn The "U" in the designation indicates that the identity of this subunit is unknown. Each battalion has its own set of "U" numbers, so the first example would be the seventh subunit of the 239th battalion to have been located. THE EAST TIMOR RESISTANCE Although the nominal strength of the East Timor resistance is thought to be around 1,400, this force is in no position to provide assistance to the Marines. The resistance operates in units of between 10-50 men, average age being in the teens or early twenties. Shortage of radio communications forces individual units to operate autonomously, without any form of effective central control. Weaponry is largely small arms, mostly captured M16 rifles, but there is a shortage of ammunition. Lacking a large scale backer prepared to arm them, the rebels are also short of hand grenades, and light machine guns, and have no shoulder-fired SAMs able to deal with Indonesian helicopters. The resistance tends to avoid pitched battles with the Army. It considers itself a political symbol rather than a fighting force, and is only too aware that it lacks the strength and numbers needed to capture and hold territory. Once the Marines land, we expect the resistance will do its best to harass the defenders with ambushes and diversionary hit-and-run attacks, but it lacks the weapons and manpower to take direct part in the fighting. INDONESIAN NAVY Under normal circumstances, the 17 frigates, four Exocet-armed fast- attack craft, and two submarines of the Indonesian Navy would pose a formidable threat to the US task force. However, the Indonesian Navy took no part in the coup, and has publicly distanced itself from the ruling junta. Through diplomatic channels, senior Indonesian Navy commanders have informed the US government that their service will not oppose any UN sanctioned action against Army and Air Force units in East Timor. The US government has in turn assured the Indonesian Navy that its neutrality will be respected, provided that its warships remain north of East Timor and at least 10 miles from the island's northern coastline. This condition has been accepted by the Indonesian Navy, but to avoid the risk of accidental confrontation between the two navies, the President has directed that the US fleet remain south of East Timor throughout Operation Ocean Saber. INDONESIAN AIR FORCE The Indonesian Air Force is relatively small, but well equipped. With limited funds for aircraft purchase over the years, the Indonesians have always chosen wisely. Every type of jet fighter currently in Indonesian service was good enough to be selected by the US Air Force and Navy as "aggressor" aircraft for Top gun and other air combat training schemes. F-16 Fighting Falcon The newest and most potent warplane you'll face is the single engined General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon. A batch of 12 - eight single- seat F-16A and four two-seat F-16B entered service in 1990. These are basic Block 15 version of the aircraft, rather than the more potent Block 50/52 model now in service with the USAF but it remains an agile and highly effective fighter. On paper, the F-16 totally outclasses the AV-8B in air combat. It has a top speed of around Mach 2.0 compared with the Mach 0.85 of the AV-8B, while its combat ceiling of around 50,000ft is around 5,000ft above that of the Harrier II. In practice, most modem air combat takes place at altitudes of less than 20,000ft, and at speeds ranging from Mach 0.8 - 1.2. Here the difference between the two aircraft is less obvious. Under typical combat conditions, the AV-8B and the F-16 are in a similar weight category. The F-16's Pratt & Whitney F100 engine generates about ten per cent more trust than the Rolls Royce Pegasus in the AV-8B, but burns about twice as much fuel when doing so. An F-16 can only reach full engine thrust by using a fuel hungry afterburner. Any extended use of afterburning will have the enemy pilot peering nervously at his fuel gauge and wondering if its time to head for home. The AV-8B develops full thrust without afterburning, so its pilot can make more use of full power in combat. When attacked by F-16s, use that thrust, plus all the maneuvering advantage which can be obtained from "viffing" . Try to fight on your terms, not his. The main air-to air armament of the F-16 is the AIM-9 Sidewinder plus a built-in 2Omm Vulcan cannon. The latter has a similar rate of fire to the 25mm cannon carried by the AV-8B, but its 20mm shells cannot match the explosive power of the larger 25mm projectiles. The export version of Sidewinder supplied to Indonesia is less sophisticated than the AIM-GM used by the AV-8B, so should be more vulnerable to decoy flares. Indonesia uses the F-16 both as an air combat fighter and as a strike aircraft. On a short-range attack mission, an F-16 can carry up to 12,0001b of bombs. If F-16s are sighted, always remember that their target may not be you, but Tarawa or one of the other ships in the fleet. F-5 Tiger II Much the same applies to the other supersonic fighter in Indonesian service - the Northrop F-5E and F-5F Tiger II. Top speed in this case is Mach 1.64 at 36,000ft, while the combat ceiling is 54,000ft. The F-5 lacks the high thrust-to-weight ratio of the F-16, but its high maneuverability makes it a dangerous opponent. In the 1970s this aircraft was used by the "Aggressor" and "Top Gun" training units of the USAF and USN, who found it well-matched to the task of simulating the small and agile Soviet MiG-21. Ten single seat F-5E and four two-seat combat capable trainers are currently in service. They have two 2Omm internal cannon, and can carry AIM-9 Sidewinder, or several tons of bombs. A-4 Skyhawk The final aircraft you can expect to meet is the McDonnell Douglas A- 4E Skyhawk. Originally developed as a lightweight shipboard attack aircraft, this small subsonic bomber can carry up to 8,000lb of ordnance, including bombs and unguided rockets. Britain`s Royal Navy lost several warships to A-4 attacks during the Falklands War and the 26 in Indonesian service will pose a high threat to the amphibious- warfare ships of the US force. After releasing its bombs, the A-4 is a capable subsonic opponent in air combat. It can carry the AIM-9 Sidewinder, and has a built-in armament of two 20mm cannon. In air-to-air combat, US and Israeli Skyhawks have used cannon or unguided rockets to down MiG-17 and MiG-19 fighters. Indonesia's pilots will be hoping to add the AV-8B to this list so treat the A-4 with respect in a dogfight. It's not known as "Heinemanns Hot Rod" for nothing! Other Aircraft Indonesias final operational jet is the British Aerospace Hawk advanced trainer. Although an effective light-strike aircraft, it is not currently based in East Timor and you are not likely to meet it in combat. The final type of aircraft in East Timor is the Bell Model 205 UH-1 Iroquois better known to the US services as the "Huey". The 16 strong fleet is operated by the Army rather the Air Force. Widely used as light troop transports, these can carry between 11 and 14 soldiers. Since these are regularly used as light inter-island transports, it is impossible to determine how many of the 16 are currently in East Timor. GROUND TARGETS IN EAST TIMOR Mobile Units Years of anti-rebel operations have taught the Indonesian Army the virtues of mobility. Much of the strength of the resident garrison will probably be found in small groups of between two and six tanks, personnel carriers, trucks, or other heavy vehicles. Normal development practice is for these to be stationed around fixed bases, villages and towns, but there should also be opportunities to attack such units while they are on the road travelling operating locations. These units will move when and if they are required to support their home bases. The position of mobile units will not be known until they have been sighted by US aircraft. Fixed Bases Typically these will be military camps, with several buildings and bunkers. Some have radio antenna masts. Installations of this type are positioned at road functions and further intelligence information relating to these can be found in the TAWADS databank Fixed bases are always supported by a number of mobile units, the number depending on the importance of the base. Some indication of the number of mobile