In a move that harkens back to the days of recy­cled World War II tor­pedo bombers sheep-​​dipped as close air sup­port planes, the Navy intends to field a lim­ited num­ber of turbo-​​prop attack planes out­fit­ted with the most mod­ern sur­veil­lance, track­ing and weapons sys­tems to help spe­cial ops forces keep track of bad guys and, in a pinch, put war­heads on foreheads. 

Call it an A-​​1 Skyraider on steroids a Back to the Future-​​resurrection of a kind of plane last seen pound­ing enemy posi­tions with rock­ets, guns and bombs over Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in the 1960s. 

Code named Imminent Fury, the clas­si­fied, year-​​long pro­gram has so far pro­duced one fully-​​outfitted plane and is set to field four more to directly sup­port SEALs and other oper­a­tors on the bat­tle­field in Afghanistan. 

According to a source close to the pro­gram who declined to be named, the Navy has leased an EMB-​​314 Super Tucano for the job. Made by the Brazilian aero­space com­pany Embraer, it is now being tested on desert ranges in California and the ser­vices top test facil­ity at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md. The Navy loaded it up with sen­sors and weapons sys­tems that would make an F-​​16 pilot blush, the source said. 

With top end electro-​​optical and infrared sen­sors, laser and GPS-​​guided bombs, rock­ets, twin .50 cal. machine guns, encrypted radios and even the capa­bil­ity to tie in UAV sur­veil­lance feeds the Super Tucano out­fit­ted for the SEALs is a ground-​​pounders angel from above. 

Military​.com con­tacted the Navy for com­ment on this story, but despite a detailed pub­lic brief­ing on the pro­gram in March by a high-​​ranking pro­gram offi­cial, the ser­vice declined to elab­o­rate on the pro­gram other than to say in a writ­ten state­ment: Imminent Fury is a clas­si­fied Navy ini­tia­tive to address urgent warfighter needs. Initial devel­op­men­tal test­ing has been promis­ing and the Navy is cur­rently con­duct­ing dis­cus­sions with our Joint part­ners on var­i­ous courses of action as this ini­tia­tive moves forward. 

News of the Imminent Fury pro­gram comes as com­man­ders in Afghanistan wres­tle with the per­sis­tent prob­lem of civil­ian casu­al­ties result­ing from errant or mis­taken bomb strikes typ­i­cally from air­craft high above the battlefield. 

A recent inves­ti­ga­tion report on a high-​​profile friendly-​​fire inci­dent in Farah province showed that high-​​altitude B-​​1 bombers had lit­tle abil­ity to dis­crim­i­nate enemy from civil­ians dur­ing sev­eral bomb­ings in sup­port of Marine spec ops forces under Taliban assault. 

Many argue that low-​​altitude air­craft that can fly for long peri­ods over com­bat zones loaded with var­i­ous weapons are needed to avoid such inci­dents. For advo­cates of the Imminent Fury pro­gram, the Super Tucano with its five-​​hour endurance fits the bill for a so-​​called counter insur­gency aircraft.

(more…)

From today’s top head­line at Military​.com.

A Navy SEAL who was killed while lead­ing a recon­nais­sance mis­sion in Afghanistan will receive the nation’s high­est mil­i­tary award, the Medal of Honor.

Lt. Michael P. Murphy, 29, of Patchogue on Long Island, is the first Medal of Honor recip­i­ent for com­bat in Afghanistan, the Navy said in a state­ment Thursday.

In late June 2005, Murphy led a four-​​man recon­nais­sance mis­sion east of Asadabad try­ing to find a key Taliban leader in advance of a mis­sion to cap­ture or destroy the local mili­tia lead­er­ship. Taliban sym­pa­thiz­ers alerted fight­ers to the SEALs’ posi­tions, and the four men were quickly out­num­bered and came under fire, the Navy said.

Even after being wounded, Murphy crawled into the open to make a radio call for help and still con­tin­ued to fight, the Navy said. The call ulti­mately allowed the res­cue of one wounded SEAL and the recov­er­ies of the bod­ies of Murphy and two oth­ers killed in the firefight.

President Bush will present the Medal of Honor to Murphy’s par­ents at the White House on Oct. 22.

“I think it is a pub­lic recog­ni­tion of what we knew about Michael, of his inten­sity, his focus, his devout loy­alty to home and fam­ily, his coun­try and espe­cially to his SEAL team­mates and the SEAL com­mu­nity,” Murphy’s father, Daniel Murphy told Newsday for a story pub­lished on its Web site.

The Medal of Honor is the nation’s high­est mil­i­tary award for valor in action against an enemy force. Murphy is the fourth Navy SEAL to receive the medal and the first since Vietnam.

The other two SEALs killed in the Afghan fire­fight, Petty Officer 2nd Class Danny P. Dietz, 25, of Littleton, Colo., and Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew G. Axelson, 29, of Cupertino, Calif., pre­vi­ously received the Navy Cross, the second-​​highest honor.

A U.S. heli­copter that went to res­cue the SEALs was shot down by enemy fire; 16 SEALs and Army spe­cial oper­a­tions troops were killed in the crash.

The entire bat­tle resulted in the worst single-​​day loss of life for Navy Special Warfare per­son­nel since World War II.

Two Medals of Honor have been awarded posthu­mously in the Iraq war. 

– Christian