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Weather And Lofty Terrain Will Hamper U.S. Attacks in Afghanistan
LONDON, Sept 29 (News Agencies) - Miserable winter weather and lofty terrain could severely hamper a U.S. war on Afghanistan, said NewScientist.com.
Cloud cover and snow will increasingly make laser-guided bombing impossible and few aircraft can work efficiently at the high altitudes of the Afghan mountain ranges, according to a British military expert.
Laser-guided bombs, which were used in the Gulf war, are not reliable unless the skies are clear.
"The problem is that lasers don't work in bad weather," says Robert Hewson, editor of Jane's Air-launched Weapons. "Rain and snow scatter the beams and they don't pass through clouds."
This could particularly affect operations around the southern city of Kandahar, where deep tunnels in nearby hills offered protection against Russian air raids in the 1980s. Snowfall is more common there than around the capital, Kabul.
If the weather is too dire to use laser-guided bombs, another option would be to use bombs fitted with Global Positioning System (GPS) units, says Hewson. These are programmed with target coordinates and have a GPS receiver built into the tail. The GPS receiver checks the bomb's position with a GPS satellite and steers it towards the target.
But GPS-guided bombs also have drawbacks, not least of which is that they are far less accurate than laser-guided bombs. "You have to have immensely detailed information of the area you want to target," says Hewson. "And if your target can move, you can't be sure you'll get it."
Special forces in Afghanistan will now be trying to locate key targets from the ground, using laser-range-finders to record their exact coordinates, says Hewson.
Their missions will have to contend with sub-zero temperatures, as winter draws closer. In the capital city of Kabul, temperatures are likely to fall to around minus 10 °C by January, says Andy Yeatman of the U.K. Meteorological Office in Bracknell, Berkshire. Just 22 miles north of Kabul, in Bagram, is Afghanistan's only all-weather airfield, which has been cited as a potential key base for NATO forces.
In some of the mountain valleys, conditions will get much worse, says Yeatman. "We could see temperatures down to minus 30 °C in some of the high valleys."
It is not just the weather that could cause problems though. "If ground troops need close air support with heavy supplies being dropped off, altitude will be an issue," says Hewson.
Afghanistan has mountain ranges peaking at over 6100 meters (20,000 feet) and the thinner air at that altitude make it difficult for aircraft to operate.
"It's not a problem for B-52s, but helicopters will have a real problem above 10,000 feet and even lower than that if they're carrying a lot of troops or equipment," says Hewson. "They're just not designed for fighting people in the mountains."
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