units around a fixed base should be available to pilots during their pre-mission briefing, and more exact information on the mobile units which have been detected by US aircraft will probably be available from TAWADS. These defending units may have shoulder launched SAMs. If a fixed base is attacked, normal Indonesian Army doctrine is for the surrounding mobile units to regroup around the base and support it. These include engineering units which will probably attempt to repair damaged bases. If you destroy the buildings in a base, but fail to hunt down and destroy any enemy mobile units in the locale, those building could quite quickly be repaired and returned to operational status Fuel Dumps Petroleum, Oil, and Lubricant (POL) supplies for the Indonesian forces in East Timor are stored in several Fuel Dumps. These are major installations with large above-surface fuel tanks on ground. The latter will be highly vulnerable to air attack, but pilots should avoid overflying at low level the massive explosion which results from the destruction of the filled fuel tank. Like the Fixed Bases, fuel dumps are located near road junctions, and will protected by a significant defensive force. Air Bases Five air bases have been identified. All are heavily defended by both fixed and mobile units. The two biggest air bases are Dili and Vila Salazar on the north coast. Dili also serves as the civil airport, having taken over this role from Vila Salazar. By local standards, both are major airports with several runways, substantial numbers of hangers and other buildings, and a control tower. These are the main operating bases for the F-16s, and would be the arrival point for any Indonesian reinforcements flown in by air Three smaller bases are at Suai, Same, and Viqueque on the south coast. These have a single runway and several hangers, and are normally used by the F-5 force. The possibility of F-16s being moved forward to these bases cannot be ruled out. Electronic intelligence gathering has produced no evidence that the Indonesian Air Force is planning a pre emptive strike on the fleet. Fighters are unlikely to be scrambled until US warplanes approach Indonesian Airfields or begin attacking targets on East Timor. SAM Sites All the SAM systems in service with the Indonesian forces are either mobile or easily transportable. Normally these are kept at fixed bases, but electronic intelligence gathering operations conducted over the last eight hours suggests that these are now being deployed under cover of darkness to their operational positions. As soon as a SAM site is detected, the area it covers will be noted in the TAWADS databanks. Villages and Towns These have no fixed defenses, but mobile units may be based around them. INDONESIAN ARMY EQUIPMENT Since seizing power the military junta has embarked on major purchases of military hardware. These have greatly increased the striking power of the Army particularly in terms of tanks, artillery and surface-to-air missiles. Standard main battle tank is now the Chinese T-59, a version of the Soviet developed T-54/55. Armed with only a 100mm gun, these 38 ton tanks are outclassed by the US M1 Abrams. Although crudely made, these are reliable and well-armored for their weight class. If unsupported by the small number of tanks available to the landing force, Marine units which encounter T-59s should be able to deal with these using TOW anti-tank missiles. The T-59 will also be vulnerable to attack by the AV-8Bs or AH-1W attack helicopters. The main artillery used by the Indonesian Army is a Chinese built version of the Soviet 122mm D-3O howitzer. With a maximum range of just over 9.5 miles (15km), these are out-ranged by the more modern M198 howitzers used by the Marines. Two types of mobile Anti-Aircraft Artillery (AAA) have been purchased in large numbers. The heaviest is a Chinese-built version of the Soviet ZSU-57-2 a twin-barrelled 57mm gun mounted on a T-54 tank chassis. This is a relatively slow-firing weapon, but a single hit can do massive damage to your aircraft. Much more likely to score a hit is the radar-guided ZSU-23-4 Shilka radar guided AAA gun, significant quantities of which have become available on the international market with the collapse of the former Soviet Union. Mounted on a PT-76 tracked chassis, this four barrelled weapon combines accuracy with a high rate-of fire. Until recently Indonesian surface-to-air missile (SAM) defenses were restricted to small numbers of British and Swedish systems, but these have not been deployed in east Timor. The SAM defenses of East Timor are based on two types of missile purchased from one of the former Soviet republics. The SA-3 is a transportable command-guided SAM with a maximum range of up to 15 miles (25km). The smaller SA-6 is mounted on tracked vehicles, and has a range of 18 miles (30km) against low altitude targets, or about twice this distance against aircraft flying at high altitude. SA-3 and SA-6 will probably be used to defend airfields, and other high value targets such as fixed bases and fuel dumps. Flying at very low altitude (around 300ft) should dramatically reduce the effectiveness of these both types of SAM, but will increase the risk posed by AAA weapons. The ALQ-164 jamming pod should also reduce the effectiveness of these missiles as will the release of chaff. Mobile units have been armed with the Chinese built HN-5, an improved version of the Soviet SA-7 shoulder fired missile. This is a heat seeking missile, with a maximum range of around two miles (3.5km). The best counter to this weapon is to release flares. INDONESIAN COMBAT PERFORMANCE The Marines have the edge over Indonesian soldiers in both quality of equipment and level of training. In a firefight against an Indonesian mobile unit, a US unit of similar size will probably win with minimal casualties. When sent against defended fixed bases, the Marines will be an a disadvantage, since they not only cope with dug-in defenders, but must also concentrate on trying to destroy base facilities. Without air support the marines are likely to take significant casualties in such an attack you are advised to bomb fixed bases using the AV-8Bs, then send in the Marines to mop up any remaining defenses. If this is not possible, the AV-8Bs should at least provide Close Air Support for the attacking Marine forces. THE HARRIER AT WAR Harrier has twice seen combat action. USMC AV-8Bs were deployed to Saudi Arabia in 1990, and played a successful role during Desert Storm. Almost a decade earlier, Britain successfully used the aircraft during the 1982 Falklands War. Both campaigns illustrated the strengths and weaknesses of the aircraft, offering useful lessons for the current East Timor campaign. OPERATION CORPORATE: THE LIBERATION OF THE FALKLANDS On April 2nd 1982, Argentinian forces invaded the Falkland Islands overcoming the token UK military forces stationed there. The US Navy believed that the recapture of the islands by Britain was a military impossibility a view obviously shared by Argentina. This view overlooked the presence of two strong-willed individuals - British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the head of the Royal Navy, First Sea Lord Sir Henry Leach. Even before the Argentinian fleet had reached the Falklands to begin what Argentina saw as the liberation of part of its territory, Leach had begun to assemble the naval task force whose first elements would depart for the south Atlantic on April 5th. Britain's Royal Navy no longer operates full-sized aircraft carriers able to operate conventional catapult launched fighters. To provide air cover for the task force, the UK had to rely on the Sea Harrier. A total of 28 were deployed on two vessels. Invincible was the first of a new class of light carriers, while the larger Hermes was a conventional carrier which had been rebuilt as a helicopter equipped assault ship. To improve the endurance and firepower of the Sea Harrier, a modification program fitted the aircraft with larger drop tanks, and increased its armament from two Sidewinders to four. In theory at least, the British aircraft should have been no match for Argentina's top fighters. The 21 Mirage III and 26 examples of the Israeli-built Dagger copy of this French fighter were supersonic aircraft with a top speed of