fac means Air Force Forward Controller, and its predecessor was the Tactical Air Control Group. Below is what I have compiled for everyone, for your reference!
What does fac mean?
FAC=forward air controller, air force forward controller
p>Fac Air Force Forward Controller War Development
Korean War
Although TACP is relatively simple, its shortcomings are also very obvious; it can only observe visual distance and control areas It is very limited. Although it can be driven by car, the distance of the communication system it is equipped with is still limited. Since it often performs tasks at the forefront, it is also regarded as a high-value target by the opponent and is vulnerable to attack. In this way, people turn their attention to the sky again, and this appears They became TACPs for flying, but their title became "forward air control LER (FAC)".
In 1950, the United States organized the 6147th Tactical Control Squadron-TCS in Daejeon. Initially, there were only 2 L-17 observation aircraft and 3 pilots responsible for cooperating with the 24th Infantry Division. In the operation, each aircraft controlled 10 F-80 aircraft. It is said that in the initial operation, it achieved a record of destroying 17 tanks of the Korean People's Army. In this way, the US Air Force began to expand the size of the 6147th TCS and replace it with T-6 aircraft. The emergence of FAC also caused a problem: the expansion of its execution area made it difficult to communicate with ground command posts, especially in mountainous terrain like North Korea. In this way, in early 1951, the 6147th TCS received a C-47 communication center The relay aircraft is used to maintain communication between the FAC and the ground command post. The initial relay aircraft became the later Airborne Battlefield Command and Control Center (ABCCC), an overall battlefield command and control system such as FAC-ABCCC-JOC. initial formation. Due to the successful use of FAC, the U.S. Air Force's close air support combat capability in the Korean battlefield has been greatly improved. Its combat missions have also evolved from the initial target search and instruction to rescue, artillery control, aircraft removal support, etc. It is said that Li Qiwei once Personally take a training aircraft to conduct reconnaissance behind the volunteer army's front lines. For this reason, the United States upgraded the 6147TCS to a group (6147th Tactical Control Group-TCG), which has three squadrons; the 6148th, 6149th, and 6150th Tactical Air Squadron. Later, the 6150th Tactical Air Control Squadron was succeeded by the 942nd Forward Air Control Squadron. There are two FAC squadrons and one TACP squadron in the 6147th TCG.
Vietnam War
The US military gained experience in FAC support for CAS in the Korean War, which laid a solid foundation for its large-scale use in the subsequent Vietnam War. In the Vietnam War, because the U.S. military faced Vietnamese guerrillas, they were mixed among civilians and had no fixed bases and combat areas. In addition, Vietnam's mountains and jungles provided natural barriers for them. In this way, the U.S. military's close air Support must maintain rapid response and precise strikes can play a better role. In 1961, according to the 13th Air Force Operation Plan-2226-61: The United States set out to establish a complete air support system in Vietnam; including an air command center and two air support command centers, establishing a team of air liaison officers and forward air control officers, including air Support Squadron - Later, the direct air support squadron was responsible for the command of the entire air support, including the formulation of combat plans, target sequencing and attack fleet dispatching, etc. The United States invested 4 FAC squadrons in the Vietnam War; the 19th and 20th , 21 and 22 Squadrons, under the unified command of the 504th Aviation Support Group, and their aircraft types also include O-1/2, OV-10 and OV-1. Target search methods have also evolved from the original visual to include visual, radar, infrared/low-light and other methods, and FAC's aircraft have also been equipped with some weapons to give them the ability to defend themselves and attack targets. In addition, the C-47 relay aircraft that cooperated with it has also become an EC-121 electronic surveillance aircraft, and its overall combat system has become more closely coordinated and improved. According to relevant information, reconnaissance and surveillance missions accounted for more than half of the U.S. Air Force's flight sorties in Vietnam.
Modern Warfare
However, although FAC was widely used in the Vietnam War, the U.S. Air Force still recognized its limitations. The FAC in the war was to have absolute air supremacy and the opponent's anti-aircraft firepower. It can perform tasks under almost zero conditions, and in the future Central European battlefield, it will have to face the powerful former Soviet Air Force and the former Soviet ground forces with a complete air defense fire network. These are slow and lack self-defense systems. The survivability of the FAC is really worrying, and it uses visual observation. Its observation ability is still very limited, and its control area is also very small. In fact, even in the later stages of the war, it faced Vietnam equipped with SA-2 and SA-7. When the People's Army, the U.S. Air Force used more F-100F and F-4B for FAC missions. These aircraft were called "Fast Forward Air Control", -FFAC.
