KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait — The fighter pilot commanding Canadian warplanes bombing Islamic State targets in Iraq says the coalition air campaign that the Royal Canadian Air Force is part of has made such progress that the Iraqi government was now in a position to decide when was the best time for its forces to begin trying to regain territory it lost earlier this year.
“ISIL is very much affected by the successes of the air campaign,” said Col. Daniel Constable in his first face-to-face interview since arriving in this Gulf emirate nearly two months ago. “We are seeing that they (Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS) are far less offensive and far more defensive. They are changing their tactics.
“Many months ago they were openly and overtly on the move throughout Iraq exploiting their momentum. That is absolutely no longer the case. They are having to hide. They have had to stop using bigger weapons systems like tanks, artillery. Right now they are setting up defensive positions and using asymmetric tactics such as IEDs.”With Islamic State often hunkering down, the conditions were being set for “Iraqi forces to decide when the time is right to go on the offensive to clear those areas that were taken by ISIL,” Constable said during a conversation that took place under palm trees in a cafe several kilometres away from the bases where 600 Canadian personnel as well six CF-18 Hornets, two CP-140 Aurora reconnaissance aircraft and a CC-150 Polaris in-air refuelling tanker are based.
Canadian fighters had struck a vast range of targets including purpose-built military vehicles such as tanks as well as “artillery pieces, rocket launchers, surface-to-air missiles and fighting personnel,” Constable said.
As Lt.-Gen. Jon Vance, who oversees all Canadian military operations overseas, has made plain many times, avoiding civilian casualties — collateral damage in military parlance — was an overarching priority of the Canadian Forces and that “in the case of individual strikes, I’m not going to be announcing casualties taken by ISIL.”
Particular care was being taken to identify “technicals,” Constable said, using the military term for civilian pickup trucks that have been converted to military use by adding machine guns, artillery pieces and rocket launchers. This made them “valid military targets,” he said.
Compared to Libya, “where we were not as well co-ordinated with the forces on the ground that were being attacked by (late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi’s) forces, what I see different in this war” is that coalition aircraft get better “preciseness of targeting because of Baghdad’s involvement” in the process.
“For example, when F-18s are assigned to do close air support and strike missions the ultimate target engagement authority is the government of Iraq,” he said.
Although he described the air campaign so far as a success, the former Hornet pilot, who served as an exchange officer, flew Royal Air Force Tornadoes and served in Italy during NATO’s Libyan air operations three years ago, said that plenty of work remained for his aircrews.
“The assessment still is that ISIL presents enough of a threat that I know that as it sits right now there are targets being surveilled, detected and prosecuted,” he said.
While ground crews worked around the clock to keep the engines and highly sensitive electronic gear free of the powder-like sand that frequently blows across the desert and gets into everything, intensive pre-flight planning by aircrews took place before each mission. After sorties had been flown there were also extensive debriefs that included a close analysis of video footage.
While the Hornets attracted most of the media attention, the Royal Canadian Air Force’s Auroras had become “a tremendous asset to the coalition” because of their electro-optical and infra-red cameras and its state-of-the-art synthetic aperture radar. These capabilities allowed aircrew “to determine if a vehicle has a weapon on board that has been recently fired” and “to see through the weather,” if the area being looked at was covered by clouds, Constable said.
Because the Aurora could fly for much longer than coalition fighter jets, it was also able to not only “record the impact of weapons as they fall” but could also linger long enough near targets “to record post-blast effects which amounts to near real-time battle damage assessment,” he said.
There have been news reports recently that Iranian Vietnam-era F-4 Phantoms had recently carried out airstrikes against Islamic State. This development is a particularly sensitive issue for the coalition, as Canada and most of its air campaign coalition partners have long had strained relations with Tehran.
“The only thing I can say about the Iranian forces is that I am in the same boat as you,” Constable said. “I have only read open source materials that have said that what purport to be Iranian assets (are) flying in Iraqi air space. I honestly don’t know if the Iranians are doing this. I cannot really comment on the Iranian piece.”
Because of heightened security concerns, Canadian military personnel based in Kuwait cannot be named, with the exception of Constable and a public affairs officer.
“From a military perspective I have got a sense the Canadian media have been very respectful of the op sec (operational security) piece,” and this had been appreciated, Constable said. “It truly is a matter of protecting our people and taking the threat very seriously. With what happened with Cpl. (Nathan) Cirillo and Warrant Officer (Patrice) Vincent, (it) drove home to Canadians that this an enemy that is ruthless and has to be taken seriously. As commander here my No. 1 goal is the protection of my people.”
Source:: canada.com
