Thəorətic Muslim;4346310 said:
As far as the US Army goes:
The US Army has control of rotor-wing used from Attack, Medivacs, to Airborne Control on rotor-wing.
Men in each squad are trained to be able to call in strikes from Army aviation assets.
Conflict arises when Fixed Wing aircraft are necessary, as Mr. JHungary has stated with the AFO.
After some experiences gained from Afghanistan and Iraq, among other engagements, the Pentagon has created Unified Control HQs, where each of the forces have liaisons stationed. Where a 2nd Lt. (Platoon leader) can call in an air strike from bombers overhead to the HQ, the Army liaison tells the Air Force liaison who gets approval from an AF operations commander in charge or the HQ commander (depending on where and when) and then the liaison orders any bomber in the area to start their run.
I know soldiers who have returned from duty complaining about the time the AF takes to get a bomb strike, but in all fairness, the US Army Apaches aren't statistically any faster. It comes down to what assets are available. And more importantly the inter-forces rivalry in willingness to point fingers quickly.
Let me explain further how Army/Air Force Operate in US Military.
Before any Ops, you attend a briefing. Within the briefing, you are noted the objective, environment, mission parameter (Time and date and temperature and so on) and then your asset and estimate enemy asset.
What they will do is, they will tell you which support element are available to you, say for example, in this mission you will have 4 batteries of 155mm call sign "buddy" 2 squadron of F-15E call sign "angel" station at grid something. And so on...
Then if there are no AF Asset involved in the Mission, you will not have a JTAC or TACP team assign to you. Don't ask me what is the different between JTAC and TACP, I am no good on those AF acronym.........
Then in the field, if you have the need to call any Army Asset, you would pull your comm and establish Direct communication to your asset and ask for anything you need (Fire Support, Extraction, Insertion, reinforcement) However, if you want fast Air or any AF asset, you pull your JTAC team and your Observer will ask their parental unit to send you the asset you need.
The different is, while your unit, either regimental command or Brigade command have control over the Army Asset, they command the Apache or Kiowa or so on, your immediate supervisor do not have authority over Air Force Asset, if they do not have the bird take off at that moment you are running your ops, then
YOU WILL NOT HAVE AIR SUPPORT. Top Brass cannot pop down to the Military Airfield and yell at those fighter pilot and order them to take off, but they can if they were apache pilot.
After I left, I heard that they adopted a Joint Command structure, but as far as I can figure this out, they just put an Army Commander sitting next to an Air Force Commander in the same room. With all that baffling still going on. It eliminate the time to notify the command of the other side. That's it.