Mach 2. Luckily for the British, the Mirage is a delta-winged aircraft, a configuration which requires a long runway. The airfield at Port Stanley was the largest in the Falklands, but had too short a runway to handle these aircraft. The Mirages and Daggers had to fly their combat missions over the Falklands from bases on the Argentinian mainland. Like the Messerschmitt Bf109 fighter which escorted Luftwaffe bombers attacking Southern England fifty years earlier, the Argentinean fighters were forced to carry external fuel tanks to extend their range, and even with these could spend only a few minutes flying at full power in the combat zone. On May 1, Hermes launched 12 Sea Harriers to carry out attacks on the airfields at Port Stanley and Goose Green. An hour after their return, these aircraft were once more airborne on air-defense patrols. Despite being outnumbered six to one, the force of 28 Sea Harriers scored 20 "kills" and three "probables" during the brief war. Sixteen of the Argentinian aircraft were downed using the AIM-9L Sidewinder the other four by fire from the Sea Harrier's internal armament of two 30mm Aden cannons. Six Sea Harriers were lost. One was shot down by a Roland surface-to air missile the other by AAA. The remaining four were lost in accidents - one crashed after take off while the others fell victim to the foul South Atlantic weather. Two which went missing while on patrol are believed to have collided in poor visibility while another rolled off the deck of the carrier and fell into the sea. To supplement the small Sea Harrier force, 14 Royal Air Force Harrier GR.3 fighters were selected to handle much of the ground-attack role. RAF pilots were hurriedly trained in the art of flying from a carrier while their aircraft were modified to carry AIM-9L Sidewinder missiles. These aircraft were flown to Ascension Island. Six were sent to the South Atlantic aboard a container ship, then transferred on arrival in mid May to the flight deck of Hermes. Two more flew from Ascension to Hermes, arriving on June 1, and were followed by a further two which arrived on June 8th. The RAF Harrier GR.3s flew 125 ground-attack and tactical reconnaissance sorties in the face of heavy defensive fire, mainly from light anti aircraft weapons. Three of the 10 aircraft were lost in action, all believed to have been the victims of anti-aircraft gunfire. "Most aircraft engaged in offensive support survived damage, which usually resulted from intense Argentinian anti-aircraft gunfire, said the British Government's official report on the campaign. Most of the close support missions used unguided bombs, the British BL775 cluster bomb proving particularly effective. Throughout the brief war task force commander Rear Admiral John "Sandy" Woodward was aware that the success of the amphibious landing would depend on the survival of his two aircraft carriers, particularly the flagship Hermes. Wherever possible, he kept these vessels well east of the Falklands, and thus out of range of the Argentinian Mirages, Daggers, and Skyhawks. Even at this distance, Woodward still faced the threat of attack by fighter-bombers equipped with the French built Exocet anti-ship missile, but Indonesia has no weapons of this type. For Ocean Saber, the US has only one carrier, while the number of AV-8Bs available is around a fifth the size of Woodward's combined force of Sea Harrier and Harrier GR.3 aircraft. This small air component must handle both the air to-air and air-to-ground missions, flying against an air force about a third the size which Britian faced in 1982. Without Tarawa and its AV-8Bs, the landings are doomed to failure. Lose Tarawa, and you lose the campaign. During the Falklands War the Argentinian Air Force made two main tactical errors. One was for its fighters to launch their missiles at maximum range, then turn away to retreat at supersonic speed. The Sea Harriers were able to dodge the incoming missiles, close the range, then fire their own Sidewinders. The other was the fact that for most of the brief war aircraft tasked with attacking the fleet concentrated their fire on the escorting warships rather than the amphibious ships and transports. Destroyers and frigates could be replaced by others despatched to the South Atlantic in the wake of the main task force, but the carriers and their aircraft, plus the assault ships and transports with their cargo of soldiers and equipment were irreplaceable. Neither error is likely to be repeated by the Indonesians. The F-16 has a much longer range than the Mirage and Dagger so will have ample time to engage the AV-8Bs. It also has a much higher performance than the Argentinian fighters, and is armed with more effective air to air missiles. Unlike Rear-Admiral Woodward, the commander of Ocean Saber does not have a supply of fresh escort vessels. Like the amphibious ships and transports, Kidd and her Perry-class companions are irreplaceable. OPERATION DESERT STORM: THE LIBERATION OF KUWAIT The part played by the AV-8B in Desert Storm was relatively small. Two squadrons of AV-8B were among the first Marine aircraft to arrive in Saudi Arabia. By the time that the air war began, 6O AV-8B were operating from shore bases, and a further 26 aboard amphibious- warfare ships operating in Gulf waters. This was a total of four squadrons and one detachment. The land based aircraft operated from King Abdul Aziz Airfield. This was the most northerly airfield used by the Allies, and ensured a short flight time to the combat zone. Other deployment locations included rough airstrips and concrete forward sites. The AV-8B went into action on the first day of the ground war, knocking out Iraqi artillery which was bombarding Marine ground positions near Khafji. By the end of the Gulf War the small force AV-8B force had flown more than 3,380 combat sorties, and some 4,000 flying hours. During this time, they delivered more than 5.9 million pounds of ordnance. Mission capable rate averaged 90 per cent. To stay out of SAM and light AAA fire, AV-8Bs typically flew at an altitude of around 15,000ft high enough to say out of trouble, but low enough to see trucks moving on the ground. Assigned a primary and secondary target within a 30 by 30 mile "kill box", pairs of aircraft would make diving attacks on their designated targets. If these couldn`t be found, pilots would follow the roads until they found a target. Few AGM-65 Mavericks were used by the AV-8Bs; the best warload turned out to be between four and six bombs mounted one per pylon. These were normally 500lb, 1,000lb or Rockeye bombs. In a typical CCIP attack the weapons would be released at around 6,000ft while the aircraft was flying at around 525kts in a 45 degree dive. At first, the AV-8Bs would trade two bombs for Sidewinders, carrying four bombs plus two missiles, but the absence of the Iraqi Air Force made this a pointless precaution. The number of Sidewinders carried was reduced to one under the left wing, then to zero. Five AV-8B were lost in combat - two from VMA 542, and one each from VMA 231, 311. and 331. Two of the pilots - Captain James M Wilbourne of VMA-542, and Captain Reginald C. Underwood of VMA 331 were killed. Captains Michael C. Berryman (VMA-311) and Russell A. C. Sanborn (VMA-231) were taken prisoner, and later released, while Captain Scott Walsh of VMA-542 was rescued. Combat experience showed that the aircraft's main weakness was the location of its engine nozzles. Heat-seeking missiles home of the hottest part of the target which is normally the jet pipe. On a conventional fighter, hits from light heat-seeking missiles tend to be one the tail but on the AV-8B the hot jet pipes are much closer to the engine and cockpit area. Gulf War combat experience shows versatility of the unguided bomb, particularly the Rockeye, and the wisdom of staying above the ceiling of light AAA weapons. If losses due to heat-seeking SAMs build up during Operation Ocean Saber, it may be advisable to carry an external chaff/flare dispenser so that you can drop flares more frequently during your attack. SECTION X: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND DEVELOPMENT OF THE HARRIER At Britain's 1968 Farnborough Air Show, three officers of the Us Marine Corps walked into the hospitality suite of the British company Hawker Siddeley