Painting the Target

IR Laser from aircraft on landing zone in Afghanistan

(This is a quick dispatch on the fly.  No time for editing, so please take it as is.)

02 November 2012

The Benghazi attack leaves many open questions.  It has been established that high level failures occurred.  The fact that our Ambassador is dead is evidence, and there is much more.

A subject that continues to garner attention is that one of the former SEALs was “painting” or lasing a target.  Some people have opined that he would not have painted the mortar position unless there was an armed aircraft overhead.  As much as I do not want Obama in the White House, we should still stick with facts and not supposition.  The facts are enough.

It is untrue that people paint only when there are armed aircraft overhead.  In fact, I have seen many times where people paint from the ground or from the air, simply as an IR laser pointer.  Troops often using lasers on their rifles, or the excellent Air Force JTACs will sparkle something with no intention of putting a bomb on it.

The two green images in this dispatch were taken the same night.  We were waiting on some helicopters to come pick us up, and I was wearing a PVS-14 night vision monocular -- and had the same on my camera -- when suddenly an aircraft that we did not even know was there, started painting our LZ (landing zone).  Importantly, on night mode, the camera would have gotten the laser even without the PVS-14.

Presumably the pilot was painting so the helicopters could find us.  Not that the helicopters needed it, but for whatever reason, the pilot began sparkling.  Normally I only see aircraft sparkle when they are saying something like, “There are about ten men in the treeline to your northwest.  Watch my laser.”  Or they are about to drop a bomb, or they are spotting for a missile shot.

It is possible that any painting that occurred in Benghazi was to signify the mortar position to other ground forces, or maybe for someone overhead.  But again, the idea that there had to be an armed AC-130 (or whatever) before someone would paint, is false.

Aircraft painting helicopter LZ in Kandahar Province, 2011. Anybody with a normal video camera could see this from great distance.

He might have been painting for the Predator, or some other guys up on a high floor, or maybe other fighters might have been working toward the position to kill the mortar crew.  I have zero idea.  Painting the target also can help the snipers pop the guys.  He could have been painting for someone else who was using a machinegun, a grenade launcher, or something else.

What can be said is that to crank up an IR laser in a relatively advanced country like Libya, should be assumed to designate the source even brighter than the target.  The Libyans might use normal camera gear, or have cheap night vision gear that can be bought all over the world.  They might just use smartphone cameras.

Enemy are known to do this in Pakistan.  They watch for our lasers to know when missiles or bombs might be on the way.  They use normal cameras to find people who are putting out IR beacons for air strikes.  Nothing I am saying is classified.  I learned this from paying attention to our enemies.

If US Soldiers do not know this, it is a training failure.  The enemy surely knows it.  Al Qaeda figured out how to drop the towers in New York.  They have long ago figured out IR sources.  They are savages, but they are smart, and IR lasers and strobes are simple as pie.

Air Force IR laser during mission in 2010, Kandahar Province. Modified Canon Mark II 5d camera, but no night vision.

If I were the enemy commander, I would have put people in key positions in advance with night vision or video cameras specifically to watch for IR sources, with instructions to call me if they see any.  Since I already knew I would be attacking Americans who use IR, I would have made sure to get this gear and practice with it.

If a laser is coming from the sky, it is time to scatter or get very close to Americans.  If the source is coming from a building, I would have a forces on the ground with their own cameras or night vision pre-designated to attack all IR sources that they can get to.

The investment required to see our lasers is at most a couple of hundred dollars for a used camera, and the moment he begins to sparkle the laser, his position is burned, if it was not already.

People will be painting tonight in Afghanistan.  It is common practice.  Afghans have been caught with normal video cameras with night modes strapped to their weapons.

Streaks in the background are blacked helicopters. Canon Mark II 5d camera is modified to see IR, but no night vision.

We had a helicopter shot down this year in Afghanistan during a pitch black night during a MEDEVAC.  A suicide bomb detonated and the helicopter launched for casualties.  It is possible that the suicide attack was actually a helicopter ambush.  One pilot told me it was the darkest night he had ever seen.  The chances are very low of hitting a blacked out helicopter on a pitch black night, using an RPG.  Bets are on that he aimed at the IR strobes and used a camera, or maybe it was an actual surface to air missile.  Still it was lucky, but it takes a lot less luck if you can see the IR strobes, and if you are in a position where you know he will be low and slow.

Recently in Norway, Norwegian Soldiers told me that in Afghanistan they got ambushed one night by accurate machinegun fire.  When they switched off the IR strobes, the enemy firing stopped.  When they switched the strobes back on, the firing resumed.  They switched them off, and the firing stopped.

We still own the night, sort of, but not for long.  It is contested.

Read the complete post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/michaelyon-online/~3/9y1ONA-XqoI/painting-the-target.htm