Yup specter is a beautiful thing to have on station at night. Nothing better than ir illumination of an enemy compound before door kicking time!
Yup specter is a beautiful thing to have on station at night. Nothing better than ir illumination of an enemy compound before door kicking time!
Crom Wills it[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Best way to think of TACP/JTAC/CCT...
JTAC is someone who is qualified/certified to provide terminal attack control. Same with FAC(A).
TACPs are USAF teams that are spread about the maneuver units and at the various echelons (battalion, brigade, division, corps). They consist of JTACs and ROMADs and an Air Liaison Officer (ALO) who is the senior guy for the TACP. Size varies but TACPs form the core of the Theater Air Control System (TACS) when combined with the ASOC and AOC. They way if flows (for the AF) is this: Army Company gets into a fire fight and requests CAS through the TACP. Bn TACP calls the Bde TACP who calls the Division TACP, etc until it gets to the AOC. The AOC tasks the aircraft to provide CAS.
CCT (Combat Control Team) are a part of the STS bubbas and fall under AFSOC (the other parts being PJs and Special Ops Weather Teams). CCTs generally (always some exceptions) can do ATC (also a cert/qual) and are JTAC qualified. In addition to the JTAC/ATC training, they also get a bunch of other specialized training such as HALO/HAHO, SCUBA, etc so they can link the SOF team with airpower without being a risk to the team. While we would love to put STS with every ODA, there simply aren't enough of them.
Well, I guess that's not as short as I hoped. I can talk for hours/days on this stuff.
Short answer with AC-130 is there is no standard other than the JTAC controls fires. I've seen the JTAC control the stack, the AC-130 control the stack, or a third party such as a U-28 in a warden role control the stack. Bottom line is while the JTAC may "own" it, who actually executes and talks depends on who has SA and the situation.
“Rules are made for people who aren't willing to make up their own. " - Chuck Yeager
Tex is right in regards to the who may control the stack,
The JTAC will own it all, but at any time he pass control of either the
Mark
Stack
Brief
Control
JTAC will 99% maintain control, as he is the terminal controller
The brief could be done by anybody who is in the stack, i personally like if theres an F-15E in the stack, i would generally put him at the top of the stack and pass him everything apart form control.
He has better SA, he has a WSO and if the JTAC is in the shit..he doesn't have to worry about passing SA updates and maintaining the stack
As for the TACP thing, to be honest, i dont fully know how they man there TACP's, i understand who does what and where but not the full manning
Noodle (20Jul15)
Great topic, gents. I'd like to ask a few more questions when I get more time tomorrow.
Quick question,
I've heard JTACs call "dash 1 or dash 2" (-1 or -2 -3 -4 blah blah) when controlling multiple a/c within the same flight. Is this allowed in combat enviroment? I imagine they add the dash to differenciate the calls within the flight but I dunno for sure.
PROFESSIONAL IDIOT (ISO 9001 CERTIFIED) || 31+27 / 08+40
Kimi (21Jul15)