Aviation and announced "We're interested in the Harrier". The US services are not in the habit of buying jet fighters from an overseas supplier, but this was the start of a process which would see the US taking into service Britain's revolutionary vertical take off and landing (VTOL) fighter and which would lead to todays AV- 8B Harrier II. To an Englishman, the sale of Harrier to the US Marines might be seen as evidence that his nation can still teach the "Yanks" a thing or two about aviation, but in fact US involvement in the Harrier program dates back to the late 1950s. Without US financial assistance, the airplane would never have left the drawing board. Back in the mid-1950s, the Cold War was at its peak, and the NATO allies had based their air plans on a network of 8,200ft runways based in Western Europe. These would have been priority targets in wartime a fact which led French airplane designer Michel Wibault to purpose the Gyroptere, a ground-attack fighter able to take off and land vertically. The idea of a vertical takeoff and Landing (VTOL) fighter was not new. Several experimental aircraft had already flown, and others were being built. Some, like the turboprop-powered Convair XFY-1 and the jet powered Ryan X-13 Vertijet, were "tail-sitters." From a vertical starting position, these climbed away from the take-off point under the power of their main engine, then reversed this manueuvre in order to land. An alternative solution explored by aircraft such as the Shorts Sc.1 involved taking off with the fuselage in the normal horizontal position, the aircraft being raised by a battery of downward-pointing lift engines. Both arrangements had disadvantages. The pilot of a tail-sitter was in a most uncomfortable position. During take-off and landing - the very times when his concentration needed to be at its highest. This was not the case with an aircraft which used liftjets; here the problem was that the lift engines occupied much of the internal volume of the fuselage, reducing the amount of fuel which could be carried, and for much of the flight were simply unwanted dead weight. Wibault proposed to get around these problems by using vectored thrust. A single huge engine whose thrust was greater than the aircraft weight could lift the aircraft if its thrust could be directed downward, then propel it in normal flight by directing the thrust rearward. This idea had been tested in 1954 with the twin-engined Bell Model 65 Air Test Vehicle, and would be explored further in the new Bell X-14 then under construction in the USA, but these aircraft were too small to perform any military task. On the tiny Model 65, the two J44 jet engines were mounted outside of the fuselage and could be moved from rearward or downward-thrusting positions. For the X-14, two British- built Armstrong-Siddeley Viper turbojets would be mounted side by side within the forward fuselage, discharging their exhaust through belly mounted steerable cascade nozzles. In a conventional aircraft, safety is improved by having multiple engines. If one fails, the aircraft can keep flying. This isn't the case with a VTOL aircraft any significant loss of thrust while in the hover will turn that hover into a crash. Having multiple engines simply increases the chance of an engine failure. This was the problem faced by 1950s designs such as the Model 65, the X-14, and the Shorts SC.1, and by todays Yakovlev Yak 38 Forger and Yak 141 Freestyle V/STOL fighters. For the Gyroptere, Wibault planned that the thrust would be generated not by several jet engines but by four steerable air blowers, all mechanically driven by the most powerful engine he could find - the Bristol Orion rated at around 8,000hp at sea level, this would be connected to the blowers by a system of shafts and bevel gears. The four blowers would be angled downwards to provide the thrust needed for vertical takeoff then turned to face aft to create the power for conventional flight. Conventional control surfaces such as ailerons, elevators and rudder obtain their effect by deflecting the rapid flow of air passing around the aircraft's wings, tail fins, and rudder. When the Gyroptere was hovering or flying at low speed, they would be useless. Wibault realised that a practical VTOL aircraft would require a second control system for low speed flight and hovering. He proposed to fit the aircraft with a system of nose, tail, and wingtip mounted reaction control jets. Fed by compressed air, these would be used to maintain control until the airplane was flying fast enough for conventional control surfaces to take over. Unwilling to fund such as novel airplane, the French suggested that Wibault apply for funding from the Mutual Weapons Development Programme (MWDP), a scheme under which the US could fund promising foreign weapons. Gyroptere was too complex to be practical, but gave two British companies Hawker and Bristol Aero Engines the inspiration to devise a more sensible design. Bristol engineers looked at Wibault's proposal, and decided his estimated weight of only 1,0801b for the four blowers and bevel gearboxes was unrealistic. Instead, they proposed that the Orion engine should drive a single large fan section "borrowed" from the companys much larger Olympus engine. This in turn passed its output of compressed air to two steerable nozzles. Hardly had this BE.48 engine been sketched out on the Bristol drawing boards when Hooker realised that Bristol's new Orpheus jet engine would make an even better power source than the Orion. This BE.52 engine design was equally short-lived. The improved BE.53 eliminated the gearbox used to drive the fan. Instead, the fan was driven by its own turbine stage. The idea of using a second turbine was not new. Until 1949 all jet engines had used a single shaft. Air from the inlet was compressed by a multi stage compressor whose airflow entered a combustor section, where the fuel was burned. The hot efflux gases leaving the combustor passed through a turbine used to drive the compressor, before passing to the jetpipe. This layout was simple, but the rotational speed of the turbine-driven shaft which drove the compressor was always a compromise between the optimum speed needed by the early stages of the compressor and the speed best for the later stages which were handling a higher pressure airflow. In 1949 two engine manufacturers Pratt & Whitney and Bristol Engines - tested new engines which introduced a twin-shaft layout, a configuration still used for most present-day aero engines. A low- pressure (LP) fan feeds air to a high-pressure (HP) compressor. After fuel has been burned in this HP airflow the hot gases pass through an HP turbine used to drive the HP compressor, then an LP turbine which drives the LP fan, before passing to the jetpipe. The two section of the engine - LP and HP can each rotate at the speed which gives highest efficiency. On the B.53 the fan did not feed the HP compressor. All its air went to the two large steerable nozzles. Two small inlets mounted directly above and below the fan were used to feed air to the Orpheus section whose hot exhaust gas was released from a rearward-facing jetpipe just as in a conventional engine. Since all the compression was done by a compressor which was entirely driven by a single shaft and turbine, the BE.53 was not a true two-shaft engine, but it promised enough power to allow the design of a warplane. In the spring of 1957, the Hawker team led by Sir Sidney Camm, designer of the World War II Hurricane, Typhoon and Tempest piston- engined fighters, drew up plans for what was then known as the P.1127. With its ugly tadpole shaped fuselage, unswept mid set wing, and tail wheel undercarriage, this design looked more like the primitive jet fighters of the mid 194Os than a combat aircraft for the 196Os. Air from the nose inlet entered a BE.53 engine in the lower part of the centre fuselage. The two steerable nozzles were located on either side of the fuselage directly under the wing, the jetpipe emerging from the lower fuselage just aft of the wing. A slim rear fuselage led to a tail assembly which would not have looked out of place on a Second World War piston engined fighter. Since only part of the thrust of the BE.53 was vectorable, the aircraft was designed for short rather than vertical take-offs