Instructor: More training needed in guiding bombs to targets

Instructor: More training needed in guiding bombs to targets
By Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Saturday, May 10, 2008

GRAFENWÖHR, Germany — The military should provide more hands-on training for soldiers who help guide aircraft’s bombs to their targets, according to an instructor from Spangdahlem Air Base’s Joint Fires Center of Excellence.

The center trains joint terminal attack controllers, called JTACS for short. JTACS are ground-based personnel who spot enemy targets and direct aircraft to bomb them. It also trains Joint Fires Observers, or JFOs, who are Army personnel who perform similar functions when a JTAC is not available on the ground, according to Staff Sgt. Larry Melton, an instructor with the center.

The JTACs get five weeks’ instruction including 10 days guiding real aircraft during bombing runs at Grafenwöhr Training Area. But the JFO training only lasts two weeks with just a day working with aircraft, he said.

“The JFO training is watered down JTAC training. I would like to see a third week added dedicated to what these (JTAC) guys have been doing this week (guiding aircraft on bombing runs at the training area)," he said.

The Air Force has a shortage of JTACs, which means such personnel are rarely with units outside the wire, added the 28-year-old Douglasville, Ga., native.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=54687