Even these aircraft are vulnerable to attacks from the other side on the Central European battlefield. The solution is to be able to detect targets outside the opponent's defense zone. In this way, the E-8 JSTAR "Joint Star" appears, which uses airborne phased array radar to detect hundreds of targets. To detect opponents from kilometers away, the detection area is also greatly increased, and it has all-weather combat capabilities. More importantly, due to the increased space of the aircraft body, it can accommodate the airborne command and control system, which can realize the unification of detection and command systems and reduce information However, due to the high cost and the fact that target details still need to be confirmed on-site, the U.S. Air Force has developed a series of drones such as the "Predator" and "Global Hawk" to conduct deep reconnaissance on the enemy and ourselves. However, the survivability of these UAVs in high-threat environments is still low, so in the 1990s, the U.S. Air Force still used some A-10s for forward air control missions. Its model number has also changed to A/OA-10. With the reduction of the A-10 fleet, the U.S. Air Force has also planned to use some F-16s to perform similar tasks in recent years.
To sum up, we can find that CAS is a seemingly simple but complicated job. From the initial individual soldier plus radio to high-tech stuff such as JSTAR and data links, its complexity The uniqueness lies in the fact that the application is initiated by the ground-level units, passes through the joint air command post, and then to the Air Force grass-roots units, and is executed by the latter. It passes through multiple command levels of the two major services. Problems in any one of the links will affect the effectiveness of CAS. Even for the United States, which has the most advanced technology, CAS is not an easy task; for example, in the 1990s when the United States conducted joint air-ground exercises at Fort Benning, an attack aircraft dropped a laser bomb directly at the indicator, causing damage to many people. At the beginning of this century, due to TACP sending the wrong coordinates, the F/A-18 participating in the exercise directly dropped bombs on New Zealand soldiers on the ground. However, many combat missions were abandoned due to delayed intelligence and other reasons. One of the biggest features of CAS is that it is entrusted. Command, granting TACP and FAC great power, that is, all aircraft operating in their control areas must be commanded by them. In a way, CAS was originally developed and improved by Germany because of its innate foundation, such as the officer corps established by Prussia and Its proactive fighting spirit was its catalyst. In this way, TACP and FAC must have high capabilities, so now TACP has actually become a member of the special forces, and FAC is mostly composed of experienced pilots. In order to avoid errors in voice transmission caused by tension, the United States has been conducting CAS operations since the 1990s. Information technology was introduced into the mission; that is, IDM was used to directly upload target information to the attack aircraft. In order to further expand the scope of information transmission, during the Bosnian War, the United States further experimented with using MOTO's "Iridium" satellite system to provide information for CAS. support. At present, the United States is further improving the information transmission of CAS on the basis of promoting the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). An example of RMA is the beheading operation of Saddam in the Iraq War. From the acquisition of intelligence to the White House approval to the bomber dropping bombs, there are only In less than 10 minutes, intelligence was exchanged multiple times between the country's highest authorities and the most basic units. Its transmission speed is eye-popping, and RMA based on high-speed data links and electronic authentication will surely provide strong support for CAS in the new era. In addition, it is not just technology that hinders CAS, but also traditional concepts and even conflicting interests. For example, the ground forces certainly want to establish their own air support force to avoid dependence on the air force. This will of course allow the ground forces to get a larger share of the defense budget. The Air Force mostly holds the idea that everything that can fly belongs to me. In fact, in the 1960s, the U.S. Air Force and the Army had a dispute over the dominance of CAS. The Army wanted to obtain fixed-wing close air support aircraft, while the Air Force strongly opposed it. , in the end, those who can transfer their arms will return to the Army, but those who will not transfer will return to the Air Force. What’s interesting is that this dispute has nothing to do with the system. The former Soviet Union also placed Army Aviation under the jurisdiction of the Air Force. The Army established its own aviation force.
As mentioned earlier, the U.S. Air Force also uses the A-10 for FAC missions, and the B-52 is still equipped with a LITENING pod despite the onboard optoelectronic system, which is used to detect longer distances. In fact, FAC also has the task of providing target indication for guided bombs. Aircraft like the OV-10 are equipped with laser target indication systems.
The development history of fac air force forward controller war
FAC operations
Looking at the entire war period (1961-1975), the four major branches of the US military invaded Vietnam*** It dispatched 650,000 reconnaissance sorties, of which the above-mentioned observation aircraft accounted for more than half of the missions. Taking the battle at Bienhe from May 8 to July 2, 1969 as an example, the FAC alone dispatched 571 sorties. They were responsible for 1,828 sorties of tactical aircraft (such as A-4, F-4, F-100, A-1, AT-37 and B-26); 804 sorties of strategic bombers (B-52) and 100 sorties of "airborne aircraft". The ground fire support of the "armed gunboat" (i.e. AC-119) provides effective battlefield reconnaissance, target indication and other technical support. At that time, the FAC could service an average of 4.8 attack aircraft sorties per sortie.
