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CNN Live Sunday

U.S. Military Looks to Moon for Strategic Guidance

Aired March 09, 2003 - 17:10   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: Top U.S. military brass are banking on a good battle plan to win a war in Iraq if it comes to that. They also look to the moon for strategic guidance. The proper phase of the moon is important. So what exactly is a moon phase? We asked CNN's meteorologist Orelon Sidney to explain.
ORELON SYDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Thank you. The earth, sun, moon relationship is what we're going to be talking about here. When you find the moon on the opposite side of the earth from the sun, you get what we call a full moon. That is, the sun's rays pass by the earth, bounce off the face of the moon, and then right back to the earth. We see that as a full disk, and, of course, we call that the full moon. In the other opposite situation, the moon is actually between the earth and the sun, and that's when we have what we call a new moon. The side to the earth is not illuminated. The side toward the sun is, and the moon to us looks dark, and so we call that a new moon or a dark moon. In between these two phases, we also have the transition phases between first quarter and third quarter. As the moon is working from new around to full, that's when you have your first quarter moon. As it works its way from full to new, that's when you have the third quarter moon. And this whole cycle takes just about a month.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, what does all this mean for military commanders? For that, we're going to go to our military analyst, retired General Wesley Clark, who joins us now from Little Rock, Arkansas. General Clark, thanks for being with us. You know, to a nonmilitary person, you think, all right, well, this new moon when there's essentially no moonlight, when it's essentially dark, that would be the best time to attack, true?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, it might be. We've got the superior technology. And what we always say in the United States army is we always say, we own the night. And for the Air Force, when you have precision guided weapons and excellent radar, and you can operate with global positioning system, you don't want moonlight.

COOPER: March 18, there's a full moon coming up. Obviously, that deadline we've all been talking about, March 17. So March 18 sticks out to a lot of people. Is there no way an attack would be launched under a full moon?

CLARK: I don't think you could ever say that. But I think it's an advantage for our aircraft, in particular, in the early going against Baghdad that there not be any moonlight. COOPER: What would be the disadvantages of launching an attack it with a full moon.

CLARK: You can always have people on the ground with binoculars looking up at the sky, and they may see aircraft, even if the radars don't pick them up. You can hear them in some cases depending on the winds and other noise conditions. You would look up. You might be using sound triangulation and pointing at a certain area of the sky and, if there's moonlight up there, if there's cloud cover, if the light conditions are just right, maybe some of these aircraft would be visible.

COOPER: You talk about the U.S. owning the night in a lot of these situations. What, specifically, allows us to own the night? Let's talk technology. What advantages do we have?

CLARK: Well, really, since the Vietnam War, over 30 years, we've been working on night vision goggles. The first sets of night vision equipment used an infrared spotlight, and then we moved into image intensification, and then we moved into a different part of the infrared spectrum where with super cool or cooled focal plane arrays we can actually pick up thermal emissions from targets. So, we have the most advanced equipment in the world. Our soldiers have it. Our fighting vehicles have it. And we're very good, even when there's zero moonlight.

COOPER: But an important point, night vision goggles - as I understand it, correct me if I'm wrong -- actually work best when there is a little bit of moonlight.

CLARK: That's exactly right. I think that's what you're looking through here is an image intensification, and depending on how much moonlight there is, the more moon, the brighter and clearer it is.

COOPER: I hate to put you on the spot, but we've got this calendar of the moon phases. March 18, as we said, is going to be a full moon. Quarter moon, March 25, and new moon, meaning a dark moon April 1. Now, you know, I don't want to, again, put you too far out on a limb here. But if that was the sole criteria as a military planner, what would you most be paying attention to?

CLARK: Well, I'd be looking for that period before moonrise. And after you pass the full moon each day the moon rises about an hour later, and it gets smaller. So sometime 24, 25 March on through the new moon is excellent for early evening darkness. And, of course, the longer you go past the 25th, the more complete the darkness is throughout the night, until on the new moon, there's no moon at all visible at any time during the night.

COOPER: All right. Retired General Wesley Clark, I appreciate your joining us. Very interesting stuff. Thanks.