and landings. Its take-off and landing speeds would be too low for aerodynamic controls to be effective, so Camm's team planned to feed some of the fan air to a system of nose, tail, and wingtip-mounted reaction control jets similar to those first proposed by Wibault. Too small and lacking in engine thrust to carry a warload, the P1127 was proposed as a lightweight reconnaissance aircraft. While this design work was going on, back at Bristol Engines, Hookers team had come up with further improvements. In a normal two shaft engine, the task of the fan stage is to provide LP air for the HP compressor. The new engine now being sketched out on Bristol drawing boards had an oversized fan which produced enough LP to feed not only a pair of steerable nozzles, but also the HP compressor. Having passed through the HP and LP turbines, the hot engine efflux entered not a single conventional jetpipe, but a pair of steerable aft nozzles. All four nozzles of this "four-poster" arrangement could be simultaneously moved so that they pointed downward to provide the vertical thrust needed for VTOL, then backward to power the airplane for normal flight. This new engine allowed the Hawker team to make a fresh start. By the autumn of 1957 they had created a design able to take off and land vertically. Although the wing was still unswept, it was recognisably the ancestor of today's AV-8B Harrier II. The new airplane and engine could not have been born at a worse time. The British Government had just decided that the manned combat aircraft was obsolete, and opted to cancel virtually all its current warplane programmes in favor of guided missiles. The idea of a VTOL fighter fell on deaf ears. US defense planners rejected the British idea of all-missile air forces as naive, and agreed to meet 75 per cent of the cost of developing the new airplane and its engine. Refused British funding, the two partner companies used their own money to make up the remaining 25 per cent. Not until late 1959 did the British government agree to help fund the two P.1127 prototypes taking shape at Hawker's Kingston factory. Camm and his team wanted to create not just a flying testbed able to demonstrate V/STOL technology but an airplane which could serve as an operational fighter. The structure was built strong enough for combat and with the internal volume needed to allow the installation of mission related avionics. The problem they faced was that in any VTOL airplane, the total weight at takeoff must be less than the thrust created by the engine. Get the airplane too heavy or be faced with an engine unable to develop the specified thrust, and it will refuse to fly a fate not unknown in the history of VTOL aircraft! In September 1959 the new engine, now named Pegasus 1, started running on the test bench. It developed only 9,000lb of thrust, but showed that the concept of a "four poster" vectored-thrust engine worked. An engine suitable for flight would have to generate more thrust, plus a supply of HP rather than LP air for the reaction control system. Studies had shown that the amount of LP air needed for reaction control would reduce engine performance, and require bulky ducting to feed it to the wingtip, nose, and tail reaction jets. To be practical the system would have to be redesigned to use high-pressure air drawn from the engine's HP section. To provide the extra thrust and a source of HP bleed air, Bristol devised the Pegasus 2 engine, which ran for the first time in February 1960. The best that Bristol designer Stanley Hooker could promise was 11,0001b of thrust giving Camm the problem of packing this large engine into an airplane about the weight of a Korean-War-era F-86 Sabre. Redesigning the reaction control system was not easy. The HP bleed air from the Pegasus 2 was available in the quantities needed to do the job. and at pressures high enough to allow small and compact ducting. Unfortunately it left the engine at a temperature of around 660 deg F, so had to be ducted via pipework made from Nimonic alloy a material originally designed for use inside jet engines. By October 1960, the first P.1127 airplane was ready to fly. It left the ground for the first time on October 21st, beginning the first of a series of tethered tests intended to explore handling in the vertical mode. The margin between aircraft weight and engine thrust was very low during these first flights, allowing enough fuel for only two minutes of hovering flight. By early November, test pilot Bill Bedford and the P.1127 team were ready to try free flight. To do this involved the additional weight of installing a radio in the cockpit at a time when every pound was vital. The first untethered flight was on November 19th. Soon afterwards, the British government finally agreed to pay for a batch of four development aircraft. Bristol - know known as Bristol Siddeley also increased the thrust of the engine by a further 1,000lb, allowing more fuel to be carried. Next stage was to try the airplane out in normal flight. This phase of the test program started on March 13th 1961, clearing the way for the team to cautiously explore the problem of making the way for the vertical to horizontal flight and back again. On some hovering flights, the nozzles were rotated backward to give the aircraft a forward velocity while during others made from the runway the nozzles were deflected downwards to allow the aircraft to fly more slowly, eventually bringing it to speeds at which its aerodynamic control surfaces had little effect, control being maintained using the puffer jets. During a six month series of tests using both P.1127 prototypes, the gap between the highest speed attained from the hover and the lowest achieved in horizontal flight gradually narrowed, until the first transition was demonstrated on 20th September 1961. For todays AV-8B pilots, this maneuver has become routine and its one you`ll have to learn to carry out in seconds. Early in 1961, the NATO allies released a specification for a new supersonic close-support airplane able to operate from rough strips some 200 yards long. Hawker had already started work on a supersonic P.1150 design. Power by an improved Pegasus engine with afterburning in all four nozzles, this would have been a practical and useful fighter. Unfortunately its top speed would have been around Mach 1.3 rather than the then-fashionable Mach 2. It was never ordered. By the end of the year, Hawker Siddeley had drawn up plans for the improved P.1154 - an aircraft which combined the Mach 2.0 performance of the F-4 Phantom with the VTOL ability of the P.1127. To power this, Bristol Siddeley started work on a more powerful engine - the BS.100. Worried that the P.1127 concept might be abandoned if left to the British, around the end of the year the US suggested that a batch of P.1127 be built to equip a proposed tri-national US/UK/West German trials squadron. Work started on a batch of nine aircraft built to an improved design designated Kestrel. These would have swept wings and the uprated 15,200lb thrust. Pegasus 5 engine, but would still not be able to carry a usefull ordnance load. Britian pressed ahead with the supersonic P.1154, which was intended for use by both the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy and even started work on a C-130-sized short-take-off and landing transport aircraft able to support P.1154 operations. It was an ambitious concept and one which would even strain today`s technology let alone that of the mid 1960s. In practice. getting the Air Force and Navy to agree on joint design proved near impossible, and the commonality between the two versions rapidly dwindled. Late in 1963 the Navy dropped out of the program and an order for McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantoms was announced in February 1964. Work continued on the Air Force version, which was expected to enter servive in 1969. The arrival in power in late 1964 of a Socialist Government intent on abandoning most of the nation's military aircraft programmes resulted in both the P.1154 and the Hawker Siddeley 681 STOL transport being cancelled in 1965 before either had flown. F-4 Phantoms were ordered for both British services, but the go-ahead was also given for the subsonic P.1127 to be taken into service as a combat airplane. It was