Whenever the battle reaches its climax, FAC flight also switches to a 24-hour rotation. Often the previous flight has just ended, some simple maintenance is done, and the oil is filled up, and it goes to the sky again. The FAC entrenched in the south formed an aerial reconnaissance network covering almost the entire territory. Since each FAC's airspace of activity is limited to a relatively fixed range for a long period of time, he has a clear understanding of every hill, every creek, and even every big tree within his "jurisdiction". Memorize it by heart. One advantage of doing this is that every new movement of the guerrillas or every slight change in ground targets is likely to attract his attention. At the same time, the basic configuration and even combat habits of friendly forces in the area are also well understood. All of this is beneficial to the completion of the three basic tasks of "discovering targets, guiding attacks, and confirming results."
Momoyer once pointed out when evaluating FAC: "FAC is the main source of obtaining enemy intelligence and is an expert in discovering and identifying various targets." An A-7 Pirate attack aircraft pilots once excitedly said: "As long as FAC exists, we will have endless targets." Although the words and deeds of these invaders were arrogant, they also confirmed the effectiveness of FAC to a certain extent.
Generally speaking, regardless of whether the attack plan is pre-planned or formulated in response to an ad hoc request from ground forces, and whether the attack formation comes from a ground airport, an aircraft carrier, or an overseas base as far away as Thailand or Japan, heading to the destination All aircraft first accept the dispatching and command of the theater command or air command aircraft (such as EC-121), but once they fly over the target, they must accept the direct command of the FAC. The FAC often arrives at the scene 30-60 minutes before the attacker, and they have to complete the search and calibration of the target within these dozens of minutes. When the formation arrives, the FAC will immediately notify the formation leader aircraft of the local weather, landforms, target nature and location, enemy air defense firepower configuration, and the boundaries of our positions through coded announcements, and will fire smoke rockets towards the target. Use this as a reference coordinate for bomb aiming. Then, the FAC may call to friendly forces on the ground and ask their soldiers to take out colored square cloth (a kind of marking cloth that is different from the color of the vegetation) and place it in dot-like markings according to predetermined rules to show the location of their "territory" Safety boundaries. Only in this way can the attack officially enter the battle. At this time, the FAC will fly its aircraft slightly away, wait for the attack to end, and then fly back to confirm the effectiveness of the attack as much as possible through the smoke.
During the day, the FAC mostly uses 2.75-inch rockets with yellow phosphorus as a smoke-generating agent as signaling tools. At night, they often throw flares to light up the ground, and then fire tracer bombs at the target at the right time. Then make room for the subsequent formation to perform their punches, and perform voice corrections on the impact point from time to time. Therefore, the labor intensity and mental burden of FAC are considerable.
With the development of war, helicopter warfare (Heliborne) has become increasingly common, so the scope of FAC's responsibilities has also expanded to include real-time on-site command of helicopter landings, helicopter armed attacks, and helicopter rescue operations.
It was only after 1963 that FAC had its own air platform. When air FAC was not yet "popular", South Vietnamese puppet ground forces often complained about the serious lag in air support. Sometimes, 48 ??hours after an emergency call for help was issued, the sound of the aircraft's engine could not be heard! But after the airborne FAC intervened in the war, this embarrassing situation was controlled and improved. Reaction time was compressed to between 30-50 minutes, greatly reducing infantry casualties.
Later in the war the FAC came under the control of the DASC. Since the sorties are frequent and uncertain, each base arranges 4 to 8 observation aircraft to be on 15-minute combat standby and on round-the-clock duty. Once a distress call is received, written procedures must be completed within 5 minutes and take off around 15 minutes. Such "improvisational shows" became a daily routine at FAC. The entire theater has to dispatch 200-400 sorties every day for this purpose (for OV-10, it must be two-aircraft coordination), sometimes even up to 500 sorties! For the Air Force's FAC, pre-planned attack plans and temporary emergency dispatches The ratio is 50% versus 50%, but in reality it often reaches a state of 30% versus 70%. According to statistics, among all military services, the Air Force FAC ranks first in terms of work intensity and investment.
