VLATME System Analysis, Recommendations and Conclusions

摘要

Army aviation units perform at least one of five functions of land combat: firepower, mobility, intelligence, command and control, an combat service support. Future Army aviation tactical missions can be expected to vary little from those of today. The high threat battlefield projected for the future will force changes in tactics and equipment; but the basic missions will be the same. Army aviation resources, are expensive and therefore not limitless. Commanders have always been, and always will be faced with resource constraints which force very tough tactical decisions on their part. How effectively a commander manages limited resources then can often determine the outcome of the battle. Most likely, we will have to fight the first battle of the next war against an enemy, superior in numbers, who is at least our equal in technology. The importance of winning that first battle cannot be overstressed, with Resource management playing an important role. The tactical missions were analyzed with this resource management requirement in mind to determine if, in fact, a VLATME derived system would be beneficial. All attempts to overlay an Air Traffic Control system as we know it today proved futile since peacetime practices and procedures could not be readily extended into the 'high threat first battle' environment. The increased mobility offered by the VLATME equipment was more than offset by the structuring and employment concepts of the present Air Traffic Control system. This document takes a fresh look at the problem from a purely asset management standpoint with the commander as the key 'player' with ready access to real time information relative to his Army aviation assets.