U.S. Banks On High Tech in Event of War

Deep inside a taupe-colored warehouse rising from the expansive desert here sits a low-ceilinged room that U.S. military commanders call the nerve center of America’s next war.

Classified at a level more secret than top secret, this is where up to 50 men hunch over Dell laptop computers, track troop movements and attempt to make sense of the avalanche of information -- from satellite pictures and intercepts to field reports -- that comes their way.

If the United States launches a war against the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, it is from this windowless, high-tech room that senior officers from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps will direct the battle.

The Joint Operations Center is at the heart of a sprawling, 262-acre base built up in recent months as the diminutive Persian Gulf state of Qatar has emerged as the region’s key U.S. ally.

Access to the Joint Operations Center is highly restricted, even within the military; outsiders rarely get a glimpse. The Los Angeles Times first visited the center two months ago during a computer war-simulation exercise. Reporters from The Times and three other U.S. newspapers were again given a tour Tuesday and allowed to interview several officers, who were keen to extol the virtues of technological advances that they say have revolutionized the way they would fight a war on Iraq.

In contrast to the Persian Gulf War, more than a decade ago, officers said they expect to be able to link spy planes, satellites, ships, troops, tanks and bombers to develop more exact information on targets and movements much more quickly -- a big picture of the battlefield in “real time,” or something very close to real time.

That, they say, can go a long way toward minimizing so-called friendly fire accidents, which accounted for a quarter of American battle deaths in the earlier conflict.

At that time, according to chief of operations Marine Col. Tom Bright, officers in charge often had to rely on units radioing their fast-changing positions up the chain of command, with a precision often eroded by the heat of battle. Missions were frequently planned with outdated photographs and maps.

This time, technology is meant to prevail. Every Humvee, tank and truck moving on Iraq will be equipped with a $10,000 radio device that automatically transmits its position back to headquarters, said Air Force Col. Steven Pennington, another operations chief. It is called a Blue Force Tagger and Tracking device: U.S. forces are “blue,” the enemy is “red.”

Similarly, Pennington said, every soldier will carry a global positioning device so that his or her location is also automatically registered. Unmanned Predator reconnaissance drones and other surveillance aircraft, meanwhile, will transmit live video of ground activity.

This information will in turn be overlaid and plotted on large computer-generated maps beamed onto thin plasma screens hanging from the wall and ceiling of the Joint Operations Center.

“You will never, ever get rid of the fog of war,” Bright said. “War is a personal business -- inside each commander’s mind is what he intends to do.” But, he said, the new technology will allow operational chiefs to see more clearly and quickly a “mosaic of information” that will better inform war-fighting decisions.

It remains to be seen whether the expectations will be met. Technology has repeatedly failed American war efforts in the past.

During the visit Tuesday, the large screens showed a maritime map of Kuwait -- troop positions having been erased because of the journalists’ presence -- and a similarly empty map of Iraq. One screen broadcast CNN.

On an opposite wall hung a U.S. flag and one from Washington’s ally Britain.

Seated at two long tables, the officers suited in various patterns of desert camouflage staffed a sea desk, air desk and land desk. Surprisingly, given the reliance on computers, few senior officers said they’d had any special computer training. Asked why Windows was the program of choice, Bright said it is the system “the grunts use.”

Improvements in missile-warning technology will also give the Americans an edge compared with the Gulf War, said Col. Bill Brogan of Garden Grove, Calif., whose job is to make sure that all of the military’s “space assets” -- satellites -- are used to maximum advantage. Early warning systems that can shave crucial seconds off the time it takes to notify forces of an enemy missile launch are in place and ready to be tested, he said.

In all, between 400 and 500 analysts will sift through reams of raw data and relay the most significant information to the smaller Joint Operations Center staff, who will make their recommendations to Army Gen. Tommy Franks, the commander of all U.S. troops in the gulf. He is to be headquartered in an adjacent “war room.”

Late Tuesday, Franks arrived in Qatar amid what appeared to be a quickened march toward war.

Speaking to Associated Press while en route, the general sought to portray his visit as part of a normal “battle rhythm” that involves reviewing preparations at many levels.

“A lot of people will be speculating and say, ‘OK, this is a last-minute exercise to check out the war plan and all of that,’ ” Franks told AP. “That is not the case.”