to use some of the nav/attack systems being developed for the P.1154, and be powered by the latest 19,000lb thrust Pegasus 6 engine. Six development aircraft were ordered in February 1965. Between the spring of 1965 and the spring of 1966 the Kestrel-equipped tri-national squadron explored the military usefulness of VTOL aircraft, flying around 600 hours for the loss of a single airplane. After the unit disbanded, six of its aircraft were despatched to the USA for trials under the designation XV-6A, while the others stayed in Britain. Flying from the carrier, Independence, and the assault ships Raleigh and La Salle XV-6A proved the potential usefulness of a naval VTOL fighter. The first of the six development P.1127 first flew on August 31st, 1966. A batch of 60 production aircraft was ordered early in 1967, and the first of the resulting Harrier GR.1 aircraft flew on December 28th, 1967. A total of 114 GR.1's were delivered to the RAF, where they remained in service until replaced by the AV-8B Harrier II in the early 1990s. In 1968 the USMC realised that the XV-6A tests had showed the feasibility of deploying an operational VTOL fighter: Unlike the other US Services, the Marines are an offensive force, one designed to seize and hold beachheads. The fire support they need must travel with them. Marine Forces can't take with them the massive artillery support which the Army takes for granted, so strike aircraft must provide the close-support needed to soften up an enemy position, or to break an enemy attack. In the past, USMC aircraft had operated from carriers, but the P.1127 Harrier was an airplane which could be deployed from assault ships or even improvised airstrips close to the front line. At first, Congress refused to allocate money for Harriers, but the Marines pressed ahead with their evaluation of the airplane while arguing their case. When Congress finally did agree to authorise the purchase of 12 Harriers for test and evaluation by the USMC, it insisted that any follow-on order for production aircraft would have to be placed with a US manufacturer. Hawker Siddeley and McDonnell Douglas signed a licence-production agreement for the airplane, while the other deal between Rolls-Royce (who had taken over Bristol) and Pratt & Whitney covered US manufacture of the Pegasus engine. In practice however the cost of setting up US production facilities for the planned USMC fleet of 102 single-seaters and eight two seat trainers was so high that Congress relented, and the aircraft were purchased from Britian. By now the RAF had progressed from the original Harrier GR.1 to the improved GR.1A (with the Pegasus 102 engine), then the definitive GR.3 (with the 21,000lb thrust Pegasus 103 and additional avionics). The USMC version was similar to the GR.3, but did not have the nose mounted laser ranger and marked-target seeker fitted to the RAF Aircraft. The single seater was designated AV-8A, with the two seater becoming the TAV-8A. A further batch of 13 aircraft was purchased in the early 1970s by Spain. Ordered by the US Navy in order to spare Britain's socialist government the political embarrassment of selling weaponry to a right wing regime, they were transferred to Spain where they remain in service as AV-8S and TAV-8S Matadors. They entered service on the elderly carrier Dedalo, and now serve on its replacement, the Principe de Asturias. The Marines use the AV-8A in the close-support role, but what Britains Royal Navy now needed was a VTOL fighter able to operate from the new Invincible class light carriers. Ordered in May 1975, this was based on the GR.3/AV-8A, but incorporated a raised cockpit, a nose- mounted blue fox radar, and a marinised Pegasus 11 Mk 104 version of the Mk103 used to power the Royal Air Force's Harrier GR.3. The Blue Fox radar was designed for the task of detecting high altitude targets such as maritime reconnaissance aircraft, and had none of the expensive technology needed for look down operation against low level strike aircraft. First flight of a Sea Harrier prototype was on 20th Augnst 1978. Deliveries to the Royal Navy began in June 1979, and the aircraft became operational in 1980, first on the carrier Invincible, then on sister ships Illustrious and Ark Royal. In its FRS.51 Form, it also serves with the Indian Navy which purchased 23 (plus four two-seat trainers) for servive aboard the carriers Vikrant and Viraat. Both Britian and the US realised that their existing fleets of AV-8A and Harrier Gr.1/3 would need to be replaced in the 1980s, so the two nations had already started work on studies of a "Super Harrier". In 1973, McDonnell Douglas started preliminary work with British Aerospace (which had absorbed Hawker Siddeley) to develop an inproved version of the airplane. The AV-16A would have had a long- span supercritical wing, a 25,000lb (11,350kg) Pegasus 15 engine, and twice the payload/range performance of the existing aircraft. The two countries were unable to agree on a common design. In the United States the Marines wanted the most efficient VTOL close- support airplane which technology would permit, but Britain's RAF wanted a design to which its existing aircraft could be rebuilt. Not surprisingly in March 1975 the British Government announced that there was not enough common ground between the two requirements to justify a joint programme. At this point Britain and the US pursued their own national programs. British Aerospace drew up plans for what became known as the "Big Wing" Harrier. This would have had a revised front fuselage, extended intakes and a new 34ft (10.4m) span wing of metal construction. Optimised for high-speed flight, this enlarged wing would have been retrofittable to existing aircraft. In the US, McDonnell Douglas pressed ahead with a less expensive design which would combine a new airframe incorporating refined aerodynamics and the large-scale use of carbon composites with a developed version of the Sea Harrier engine. This would be known as the AV-8B Harrier II. The cockpit was raised to improve the view back over the inlets and wing a vital feature in air combat - while a new longer span wing with 15 per cent more area than that of the AV-8A produced more lift and less drag. The inlets were redesigned, while under the skin, a new generation oF avionics promised better reliability. Internal fuel capacity was 50 per cent more than that of the AV-8A. To minimum weight, almost a quarter of the structure was made not from metal but from carbon composite materials. To speed the programme, the first two YAV-8B prototypes were not built from scratch, but were created by fitting the new wing to two AV- 8As. The first flew on 9 November 1978. Flight demonstrations were completed during 1979 with the two prototypes having flown more than 170 test hours successfully. The aircraft did have problems, but these were political rather than technical. The Carter administration was opposed to the development of an aircraft customised to meet the relatively small Marine requirement. When drawing up the Fiscal Year 1979 Defense Budget Request, the Pentagon refused to add funding for the AV-8B. Instead it suggested that the Marines buy a batch of 78 McDonnell Douglas A-4M Skyhawks, and increase their order for the F/A-18 Hornet. This would help reduce the unit cost of the latter aircraft, and help keep the Skyhawk production line open. Congress disagreed, and restored funding for the AV-8B. The following year saw this process repeated, with the Department of Defense refusing the $203 million requested for continued AV-8B development. Congress forced the release of $108 million held over from the previous year and added a further $180 million for FY80. This allowed a full scale development contract to be issued in April 1979. A year later Congress again over-ruled the Carter administration and provided not only the $240.7 million needed for the FY81 development work but also $90 million for procurement of "long-lead" production hardware which would have to be ordered now to allow procurement of the first 12 aircraft. By now it was clear that the aircraft's long-term future would depend on its becoming an international program. The obvious customer was Britian. In 1980, the Royal Air Force evaluated the aircraft, and concluded that although the aircraft met the