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CNN Live Sunday

How Dangerous Are Sand Storms?

Aired March 09, 2003 - 18:24   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.


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Retired general and CNN military analyst Wesley Clark joins us now. General, how would this complicate matters for the U.S. battle plans, particularly once combat were to begin, 80 mile per hour winds?
GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Fredricka, when you're on the ground or in the air, you have to contend with the environmental circumstances. So let's say the decision is made to go. Then we start moving. We may fight, we may just stay in formation. It's 300 miles or so from Kuwait up to Baghdad. And if we hit these sand storms, it makes movement difficult. It makes target detection and acquisition difficult. It means battles would be at shorter range. It means some of the precision weapons probably couldn't be used because laser beams don't go through this dust very well, and it just complicates every single activity the troops are going to have on the ground, whether it be going out and maintaining their equipment, or maneuvering, or resupplying, or repairing engines, or whatever.

WHITFIELD: All right, doesn't end plans, but it would certainly impact and change plans. Let's talk particularly about those air plans involving helicopters or any kind of low-flying aircraft.

CLARK: Well, for the helicopters, they are going to fly as close to the ground normally as they can because this gives them protection. Now, what the sand storm does, of course, is it obscures the ground, so when you get down into that and there is a lot of dust, you can't see it, it raises the risks considerably, especially if you're flying at night, where you're wearing night vision goggles, and the key thing is to maintain your sense of the horizon and to maintain all-around situational awareness. The sand storms are a real complicating factor.

WHITFIELD: And we know how complicated it can be, because in Kuwait not long ago four died when a Blackhawk got caught up in a sand storm and came crashing down.

CLARK: That's exactly right. Because when you're in there and you're moving and you've got everything engaged, and then you lose your situational awareness, you can't quite see where the horizon is -- you do have a radar altimeter, but the radar altimeter is not able to look forward. And in the instant there when you lose it with the sand and obscuration, you may lose control of your aircraft.

WHITFIELD: All right. Let's talk a little bit more detailed about those changing of plans, the logistics here when you're dealing with your vehicles. And obviously there is going to be a whole other layer of maintenance when you're dealing with this kind of flying sand.

CLARK: Exactly. And so one of the things we have to do is we have to refuel every six to eight hours when we're moving forward. Another thing we have to do is we've got to get out, we have to check oil levels in the equipment. And then there is non-routine maintenance, if something breaks we may have to remove the engine or whatever.

All of this is much more complicated when the sand is blowing. In fact, a lot of it you just can't do because you can't risk contaminating the parts, the engine or the oil, whatever, with the blowing sand. It just doesn't get done.

Now, we wouldn't expect a condition like this to last for days, but even six or eight hours, it just slows things down.

WHITFIELD: Besides the vehicles then, how about the troops, the sand flying in the eyes, et cetera, really causing visibility to be quite murky?

CLARK: Well, it's pretty miserable. And naturally, if you're driving into this, you're not going to be able to see very well. What it means is that you're going to have -- you're going to have dust covers on your machine guns and everything that's exposed, if you have them. And when you're working on the equipment or driving, you're going to try to organize your immediate surroundings so you've got protection. So you're going to keep your hand out, you're going to put a shield up or whatever. Everything makes it difficult.

WHITFIELD: And quickly, what about the weaponry when we talk about laser-guided bombs, do they have a difficult time working in these kinds of conditions?

CLARK: You're not going to be able to use the laser-guided bomb in that kind of obscuration, because probably can't get the readout from the laser, and you could use their global positioning system (UNINTELLIGIBLE) bomb, that would work. But the precision stuff, the laser range finder, et cetera, you're not going to be able to do that very well in those kinds of conditions.

WHITFIELD: All right, General Clark, thanks very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired March 9, 2003 - 18:24   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Retired general and CNN military analyst Wesley Clark joins us now. General, how would this complicate matters for the U.S. battle plans, particularly once combat were to begin, 80 mile per hour winds?
GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Fredricka, when you're on the ground or in the air, you have to contend with the environmental circumstances. So let's say the decision is made to go. Then we start moving. We may fight, we may just stay in formation. It's 300 miles or so from Kuwait up to Baghdad. And if we hit these sand storms, it makes movement difficult. It makes target detection and acquisition difficult. It means battles would be at shorter range. It means some of the precision weapons probably couldn't be used because laser beams don't go through this dust very well, and it just complicates every single activity the troops are going to have on the ground, whether it be going out and maintaining their equipment, or maneuvering, or resupplying, or repairing engines, or whatever.

WHITFIELD: All right, doesn't end plans, but it would certainly impact and change plans. Let's talk particularly about those air plans involving helicopters or any kind of low-flying aircraft.

CLARK: Well, for the helicopters, they are going to fly as close to the ground normally as they can because this gives them protection. Now, what the sand storm does, of course, is it obscures the ground, so when you get down into that and there is a lot of dust, you can't see it, it raises the risks considerably, especially if you're flying at night, where you're wearing night vision goggles, and the key thing is to maintain your sense of the horizon and to maintain all-around situational awareness. The sand storms are a real complicating factor.

WHITFIELD: And we know how complicated it can be, because in Kuwait not long ago four died when a Blackhawk got caught up in a sand storm and came crashing down.

CLARK: That's exactly right. Because when you're in there and you're moving and you've got everything engaged, and then you lose your situational awareness, you can't quite see where the horizon is -- you do have a radar altimeter, but the radar altimeter is not able to look forward. And in the instant there when you lose it with the sand and obscuration, you may lose control of your aircraft.

WHITFIELD: All right. Let's talk a little bit more detailed about those changing of plans, the logistics here when you're dealing with your vehicles. And obviously there is going to be a whole other layer of maintenance when you're dealing with this kind of flying sand.

CLARK: Exactly. And so one of the things we have to do is we have to refuel every six to eight hours when we're moving forward. Another thing we have to do is we've got to get out, we have to check oil levels in the equipment. And then there is non-routine maintenance, if something breaks we may have to remove the engine or whatever.

All of this is much more complicated when the sand is blowing. In fact, a lot of it you just can't do because you can't risk contaminating the parts, the engine or the oil, whatever, with the blowing sand. It just doesn't get done.

Now, we wouldn't expect a condition like this to last for days, but even six or eight hours, it just slows things down.

WHITFIELD: Besides the vehicles then, how about the troops, the sand flying in the eyes, et cetera, really causing visibility to be quite murky?

CLARK: Well, it's pretty miserable. And naturally, if you're driving into this, you're not going to be able to see very well. What it means is that you're going to have -- you're going to have dust covers on your machine guns and everything that's exposed, if you have them. And when you're working on the equipment or driving, you're going to try to organize your immediate surroundings so you've got protection. So you're going to keep your hand out, you're going to put a shield up or whatever. Everything makes it difficult.

WHITFIELD: And quickly, what about the weaponry when we talk about laser-guided bombs, do they have a difficult time working in these kinds of conditions?

CLARK: You're not going to be able to use the laser-guided bomb in that kind of obscuration, because probably can't get the readout from the laser, and you could use their global positioning system (UNINTELLIGIBLE) bomb, that would work. But the precision stuff, the laser range finder, et cetera, you're not going to be able to do that very well in those kinds of conditions.

WHITFIELD: All right, General Clark, thanks very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com