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 - 17:10   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Top U.S. military brass are banking on a good battle plan to win a war in Iraq if it comes to that. They also look to the moon for strategic guidance. The proper phase of the moon is important. So what exactly is a moon phase? We asked CNN's meteorologist Orelon Sidney to explain.
ORELON SYDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Thank you. The earth, sun, moon relationship is what we're going to be talking about here. When you find the moon on the opposite side of the earth from the sun, you get what we call a full moon. That is, the sun's rays pass by the earth, bounce off the face of the moon, and then right back to the earth. We see that as a full disk, and, of course, we call that the full moon. In the other opposite situation, the moon is actually between the earth and the sun, and that's when we have what we call a new moon. The side to the earth is not illuminated. The side toward the sun is, and the moon to us looks dark, and so we call that a new moon or a dark moon. In between these two phases, we also have the transition phases between first quarter and third quarter. As the moon is working from new around to full, that's when you have your first quarter moon. As it works its way from full to new, that's when you have the third quarter moon. And this whole cycle takes just about a month.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, what does all this mean for military commanders? For that, we're going to go to our military analyst, retired General Wesley Clark, who joins us now from Little Rock, Arkansas. General Clark, thanks for being with us. You know, to a nonmilitary person, you think, all right, well, this new moon when there's essentially no moonlight, when it's essentially dark, that would be the best time to attack, true?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, it might be. We've got the superior technology. And what we always say in the United States army is we always say, we own the night. And for the Air Force, when you have precision guided weapons and excellent radar, and you can operate with global positioning system, you don't want moonlight.

COOPER: March 18, there's a full moon coming up. Obviously, that deadline we've all been talking about, March 17. So March 18 sticks out to a lot of people. Is there no way an attack would be launched under a full moon?

CLARK: I don't think you could ever say that. But I think it's an advantage for our aircraft, in particular, in the early going against Baghdad that there not be any moonlight. COOPER: What would be the disadvantages of launching an attack it with a full moon.

CLARK: You can always have people on the ground with binoculars looking up at the sky, and they may see aircraft, even if the radars don't pick them up. You can hear them in some cases depending on the winds and other noise conditions. You would look up. You might be using sound triangulation and pointing at a certain area of the sky and, if there's moonlight up there, if there's cloud cover, if the light conditions are just right, maybe some of these aircraft would be visible.

COOPER: You talk about the U.S. owning the night in a lot of these situations. What, specifically, allows us to own the night? Let's talk technology. What advantages do we have?

CLARK: Well, really, since the Vietnam War, over 30 years, we've been working on night vision goggles. The first sets of night vision equipment used an infrared spotlight, and then we moved into image intensification, and then we moved into a different part of the infrared spectrum where with super cool or cooled focal plane arrays we can actually pick up thermal emissions from targets. So, we have the most advanced equipment in the world. Our soldiers have it. Our fighting vehicles have it. And we're very good, even when there's zero moonlight.

COOPER: But an important point, night vision goggles - as I understand it, correct me if I'm wrong -- actually work best when there is a little bit of moonlight.

CLARK: That's exactly right. I think that's what you're looking through here is an image intensification, and depending on how much moonlight there is, the more moon, the brighter and clearer it is.

COOPER: I hate to put you on the spot, but we've got this calendar of the moon phases. March 18, as we said, is going to be a full moon. Quarter moon, March 25, and new moon, meaning a dark moon April 1. Now, you know, I don't want to, again, put you too far out on a limb here. But if that was the sole criteria as a military planner, what would you most be paying attention to?

CLARK: Well, I'd be looking for that period before moonrise. And after you pass the full moon each day the moon rises about an hour later, and it gets smaller. So sometime 24, 25 March on through the new moon is excellent for early evening darkness. And, of course, the longer you go past the 25th, the more complete the darkness is throughout the night, until on the new moon, there's no moon at all visible at any time during the night.

COOPER: All right. Retired General Wesley Clark, I appreciate your joining us. Very interesting stuff. Thanks.

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