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By Stephen Trimble/AviationNow.com; 09-Aug-2001
The U.S. brass sacrificed several fundamental military doctrines to maintain a splintered coalition of 19 NATO allies duringthe 78-day aerial bombardment of Yugoslavia in 1999, the Congress’ watchdog agency says in its analysis of the conflict.
In that campaign, waves of air strikes finally forced Yugoslav troops to withdraw from the ethnic-Albanian province of Kosovo and ended an ethnic cleansing campaign that had killed thousands.
But war planners failed to follow seven “significant” rules for such conflicts, including setting unclear military objectives, not using overwhelming force, strategic planning lapses, inconsistent targeting, not deploying ground forces, allowing politicians to pick targets and improperly forming a joint task force, the General Accounting Office reported Thursday.
Some U.S. military officials told the GAO each doctrinal lapse lengthened the war, causing more damage to Yugoslavia and increasing the risks for coalition forces.
But “these doctrinal departures were largely the result of the NATO alliance’s desire to maintain alliance cohesion,” GAO said.
War planners balanced tactics and targets with pressure from some allied countries to limit casualties and avoid certain targets, GAO said. Early hopes of launching a two-day series of air strikes also hampered planning as the conflict dragged on more than two months.
Political interests prevented the coalition from deploying ground troops into battle even though doctrine called for it, GAO’s report shows, and forced allied pilots to fly at ineffective altitudes. U.S. pilots were not allowed to fly below 15,000 feet during air strikes, sometimes obscuring targets and risking civilian deaths.
Allied forces won without suffering a combat death, although training accidents killed two U.S. Army helicopter pilots.
The U.S. Defense Dept. has moved to address doctrinal shortcomings, GAO reports. A new Pentagon doctrine instructs planners to learn how political, linguistic, cultural and sovereignty issues relate to battle plans. |
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Last Modified: 20.02.03 12:54
© Copyright: Dragan Kostadinov