aerocounsel.org

1. PROPOSAL FOR EMPLOYING "MANEUVER AIR SUPPORT"
CONCEPTS TO PROTECT MAIN SUPPLY ROUTES, PIPELINES,
BORDERS, KEY INFRASTRUCTURE AND COALITION
PERIMETERS ON THE NON-LINEAR BATTLEFIELD OF IRAQ
Charles "Chuck" Myers, I-Cubed LLC, and Mohawk Technologies
June 2004

2. PROBLEM A: BATTLE AGAINST THE EARTH; IRAQ IS
A VERY LARGE COUNTRY THE SIZE OF CALIFORNIA. U.S.
FORCES HAVE 325,000 KILOMETERS OF MSRS TO SECURE
24/7/365 TO SUSTAIN U.S. PRESENCE IN-COUNTRY

3. PROBLEM B: BATTLE AGAINST MAN; 27,000,000 IRAQIS
DIVIDED INTO 3 VIOLENTLY HOSTILE ETHNO-RELIGIOUS
FACTIONS; 6-MONTH “HONEYMOON” OF EUPHORIA OVER
REMOVING SADDAM REGIME IS OVER

4. Oil Pipelines and Facilities
Nassiria - Baghdad gas trunk line 345 km long, 1,020 mm diameter,
compressor station 2 x 10 MW turbine, two gas measurement and
distribution stations.
Baghdad - Basra trunk oil and product pipeline, 250 km long, 584 mm
diameter, four pump stations.
700,000 m3 oil tank farms.

5. Thousands of miles of Oil Pipelines to
protect

6. Oil Pipelines too vast for ground troops alone
to patrol

7. Iraq has hundreds of miles of borders with
hostile neighbors

8. MSRs: threat #1: Roadside bombs/command-detonated
land mines
Actual Iraqi Highway to Fallujah
?
?

9. Problem is civilian contractor and military resupply
vehicles are WHEELED and must travel on paved
roads like the tractor-trailers as shown here
Where are the roadside bombs?
Where is the enemy hiding?
?
?
?

10. Without continuous fixed-wing manned aircraft
? surveillance overhead of the roads/shoulders of
Main Supply Routes (MSRs), enemy is free to
place road bombs at will….200+ KIA, 4,000
wounded from just roadside bombs
Enemy has many places along paved roads to “sap” (dig)
underneath the edges and hide explosives or lay bombs in trash on
road edges and detonate when U.S. Convoy passes

11. MSRs Threat #2: Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs)
IDF M113
Most wheeled vehicles cannot have sacrificial walls; to protect them we must
detect and suppress/kill RPG men beforehand from the air

12. MANEUVER AIR SUPPORT:
SOLUTION FOR EXPLOITING AIR BATTLE SPACES TO HELP
CONTROL THE GROUND BELOW
OV-1 Mohawk quiet & robust,
armed observation/attack aircraft
to constantly surveil large areas
24/7/365 with humans in the
loop to investigate and verify
suspicious activities
Advanced electro-optical/IR
sensors to aid human vision
for maximum situational
awareness and investigatory
powers possible from the air;
can see at night and in bad
weather robs enemy of
concealment

13. OV-1D Mohawk
The OV-1D is a twin-turbine former U.S. Army fixed-wing tactical observation
and reconnaissance platform with attack capabilities. Mohawk Technologies
has obtained the technical drawings from the company that formerly built and
maintained the airframe, that outlines the installation and testing of various
sensor packages on the aircraft. This data will preclude the need for
extensive certification and FAA approval to get the system ready to start
flying on the several OV-1 Mohawks we already own and operate within the
required six-month timeframe.

14. Upgrading to the EO-IR or hyper-spectral
platform the aircraft will have the following
characteristics:
Airframe Specifications
§ Maximum Speed: 390 knots.
§ Stall Speed: 72 knots.
§ Payload: 1000 lbs.
§ Service Ceiling: 25,000 feet
§ Crew: 2
§ Engines: (2) Lycoming T-53-L701 1400 Shaft Horse Power
§ Internal Fuel: 297 Gallons
§ External Fuel: 300 or 600 Gallons
§ Take off over 50' obstacle: 1,750 feet
§ Landing distance over 50' obstacle: 1,128 feet
§ Rate of Climb: 3,618 feet per minute
§ Range @ 20,000 feet with 10% fuel reserves: 938 N.M.

15. Airframe Equipment
§ Martin Baker MK-J5d Ejection Seats
§ 7 x External stores locations
§ AN/APR-39-44 Countermeasures receiving set
§ AN/ALQ-147 InfraRed CounterMeasures set
§ M-130 Flares and chaff capable
§ IR Gray low-visibility paint scheme
§ UHF-VHF-GPS-TACAN
§ Crew floor armor
§ Engines on top of wings shields heat signature
§ Engines toed-out for 1-engine out performance
§ Mission equipment as required

16. STOL
OV-1 Mohawk’s Short
Take-Off and Landing
enables it to operate from
anywhere in Iraq which
has many short runways
or stretches of highway

17. Excellent Visibility

18. EO Sensors
The WESCAM MX-20 Sensor Pod
The MX-20 combines high magnification sensors with unsurpassed gyro-
stabilization, making it uniquely suited for surveillance and intelligence applications
over land or over sea. This mil-qualified turret has been designated AN/ASX-4 as
a proven asset recognized by all branches of the U.S. military. The turret's
5-axis gyro-stabilization and 6-axis vibration isolation achieves an
extremely low line-of-sight jitter in both fixed and rotary-wing aircraft. High
quality imagery is provided from the longest possible magnification ranges. The
largest aperture optics and 5 microradian stabilization put the highest resolution
on target.Step zoom lenses provide wider fields of view that allow the user to
perform both long-range surveillance and pinpoint identification without the
need for the aircraft to deviate from its flight path.

19. Specifications
Low magnification 3-chip color continuous zoom EO
o Spectral range - 450-650 nm
o 800 TV lines resolution
o FOV - 30-0.85 degree
o Digitization - 10 bit
· High magnification step zoom EO
o Spectral range - 450-650 nm, 3-chip color, 450-1000nm monochrome
o 570 - 800 TV lines resolution
o FOV - 0.6 - 0.09 degree
o Digitization - 10 bit
· MWIR sensor step zoom
o Spectral range - 3.4- 5 mm
o FOV - 22 - 0.29 degrees
o Sensitivity - 0.030 K
· Turret pointing stability - 5 mrad
· Pixel georeference error - 3m

20. Light Armaments
2.75” Hydra 70mm
unguided
& guided rockets,
gun pods, flares,
small bombs, supply
pods

21. Machine Gun Pods
.50 caliber Heavy Machine
Gun pods
Airdrop resupply pods

22. 12 x OV-1s can
surveil hundreds of
square miles 24/7/365
@100 mph faster
speeds and quieter
than helicopters to
pounce on detected
enemies immediately
and relay locations
FLIR and image intensifier
360 degree surveillance
balls already in use on
OV-1 Mohawks
JTACs can laser target mark for guided 2.75” Hydra-70 mm rockets

23. Discussion
Aerocounsel: Chuck Myers
cmyersaero@aol.com
I-Cubed LLC: George Davis
gdavis@i-cubedwv.com
Mohawk Technologies: Paul Pefley
crystapaul@aol.com