performance standard laid down by Britians Air Staff Requirement 409 (ASR 409) in most respects, it was badly lacking in one area - maneuverability. The AV-8B had been tailored to meet a US Marine Corps requirement for an efficient "bomb truck" able to carry a heavier payload over a longer range than had been possible with the AV-8A. In USMC service, the AV-8B would operate under the protection of friendly fighters such as the Grumman F-14 Tomcat and McDonnell Douglas F/A 18 Hornet, but the British wanted an aircraft able to fight in Central Europe, where friendly fighters would be outnumbered by Soviet MiGs Any Harrier replacement would have to be able to defend itself the RAF decided so ASR 409 placed strong emphasis on maneuverability and survivability for defensive air combat performance. Turn rate of the US aircraft was well below the 20 degree per second turn rate which the RAF thought essential if the Harrier was to be able to defend itself against enemy air superiority fighters. As well as idetifying the problem, the British also offered a potential solution. The metal wing of the proposed "Big Wing" Harrier - now known as the Harrier GR.5 would have incorporated wing leading- edge root extensions (LERXs), features intended to increase maneuverability. Studies showed that by adding similar LERXs to the AV-8B wing, the airplane would meet the RAF maneuvrability requirement without jeopardising the payload/range requirement needed by the Marines. In the summer of 1981, the UK agreed to rejoin the programme, and to buy at least 60 AV-8B fighters. British aircraft would be known as Harrier GR.5, the designation originally proposed for the "Big Wing" Harrier. Under the terms of a deal announced in July 1981, the UK agreed to contribute an initial $80 million to the costs of a joint development program, and to provide the additional $200 million needed for development work unique to the RAF version. BAe would set up a production line in England to build the RAF aircraft, and would be responsible for manufacture of the rear and center fuselage sections, center-line pylon and the reaction control system. Fin and rudder assemblies may also be included. Under this work-sharing agreement McDonnell Douglas would manufacture approximately 60 per cent of the aircraft, BAe the remaining 40 per cent. Work on the engine would be split in a similar manner, with 75 per cent going to Rolls-Royce and 25 per cent to Pratt & Whitney. To keep the existing AV-8A fleet effective until the AV-8B entered service in the mid-1980s, the Marines embarked on a conversion in Lieu ofProcurement (CILOP) program to rebuild existing aircraft to the improved AV-8C standard. Changes included the installation of LIDS (Lift Improvement Devices), plus installation of new avionics such as the AN/ARC 159 radio, KY-28 crypto set, the ALR-45 radar warning receiver and the ALE-39 flare/chaff dispenser. The F402-RR-406 Pegasus 11-2IE engine used in early production AV- 8Bs is based on the Mk 104 developed for Sea Harrier, but is designed to match mounting points on the AV-8B airframe. It also incorporates a redesigned fan able to run at higher RPM. It also has new zero scarf cold nozzles, a revised swan-neck intermediate casing which smooths the flow of air into the high-pressure compressor a forged combustion chamber, better HP turbine cooling. a new shrouded LP turbine and improved seals. Maximum thrust is 21,500lb The first true AV-8B was the first of four full scale development aircraft. It flew for the first time on November 5, 1981. All four were sent to the Naval Air Test Center during 1982 to begin a program of flight test. The first of 12 pre-production airplanes flew on August 29, 1983. A two-seat TAV-8B version was also developed to help train Marine pilots. Wherever possible, the AV-8B uses off-the-shelf avionics. Like Marine pilots assigned to fly the AV-8B, you`ll have to become familiar with these systems. Prime attack sensor is the Hughes Angle Rate Bombing System (ARBS), a nose-mounted unit which combines a laser spot tracker and TV contrast tracker. This allows day or night attacks to be delivered using conventional bombs, laser-guided "smart" bombs, unguided rockets, or guided missiles such as the Hughes AGM-65 Maverick. Navigation is handled by an ASN-130 inertial- navigation system. Harrier Gr.3 and the AV-8A had no autopilot, but the AB-8B is fitted with a unit known as the Stability Augmentation and Attitude Hold System. Intended to reduce the pilot's workload by about two-thirds, this allows easier and safer hovering and vertical landings. The pilot can even take his hands off the controls while the airplane is hovering. Many of the cockpit systems were already used on the F/A-18 Hornet, and include the head up display (HUD), a multi-function cathode-ray tube (CRT) cockpit display and an Up Front Control (UFC) panel used for communications, navigation, and weapons control. In the AB-8B cockpit, the engine throttle and nozzles are operated from a single control to allow the pilot to keep his attention focused outside the cockpit during air combat. Under this HOTAS (hands-on throttle and stick) scheme the pilot will be able to fly "viffing" (vectoring in forward flight) combat maneuvers. Without looking down, he can control the airplanes maneuvering flaps, select and steer the aircraft sensors, acquire targets, release weapons and aim the guns. For self protection, the AV-8B is fitted with an ALB-67 radar-warning reciever designed to detect hostile radar signals. Mounted in the rear fuselage is an ALE 39 dispenser able to release radar reflecting chaff designed to confuse enemy radars, or hot-burning flares able to decoy heat seeking missiles. The aircraft is due to receive the internally- mounted ALQ-165 Advanced Self-Protection Jammer (ASPJ), but delivery of this complex system has been repeatedly delayed. (The RAF version of the airplane carries the British-designed Zeus jamming system). For the moment, the Marines rely on the externally-mounted ALQ-164 jamming pod. In 1984, McDonnell Douglas started work to create a night-attack version of the AV-8B. This was done by adding a nose-mounted Forward looking Infra-Red (FLIR) system, and equipping the pilot with Night Vision Goggles (NVGs). These systems are now standard in current production aircraft, while earlier examples will be modified to add these. The Marines took delivery of their first AV-8B in 1984, and the aircraft became operational with the USMC's VMA-331 Bumblebees in 1985. In its Harrier GR.5 form, the aircraft became operational with Britians Royal Air Force in 1989. A total of 94 are planned. Spain ordered 12 EAV-8B to replace the older AV-8A, and these are now in service aboard the aircraft carrier Principe de Asturias. In its basic form, the aircraft was intended for use by day, but in September 1989 the USMC took delivery of the first version configured for night attack. A similar night-attack version known as the Harrier GR.7 entered service with the Royal Air Force in the following year. The new avionics needed to give the pilot a view of the outside world were developed in the UK. A nose-mounted forward-looking Infra red (FLIR) creates an image of the terrain ahead of the aircraft. This is displayed on the HUD as a full-sized image directly superimposed on the outside scene. Flying an aircraft using only the small area visible through the HUD would be difficult, so the pilot also wears night vision goggles which provide a lower-grade thermal image of the outside world in whatever direction the pilot is looking. This version of the aircraft has a more powerful engine, the 23,800lb thrust Pegasus 11-61 known to the US Marines as the F404-RR 408. In AV-8B Harrier Assault, you'll be flying this night-attack capable version of the aircraft, the most modern variant currently in service. An even more advanced version known as the AV-8B Harrier II plus started flight trials on 22 September 1992, but this will not enter service until the mid-1990s. Main change in this new version is a reprofiled nose containing an APG 65 multi mode radar. The Marines intend to take delivery of up to 40 AV-8B Plus. Italy plans to buy 15 single-seat and two twin-seat Harrier II Plus for service on the carrier Giuseppe Garibaldi, and could increase this order to around 30. The