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F-14 providing laser designation for a Hellfire missile fired by a USMC Super Cobra
On Jul. 10, 2004 during Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67), with CVW-17 embarked, arrived on station in the NAG to relieve USS George Washington (CVN-73). The air wing’s VF-103 was conducting its last deployment with the F-14.
As told by Tony Holmes in his book F-14 “Bombcat”: The US Navy’s Ultimate Precision Bomber, Falluja was a hot bed of unrest throughout CVW-17’s time on station, and on Oct. 8, 2004 the air wing helped provide aerial support over the city for Operation Phantom Fury/Al-Fajr. Some 10,000 Marines from the 1st MEF, supported by 5000 Iraqi Army soldiers, were tasked with flushing out an estimated 3000 insurgents in a bitter house-to-house campaign. One of the naval aviators involved in this operation was VF-103’s Lt(jg) Matt Koop;
`When Phantom Fury kicked off, CENTCOM was concerned that large numbers of foreign fighters would come streaming over the borders from Syria and Iran to aid the insurgency in Falluja. Coalition forces had set up outposts along these borders to prevent this from happening, and an increase in the number of skirmishes in nearby towns was anticipated. Therefore, sections of fighters were pre-positioned to provide close air support to our troops in these areas if needed. And it was on one of these missions that I saw my first real action of the deployment.
The lead aircraft
‘Ironically, when my pilot and I were told that we would be conducting a Syrian border patrol, we were more than a little disappointed not to be working with the Marines in Falluja, since that was where all the action seemed to be taking place.
`Our Tomcat was the lead aircraft that afternoon, flying in a mixed section with a Hornet wingman from VFA-81. I checked in with the DASC controller to tell him what our mission was, and where we had been told to patrol – we were hoping that he would give us a last-minute tasking to Falluja, but that was not to be the case. We continued westward and contacted the JTAC that we had been assigned to work with. He described the area that we would be patrolling, and pointed out a few outposts that had intermittently received fire in the previous 48 hours.
`Once we were on-station, the troops on the ground duly requested a show of force over their positions to either ward off or stir up any insurgent activity that might he brewing nearby. We bumped up the speed and dropped down to Overfly their outposts low, fast and loud. Once we had completed our pass, we climbed back up and waited for their next request. Everything was still quiet, and after a while it was time to go hit the tanker and top off the tanks.
Marines calling for immediate air support
‘When we checked back in, we were disappointed to hear that we had just missed some action. Apparently, two mortar rounds had hem launched front a nearby field and a pair of Marine helicopters had been launched to find the culprits. We could see a Cobra and a Huey conducting their search below us, but we were flying too fast and too high to offer much assistance. It was at this time that the JTAC told us, “Sorry boys. It just doesn’t look like we have much for you fixed-wing guys to do”. He told us that if we had any alternate missions, we were cleared to proceed. We didn’t have any other assignments, so we told him we’d stick around in case anything else popped up.
‘Literally minutes later the JTAC received a report that some of our troops patrolling a nearby town had been attacked by terrorists in a blue van. Having exchanged shots, the insurgents had sped away in their vehicle. The Marines called for immediate air support, and both our section and the helicopters were tasked with locating the blue van. We were told to contact a different JTAC who was actually in the town, and he duly gave us targeting information relating to where the van had last been seen. White I was working the FLIR in our LTS, my pilot was scouring the streets with his binoculars. We soon spotted an abandoned blue van, and the helicopters came in to confirm that this was indeed the insurgents’ vehicle. With this confirmation, the Cobra was cleared to destroy the van with rockets.
F-14 lasing for a Hellfire missile fired by a USMC Super Cobra
‘While the AH-1W was firing at the van, new reports were coming in and being passed to us on the radio that additional Marines had been engaged by insurgents who were holed up in a “cafè”. The troops had been subjected to both machine gun fire and RPG rounds, and they were in need of immediate air support. This “cafè” was less than a kilometre from where we had found the van, and after a quick talk-on by the JTAC we confirmed that we were “tally the target”. He then requested that we provide laser designation for a Hellfire missile that was to be fired by the gunner in the Cobra, since his line-of-site for missile guidance was poor.
‘Neither my pilot or I had ever done anything like this before, having never been briefed on how to lase for a Hellfire missile! But we had briefed on buddy lasing for our Hornet wingman’s Laser Maverick, and we figured that the two laser-guided weapons were similar enough to expect success if we employed the same tactics. We were right. The Hellfire guided to the dead centre of our crosshairs and blew right through the front door of the building. That hit stopped the fire that our troops were receiving, but the weapon’s small warhead caused minimal damage to the structure of the building itself.
More insurgents hiding deeper in the “cafè”
‘With the possibility of more insurgents hiding deeper in the “cafè”, the order was given for us to destroy the building with our Iwo GBU-12s. We were told to target each end of the building with one bomb, so we would have to make two passes with as little time in between as possible.
‘As soon as we had received permission to drop our LGBs, we raced out to an appropriate run-in position which minimised the danger posed to our troops nearby. Fortunately, our LTS pod was producing a crisp image, and the target was easily identifiable from more than five miles away. We stepped through the checklist we had memorized and made sure that all our parameters were correct before dropping the first bomb. The weapon guided with perfect precision to the centre of my laser spot, destroying the east wing of the building. We immediately turned out-bound and set up for our second run-in. This bomb came off just as well as the first, and it guided precisely to the target, leveling the structure.’
F-14 “Bombcat”: The US Navy’s Ultimate Precision Bomber is published by Key Publishing and is available to order here.
Photo credit: Capt. Dana Potts / U.S. Navy and MCIPAC Combat Camera Lance Cpl. Sean M. Evans / U.S. Marine Corps
