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American Morning

Interview With Don Shepperd

Aired October 23, 2001 - 09:47   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: U.S.-led forces virtually control the skies over Afghanistan. This superiority is allowing the Air Force and Navy to bring back a technique used in the Persian Gulf War, the use of so-called "kill boxes."

Now, you might know what that -- not know what that means. So, that's why we turn to Miles O'Brien right now, who's standing by at the Big Board with an explanation for us.

Good morning again, Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. This is -- we're talking about targets of opportunity here, giving the pilot of a fighter aircraft a place to fly to and then some rules of engagement. If he should see something on the ground moving that fits the rules, he has the blanket authority to fire his weapons and destroy that target of opportunity.

With me to help explain all of this is General Don Shepperd, our military analyst. It's a bit of a euphemism that the Pentagon has been referring to "kill boxes." What is that?

RETIRED GEN. DON SHEPPERD, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Basically they're calling it engagement zone, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right. Kill boxes, engagement zones: Whatever you may call it, it's basically the same concept. Fly to a certain sector and then you have certain rules to go by.

Let's take a look at the animation we've put together. Imagine a grid, if you will, over Afghanistan: not sure that this is the right scale necessarily of the size of the grid, but maybe so. And a fighter pilot goes in. What are his marching orders, if you will?

SHEPPERD: The concept is he's an AFAC, an airborne forward air controller. We used this extensively in North Vietnam. I did it over a long period of time in North Vietnam as a (UNINTELLIGIBLE) forward air controller.

Basically, a forward air controller goes into the air with his rules of engagement. He looks for targets. Those targets may be relayed to him by a Predator that's airborne. It could be off-board things -- off-board things, such as the Joint Stars. It could be from satellite photos relayed from headquarters. He finds things on the ground. He puts his cursor over them, and he can strike it or he can call in other aircraft to help him strike as well. Anything that's in the strike packages can be employed against the targets in accordance with the rules.

O'BRIEN: So we can make an assumption that each of these boxes would have a similar array of surveillance capability to give that pilot the capability. The Predator is an unmanned drone which can sort of loiter over an area. And of course, the space-based assets we all know about those as well.

And give me a sense of -- once that information goes back to a satellite, it can be relayed in fact back to the fighter. Give me a sense of what the rules are, though. Is it very clear, for example, if you see a truck and it's a fuel truck, a fuel truck which perhaps could tank up, you know, fill up the tank of a tank, is that a fair target? How do they set that up?

SHEPPERD: It depends. You've got to be very careful. For instance, clearly a proper target would be a tank or an artillery piece. Trucks and that type of thing become a little more problematic, because trucks can haul fuel, they can haul other things as well. So you have to be very, very careful to set the rules of engagement tight, and then call back to headquarters. and say: "This is what I see. Do you want me to strike it?"

Now the whole concept is sensor to shooter, from any sensor to get the eyes of the pilot and the ordnance on the target.

O'BRIEN: Now you mentioned that call back to headquarters where inherently there is a lag time. How much can that hinder decision- making capability? After all, if something is moving down a road, you might not have time for those decisions.

SHEPPERD: Well, in the future the idea is seconds. We're now down to minutes and even perhaps hours on some of these things. But these airborne forward air controllers can go out and refuel from tanker tracks and spend a long time.

The whole idea is sensor to shooter and ubiquitous air over the target areas at all times, so nobody can move or feel free to move without being seen and attacked.

O'BRIEN: This is not a new concept. The fact that it is being employed here tells you what about the phase of the air campaign right now.

SHEPPERD: What it tells me is we feel perfectly at will to operate any time day or night over the whole area there. And the other thing is we are really getting good at employing our air and space assets for all services to find and service targets on the ground.

O'BRIEN: General Don Shepperd, we appreciate you helping us understand what a kill zone is all about. And we appreciate your insights as always in general. And we invite you to find out more about all these sorts of things by joining us at cnn.com on the Web. The AOL keyword is CNN.

Among the many things you can find out about are many of the aircraft involved. We do have an interactive map on the scene, which gives you some of the direct reporting from some of our people in and around Afghanistan. It's a very interesting way to learn a little bit more about this whole situation with a little bit more depth and context.

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