The transport convoys of the Vietnamese People’s Armed Forces often use the cover of night to skillfully travel through the “Ho Chi Minh Trail” in the hills and jungles, becoming the main artery for transporting strategic supplies from northern Vietnam to the south. However, repeated attacks by U.S. military air power still caused great losses. Of these, 90 percent of the vehicles destroyed were attacked at night. According to US military reports, the difficulty of the attack lies not in aiming and dropping bombs, but in searching and locking. To this end, in addition to taking various ground surveillance measures, the use of airborne FAC has been strengthened. Many O-1 and OV-10 aircraft flew back and forth during the day along the general direction of the "Ho Chi Minh Trail" in an effort to locate the convoy's assembly and departure points.
At night, portable starlight or infrared observation equipment is used for target confirmation. Once the convoy starts moving, it immediately relays signals through the air command aircraft and summons attack aircraft (the latter are often on standby in nearby airspace to save time). At this time, the FAC used flares to mark the beginning and end of the convoy to give an attack range. Such operations are sometimes directed by the "Infiltration Surveillance Center" based in Nakhon Phanom, Thailand.
Among the more successful support operations of FAC, there is also such a battle example: one day, FAC taking off from Da Nang accidentally discovered a group of Vietnamese People's Army tanks moving along Highway 1 towards the East River. , after precise measurement, the information was immediately sent to the cruising EC-121 air command aircraft, and the command center on the aircraft transmitted the order to the 7th Air Force of the Air Force. Thirty minutes later, six B-52 strategic bombers roared in from neighboring countries and carpet-bombed such a "small" moving target group, completely destroying 35 of the tanks.
FAC landline
The O-1 Eagle Dog is a frontline light piston military observation aircraft developed and modified by Cessna Company from the famous Cessna 170 series of sightseeing aircraft. The Army model is the L-19 and the Navy model is the EO-1. This high-wing, single-engine, two-seater small aircraft with a tricycle landing gear layout became the first aircraft purchased by the Air Force and Army for the FAC. The aircraft is unarmed and unarmored, and the crew's only means of defense is to wear a bulletproof vest. Only later was an M61 machine gun installed in the back seat as a self-defense weapon.
When first used in 1965 there was only one squadron, and by the end of the year there were only 100 aircraft. By the following spring it had grown to four squadrons and 170 crew members. Since O-1 has no counterattack capability and never takes the initiative to attack, in addition to relying on naked eye observation, it almost relies on ground enemies to fire at it to find the target. Therefore, O-1 and its crew have simply become a trap for the enemy. Bait. No wonder a FAC once laughed at himself: "Is this an act of committing suicide that even Vietnamese people know about? We were in a group of two, slowly hovering over the mountain forest in a small radius, and the partner in the back seat kept looking down nervously with the telescope. Looking around. I get goosebumps all over my body when I think of bullets entering the cabin from the aluminum floor."
An O-1 of the Air Force FAC was flying cautiously over a mountainous area in South Vietnam<. /p>
"We carry 7 smoke canisters with us and 4 smoke rockets hanging under the wings, all used for target positioning. We flew the O-1F at an altitude of 500 meters at 167 kilometers per hour. While circling at low speed, I waited for the attack formation to arrive. When the fighter-bomber dropped bombs, I pressed the stick and climbed up to the right to exit. It was really like a stunt at an aviation conference."
Using the O-1 FAC. You have to fly 80-100 hours a month, but each aircraft only needs 30 minutes of simple maintenance every day. When performing missions at night, because the O-1 does not have night flying capabilities, tactical transport aircraft such as C-123 must first go to drop flares. For this reason, an additional FAC had to be temporarily added to the C-123 air crew.
Like many other light aircraft, the O-1 also has excellent STOL (short takeoff and landing) performance, and it only requires a 1,000-foot-long dirt runway. In order to facilitate penetration into the front line, each flight team has several forward take-off and landing fields. In addition, the O-1's attendance rate is as high as 85%. In the Air Force's 20th Tactical Aviation Support Group, for example, 75 FACs logged 5,850 hours of monthly flying time in the O-1E or F. Therefore, you cannot underestimate the role of the old "Eagle Dog" in this special battlefield.
The OV-1 Mohawk is a two-seat, twin-engine light battlefield observation aircraft produced by Grumman Corporation. Equipped with two 1,000-equivalent horsepower T53 turboprop engines, its total power is 10 times that of the O-1! It is the model selected by the Army for its FAC. Two crew members sit side by side in the spherical glass nose, making it easier to observe the ground and communicate with each other. The long tail is equipped with three vertical fins behind it, which is the appearance characteristic of the OV-1.