Spanish Navy expects to operate 12 AV-8B Plus, but will probably rebuild its existing EAV-8B to this standard rather than buy new airframes. Japan is known to be interested in the aircraft. Production of the AV-8B is expected to run into the early 1990s by which time the Marines will have taken delivery of 300 AV-8B and 28 TAV-8B trainers. Under present plans, 156 of these aircraft will be built to the night-attack standard. To bring older aircraft up to this standard, the USMC plans a rebuild program. A first phase will install the night attack avionics; a second could add the APG-65 radar. Britian will rebuild its Harrier GR.5 aircraft to the GR.7 night attack standard but haSs no plan to add a radar as part of a mid-life improvement programme, 31 Royal Navy Sea Harriers are being rebuilt to FRS.2 standard, receiving a British-developed Blue Vixen pulse Doppler radar able to provide all-weather look-down capability track while scan, and the ability to engage several targets simulaneously using up to four AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles. Other changes include a lengthened rear fuselage (to compensate for the enlarged nose needed to house Blue Vixen), a redesigned cockpit, and an improved radar-warning receiver THE REBELLION IN EAST TIMOR In August 1975 civil war broke out in the colony of Portuguese Timor. The eastern section of the islands which make up the Indonesian archipelago, Timor had first been settled by Portuguese colonists in 1586. In 1859, the island was divided between the Netherlands and Portugal. In 1949, the western (Dutch) portion joined the then new state of Indonesia, whose independence had finally been recognised by the Netherlands. For Indonesia, the continued presence of the Portuguese in Timor remained a sensitive issue. Portuguese Timor was run as an overseas province of Portugal, and until 1975 no steps had been taken to promote self government. Portugal finally decided in 1975 that it would pull out in 1978, and announced plans to hold local elections for a planned People's Assembly. Unfortunately the three main political factions in Portugese Timor ware unable to agree as to what form independence should take. The Associcao Popular Democratica de Timor (APODETi) wanted the colony to become an autonomous province of Indonesia, while the Uniao Democratica de Timor (UDT) favoured independence but retaining links with Portugal. A third party the Frente Revolucionario de Este Timor Independente (FRETLiN), wanted total independence On August 11th 1975, the UTD announced that it had taken over the colony in a coup. Fighting broke out several days later and by the 20th had become a full blown civil war between FRETLIN on one side and an alliance between the UDT APODETI and several smaller parties on the other By November 28th, FRETLIN was able announce the establishment of a "Democratic Republic of East Timor", but the new state would last for less than a month. On December 7th a force of around 6,000 Indonesian paratroops supported by bombardments from Indonesian warships operating offshore invaded the new republic, and seized Dili the capital. Four days later, the United Nations demanded that Indonesia desist from "furthur violation of the territorial integrity of East Timor" and ordered it to withdraw. Indonesia would admit that its Army was in action claiming that the attack on Dili had been mounted by APODETI, UDT and what were described as "Indonesian volunteers." The formation of a "Provisional Government" for East Timor was announced on December 17th. Four days later the UN Security Council voted unanimously for a Resolution calling for a total withdrawal by Indonesian forces. This was rejected by Indonesia, which has ignored many subsequent UN Resolutions on East Timor. By mid February 1976. the take over of East Timor was essentially completed. On May 31st the newly formed "People's Representative Council of East Timor" held a meeting which had only a single item on the agenda - a petition that East Timor be absorbed by Indonesia. In a ceremony reminiscent of the colonial era, an Indonesian "fact finding mission" which arrived on June 24th was handed a portion of East Timor soil and a nugget of gold. Five days later, Indonesia announced acceptance of East Timor and the existence of the new province was proclaimed on August 17th. Just over a week later, Indonesian leader Suharto admitted that FRETLIN was still fighting. Two months later, the Indonesian Defense Minister described FRETLIN as a "band of bandits" who would be eliminated in two to three months. In practice, the Indonesian Army was to mount repeated offensives against FRETLIN over the next few years, the largest being in 1978 and the fall of 1981. 1982 produced the first reports of human rights violations by Indonesia, with 4,000 Timorese being held in prison camps on the island of Atauro. By this time, Indonesia estimated that FRETLIN had been reduced to a force of around 130 combatants, while the guerrillas claimed a force of six companies - about 6,800 in total. Independent observers suggested figures ranging from 200 to 600. The province seemed quite in the first half of 1983, but fighting broke out again that August. The mid 1980s saw growing reports of further human rights violations - mass arrests, "resettlement programs", the execution of FRETLIN sympathisers executions during the military operations, conscription of Timorese civilians into the Indonesian Army. These heavy handed tactics seem to have worked. On 27th December 1988, Indonesia announced that the FRETLiN rebellion was finally over. Travel restrictions in the area would be lifted, and the region demilitarized. In October of that year Pope John Paul II visited Indonesia, and the authorities suppressed pro Timor demonstrations during his visit. To the Indonesian Government, the most disturbing feature of these demonstrations must have been the relative youth of the agitators many of whom must have been children at the time of the 1985 invasion . A new generation of Timorese was taking up the struggle for independence. A program of settling non-Timorese in the region caused protests and demonstrations in 1990. A report by Amnesty International in the following year spoke of an "accelerating program of short term detention, torture, and ill treatment of political opponents". On November 12, troops opened fire in Dili on a crowd of around 3,500 demonstrators. The number killed has never been fully established. At the time, the Indonesian Army claimed 19 deaths, and blamed the incident on a "misunderstood order" Opposition groups estimated the death toll at between 60 and 180. A later official investigation by the Indonesian government put the figure at 50. Human rights groups claimed that within days of the massacre, between 300 and 400 people had been arrested, and that between 60 and 80 were executed on November 15. By late November, claims were being voiced that more than 200 had been executed. By this time, East Timor had been a closed territory for 13 years. Some human rights groups have estimated the number of East Timorese killed or who have died of starvation in the long-running campaign at around 200,000. FRETLIN has offered a cease-fire, but this has been rejected by the Indonesian Government. The stalemate continues. The rebels lack the strength to defeat the Indonesian Army but that Army in turn has failed to reduce rebel strength in more than a decade of struggle. If the people of East Timor are ever to be given the chance to decide their own future, this can only be done with the help of the international community In 1992, Portugal asked President Bush to apply pressure to Indonesia to persuade that nation to accept the many UN resolutions on East Timor, but with a Presidential election looming and his own poll rating slipping there was little, in practice, the US President could do. For the moment the problems of East Timor remain on the international communities "back burner" ------------------------------------END------------------------------------ /\_ ____________ ______/\__________/\___ / \/ |\ __ / \____ / \ |\ __ / / | \ | \/ \/ & | _ \ | \ _\/ \/ \_________/\__/ _____________/\__/ +-------------------------------------------+ --------------------------------------------------------------------------