As the U.S. F-15 fighter dived through the clouds toward its target over Serbia, the electronic eye on its Aerogram missile, already on the way, flashed back the picture of a church spire.
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The target was a Serb surface-to-air missile battery nestled against the church wall. In the split-second before impact, the crew of the F-15 managed to flip their missile from its programmed target, exploding it harmlessly in a field nearby.
The crew’s quick action, captured on tape, may have saved the lives of people inside the church. It may have also saved NATO from another embarrassing incident of “collateral damage,” the NATO euphemism for bombs and missiles that have either gone astray or caused unintentional civilian casualties, so fueling anti-war sentiments.
“It was a great piece of work by the F-15 crew. But it happens rarely. Usually crews don’t have the time to redirect missiles or laser bombs whose electronic eye has a very limited and narrow vision of the target, like seeing it through a soda straw,” said Lt. Col. Jerry Evans, the battle staff director and ordnance specialist at this NATO base.
Once again the missions he helps direct made headlines last week, not so much for their success in degrading the military capacity of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, but for the obliteration of a residential block next to a military barracks and a residential neighborhood in Belgrade. The first target error caused the deaths of at least 20 people, 11 of them children, according to Serbian news broadcasts.
On Saturday, NATO admitted that an errant bomb hit a bus carrying civilians across a bridge. Serb media reported that at least 34 people were killed.
Destined to be remembered in this war is the chilling televised image of an “eye” missile zooming in on a bridge and relaying, a second before impact, the sight of a train coach with passengers on that bridge. Also the horror of bodies dug from the debris of residential homes or corpses scattered by the roadside after an attack in Kosovo on what looked like a military convoy but turned out to be Albanian refugees fleeing the Serbs in tractor-drawn carts.
The colonel rejects criticism that NATO planes fly too high, a factor that reduces target accuracy.
“The lower you go, the greater is the threat. A guy with a pistol could shoot down a low flying fighter jet if he hit the engine. In the Vietnam War they shot down planes with rifles. Sure, we could send the guys a lot lower, but then they wouldn’t come back and you wouldn’t be here asking me about collateral damage but (instead) why are we losing so many airplanes,” Evans said.
Collateral damage does occur, and in his own cautious way the colonel admitted his “smart” bombs are not always that smart and the electronic eye on missiles known as HM-130 is limited by its “soda straw” vision. The eye simply cannot see laterally and so those watching the signals sent back cannot determine if a train, a bus or a pedestrian is approaching the very narrow confines of its view of the target.
Videotapes of the missions have shown a car approaching and passing over a bridge, stopping and turning around to look what made the bang. Yet the electronic eye never registered the vehicle.
Its tunnel view image is relayed to a crew often 25,000 feet above the ground, who see it only on a small four-by-six inch screen where details are minute and difficult to discern. Their fighter plane is not static, but weaves, climbs and dives to escape hostile action.
Like the human eye, the electronic eye on the tip of a missile or bomb is vulnerable. Evans explained a cloud of debris could obscure its vision, as could dust, cloud cover or even the fallout from the explosion of a bomb dropped by another aircraft.
The laser bombs, too, have their limitations. “It’s like pointing a flashlight at this drawer lock here in my office. As long as the beam is on the target the bomb goes for it. If the beam is off or interrupted, the accuracy is off,” explained the former F-111 fighter pilot. Evans was a base commander and senior member of the Pentagon staff before being transferred to Aviano.
“When the eye saw the train on the bridge, it only registered the part of one carriage it was heading for, and that at the last moment. It was too late. You need at least three seconds before the image is relayed to the crew and before the crew can react,” he said.
Even advanced military technology does not permit either smart bombs or “seeing-eye missiles” to be detonated or aborted prior to impact. Once fired from the air, all missiles and bombs inevitably head for the ground and nothing can stop them.
Even if there is time to deflect them, that might not be a wise decision.
“You might direct them away from the target but inadvertently into a hospital or an orphanage, a cruise ship or a ferry,” Evans said.
As the tempo of the raids increase, Europeans are becoming increasingly perturbed by media reports the bombs contain depleted uranium that may cause genetic mutations. Today the phrase “collateral damage” is not only applied to civilians killed, but to the danger of toxic material released from raids on the huge oil refinery at Pancevo on the periphery of Belgrade. The raid forced 80,000 people to be evacuated from the area.
Scientists have warned if a neighboring fertilizer plant is hit, by design or accident, the stored chemicals could be blown into the atmosphere, causing a catastrophe for large parts of Europe.
A major disaster caused by a renegade bomb could turn the war in Belgrade’s favor. Already, U.S. Air Force Cmdr. Gen. Richard Hawley has warned that U.S. stocks of its 900 cruise missiles have been virtually exhausted and 2,200 replacements might not arrive on time, leaving the Air Force to make do with less intelligent weapons–and perhaps more dramatic collateral damage.
On this air base at the foot of the European Alps, the hub of the U.S. fighter force and headquarters of the 31st Fighter Wing, nothing is left to chance in order to minimize the risk of collateral damage.
Ordnance specialists triple-check each batch of missiles and bombs, all assembled only prior to a raid. Maintenance men run their palms over the surface of the deadly weapons to make sure the rumps are smooth. Tail fins are probed. On occasions a fin has fallen off and caused a projectile to deviate.
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The electronic eye is unpacked from a specially padded case, not unlike that of a telescope, and tested by an “eye specialist” who makes sure it is fully functional.
Once briefed on their targets and missions, pilots run another manual check on planes and ordnances before igniting their engines. On their return, squadron commanders hold debriefing sessions to determine what went right and what went wrong.
“These guys are human and they are perfectionists. They want to do things right. They want to know why there was collateral damage and how to improve their performance,” Evans said.
“Folks back home have the impression we work in pristine conditions. Americans have such high expectations as a nation. But this is not a video game. Folks forget these guys fly in a hostile environment and have to fight their way to the target and out again. People at home don’t see these planes turning, twisting and climbing. It’s unrealistic to think we can do these missions surgically.
“Things do happen. Conditions change. Winds can blow across a target. A bomb might hit a military target containing explosives we didn’t know were there and the detonation is greater than anticipated. We might hit an ammunition dump.