The OV-1's reconnaissance methods added cameras and even a later mounted side-viewing radar. But in principle it is still not equipped with weapons (only some variants can carry 1,690 kilograms of external attack weapons). Also dispatched to Southeast Asia at almost the same time as the OV-1A were the B model with a side-looking radar pod and the C model equipped with cameras and infrared detectors. Sometimes the B-type is first used for rough reconnaissance, and then the C-type is used for further precise positioning.
The OV-1 has an attendance rate of 84%, with FAC utilizing it to fly 72 hours per person per month. Due to its strong practicality, the Navy and Air Force later used it in small quantities. Because the guerrillas in the south hated this kind of aircraft, they made an exception and rewarded those who shot it down.
OV-10 Mustang is a multi-seat, twin-engine multi-purpose tactical reconnaissance and attack aircraft developed by North American Company specifically for the so-called "Counterguerrilla Warfare (COIN)". It is called the “universal COIN machine” and is the largest model ever used by FAC.
The OV-10A used by the US military adopts a twin-tail boom layout. Two 1,040-horsepower T76 turboprop engines are installed at the front ends of the left and right tail booms, and the rear end is an integrated horizontal tail. In the center of the main wing is the main fuselage. Its front part is a tandem two-seat duplex operating cockpit made of large pieces of glass. The rear part is a universal cargo hold with a volume of 75 cubic feet, which can carry 3,200 pounds of military supplies or 5 paratroopers or 2 stretcher plus 1 nurse. Survivability is greatly improved due to the installation of authentic armor and ejection seats for the pilots. During flight, pilots can use the TACON navigation system covering Southeast Asia to accurately position themselves and their targets. Another feature of the OV-10A is that the lower part of the fuselage is equipped with a pair of splayed short wings. The four claws under the wings can carry 1,925 kilograms of weapons, such as 19-piece 2.75-inch LAU-3/A rocket launchers, 5-inch Zuni rocket launchers, 250-pound Mk.81 aerial bombs, and more. A 230- or 150-gallon secondary mailbox can be mounted under the centerline of the fuselage. In addition, four 7.62mm M60C machine guns are fixedly mounted inside the stub wings. Therefore, the firepower of the OV-10A cannot be underestimated, and it was only after the FAC was equipped with the OV-10A that it began to have counterattack and active attack capabilities. The aircraft has an endurance of 3 hours and a range of 2,680 kilometers.
By 1968, the Air Force and Marine Corps had 157 Model A's in service in Vietnam, and later the Marine Corps alone had 114. The Navy did not like it, so only three were deployed on a token basis from 1969 to 1972. The OV-10A is very popular among the military due to its outstanding STOL performance, light and fast low-altitude maneuverability, and flexible and diverse weapon mounting methods. In the battlefield assessment conducted from April to June 1969, the minimum reaction time was only 5 minutes!
It takes about 16 weeks to train pilots to modify the OV-10A, including 25 hours of indoor internship and 75 hours of flight training. In three years, five Air Force instructors*** trained 97 air FACs using OV-10A as their base aircraft and 422 maintenance personnel. During this period, a total of 8,800 hours were spent in the air.
The O-2 Super Skymaster is a twin-engine, two-seat, dual-operated, piston-type tactical observation (reconnaissance) aircraft developed by Cessna for the Air Force to replace the O-1. Although it also uses a twin tail boom layout, two 210-horsepower "Continental" engines are installed at the front and rear ends of the fuselage in a push-and-pull manner. There are four hanging beams under the wings, which can carry machine gun pods or rockets as needed. The O-2's communications and navigation equipment are particularly complete.
In 1967, the O-2A was officially adopted by the Air Force. Later, it was equipped with 455 A models and 62 B models, only a small number of which were used by FAC.
Modern War
So, in the face of today’s endless emergence of high-tech military technologies, is it still necessary for FAC to exist? I think the answer is yes. Because, as long as conventional local wars are still possible, even if people already have satellite positioning, all-weather ground reconnaissance methods, and various novel smart and intelligent attack weapons, in order to effectively deal with severe weather conditions and complex terrain conditions, Small and changeable groups of stubborn enemies (such as terrorist guerrillas and nationalist armed forces) still require special arms and special combat methods equivalent to the FAC. It's not difficult to imagine. Future FACs will establish closer and more immediate "links" with global satellite positioning systems, airborne early warning aircraft, unmanned battlefield reconnaissance aircraft, armed helicopters, ground reconnaissance systems and traditional tactical aviation, or be fully integrated into them. A more efficient data link will leave enemies no longer able to hide, allowing them to be struck completely, completely and swiftly.
In the recent "Odyssey Dawn" air strike in Libya, one of the missions of the British special forces that entered Libya early was to bomb designated targets for NATO, but the mode of action was from the air to the ground.
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