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CNN Sunday Morning

U.S.-Led Coalition Keeps Close Eye on Afghan Weather

Aired October 14, 2001 - 10:21   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.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Certainly the U.S.-led coalition in the war against terrorism is keeping a close eye on the weather.

Donna Kelley is with us again to talk more about what the military is going to do to prepare to fight, as winter hits.

DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Martin, thanks very much. And joining us from Washington is a military analyst, retired Gen. Don Shepperd. He is in our Washington bureau today. General, good to see you again. Tough enough to fight in Afghanistan, we have talked about before, but now here comes winter, probably about five weeks away. How do you prepare for that?

DON SHEPPERD, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, let's run the telestrator here and the animation we have got. This is a tough place to fight. It's half way around the world. It takes a long time to get there, and winter complicates everything you do. The weather -- resuming in on Afghanistan, we're going to go on into the mountains here a little bit more.

Let's talk about how this really affects military operations. What you see generally here is the plains area down around here in Kandahar. That's OK. But these mountain valleys, in which people and equipment move and lot of these caves are, really complicates the picture when winter comes. Late this month, comes the rains, then comes freezing rains, then come deep, deep snows and bad weather.

I'm just going to draw over the top of this map, and let's just take the mountains here and a mountain valley. Let's put a helicopter in this valley, and let's put some weather in here. What do the mountains do here is: We have fighter aircraft above. They can drop things through the weather if they know where the coordinates are.

But if they can't see it visually, they can't drop laser-guided bombs, and they can't hit targets of opportunity, unless those targets can be -- coordinates of those targets can be rapidly relayed to them. So I'm going to do a couple of other things here. I'm going to put a helicopter back down in here.

The other thing that the helicopter does is that the helicopter uses night vision goggles in night as protection, because in all of these hillsides, shoulder-fired missiles and anti-aircraft artillery from the hills can shoot down at the helicopters that are going in. So again they use night. When you bring bad weather in and moisture, it affects our ability to operate in bad weather at night.

So this just complicates the whole thing -- the ability to use air and also our intelligence assets. Now, let's move from this telestrator on to some before-and-after pictures. And let me contrast what good weather will do for you with what bad weather does to you.

KELLEY: Yes, there is the airstrip, before and after.

SHEPPERD: Yes, exactly. Here is the right airstrip taken from space, or it could also be taken from a U2 type platform. And what you've got is a very clear picture of the aircraft that you are interested in hitting right here, and it's easy to get that picture. Now if you bring in bad weather and you want to see what damage you've done, let's go to the next - the after.

Here's the damage photo, and you have to wait for good weather from satellites to get this kind of damaged photo. It's true you have radar capabilities from airborne platforms. Now just leave it at that. But the problem is the airborne platforms with radar would not tell you exactly what damage you have done.

So it really affects our ability to truly assess the effective strikes, and it affects your ability to hit targets that are not radar reflected. So it really complicates our life, Donna.

KELLEY: Yes. And of course, there is just the comfort factor even with the troops. How do you help prepare the troops?

SHEPPERD: Well, the troops have winter gear, and they're trained in winter fighting. So cold weather doesn't affect the troops, but it does slow down movements. What you really want to avoid -- now go to the telestrator again here, and I will draw -- I will draw something on the telestrator.

What you really want to avoid, if you will, is putting vehicles, wheeled vehicles, down on these valleys so that they can be ambushed by troops in the bad weather, where you can't get air support. So again, it slows things down. It makes our ability to get intelligence a real problem, and weather is a major factor, and it's coming in the end of this month. That's why you are hearing the talk already about this may extend over the winter months into next spring, would have yet. Weather is a major factor, even with our good weapons and our good intelligence -- Donna.

KELLEY: Yes. Do you have to have visuals, and it can affect some of the equipment that really the intelligence gathering. All right, General Don Shepperd, thanks very much, and we will be seeing you again soon.

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