GLOBAL GUERRILLA AIRPOWER

Global guerrilla swarming attacks on infrastructure represent a strategic threat to nation-states, particularly when combined with easy to use, low cost, homemade microwave weaponry (and other homemade HERFs). NOTE: This brief is focused on advanced tactics and not likely to occur in the shortrun. However, mobility within an urban environment is difficult to maintain when critical infrastructure (like transportation networks) are disrupted. A good method by which global guerrillas can gain and maintain a significant mobility advantage over emergency reponse forces is by using ultralight aircraft (unregulated, inexpensive, lightweight aircraft that don't require pilot licenses or airfields).

Ultralight aircraft are the equivalent of the horse used by horse archers (the original swarmers). They add a level of mobility to global guerrilla operations necessary for a comprehensive urban take-down. Here's why ultralights are effective for this:

• Inexpensive. The cost of an ultralight range between $15-20,000. Fuel costs are in the low hundreds per flight.
  
• Relatively easy to use. In contrast to commercial aircraft operation, ultralight training is easy (only ten to twenty hours of flight time is necessary for competance).
  
• Easy to navigate. The combination of slow speeds and handheld GPS devices makes navigating a complex attack pattern extremely simple.
  
• Night flight possible. Low level night flight with commercially available night vision goggles is easier than conventional aircraft (due to low speeds). This altitude would make extremely hard to detect and neutralize (it would look like a ground vehicle).
  
• Runways are plentiful. Virtually any road or field of of 300 ft can launch an ultralight.
  
• Logistics and transportation are less difficult than conventional aircraft. Ultralights can be packed into a van and driven to any location. Ultralights use standard liquids.

Operational Overview
The addition of ultralight mobility to global guerrilla swarming operations provides a mobility advantage that would be very difficult to defend against (even in a military intensive environment like Iraq, so knowledge of an operation of this type will likely not result in any meaningful defense). In combination with stand-off capability afforded by homemade HERF devices (particularly in the 20-30 GHz range) the weapon system becomes very potent. Ultralights would allow maneuver to the target facility within the 200 ft range of such a device (these HERF devices can even burn out auto electronics for transportation disruption). The 100 lb payload capability would more than handle a portable generator, additional fuel, and the device electronics. GPS navigation would allow precise attack patterns that would allow the guerrilla to hit dozens of critical targets in a short period of time (< 1 hour). Recovery of aircraft could be accomplished within hours of landing and enable transportation to another urban location for repetition of the operation.

The elements required for an ultralight, HERF-enabled swarming operation are basic (think about this with Ghawar in mind). They include:

• Two cells of 5 people (warm bodies are all that are required).
  
• $100,000 in funding.
  
• Two months of time for training, equipment consolidation, and planning.
  
• Less than $30,000 for ultralights.
  
• Less than $20,000 for HERF electronics (magnetrons, etc.).
  
• Less than $10,000 for NVGs (night vision goggles) and GPS navigation devices.
  
• Less than $10,000 for vehicles, fuel, etc.
  
• Less than $30,000 for housing, food, transportation, etc.

Comments

[Matthias]

Being an ultralight pilot myself, i can assure, learning to proper navigate an ultralight in non-optimal conditions isn't that easy ...

In Europe you are forced to make a "small" private pilot licence, requiring 30h of practical and 80h of theoretical training and as well a proof of beeing clean of criminal records. The US should consider this.

Costs for used a/c range from 7000$ to 50.000$ for a high performance ultralight.

But when I smash my ultralight into a skyscraper, they probably won't call 911. They will call a window cleaner...

m-

[Albert Law]

Matthias,

Do you think you would be able to shoot from a one-seater ( while piloting )? How about a two-seater with one piloting and one shooting?

[Watching Them, Watching Us]

Microlights and HERF/EMP weapons ?

Is this a nod towards the vision of cyberpunk author William Gibson ? In 1982 he wrote "Neuromancer":

"Willis Corto, Colonel, had plummeted through a blind spot in the Russian defenses over Kirensk. The shuttles had created the hole with pulse bombs, and Corto’s team had dropped in in Nightwing microlights, their wings snapping taut in moonlight, reflected in jags of silver along the rivers Angara and Podhamennaya, the last light Corto would see for fifteen months. Case tried to imagine the microlights blossoming out of their launch capsules, high above a frozen steppe.

“They sure as hell did shaft you, boss,” Case said, and Molly stirred beside him.

The microlights had been unarmed, stripped to compensate for the weight of a console operator, a prototype deck, and a virus program called Mole IX, the first true virus in the history of cybernetics. Corto and his team had been training for the run for three years. They were through the ICE, ready to inject Mole IX, when the emps went off. The Russian pulse guns threw the jockeys into electronic darkness; the Nightwings suffered systems crash, flight circuitry wiped clean.

Then the lasers opened up, aiming on infrared, taking out the fragile, radar-transparent assault planes, and Corto and his dead console man fell out of a Siberian sky. Fell and kept falling..."

[John Robb]

Actually, US special ops used ultralights for missions as far back in the 80's. The development/use of HERFs is newer (the 90's).

[Don Lindemann]

You are dead wrong in the information presented herein. This, for the most part, is pure fantasy.

I have been flying and Instructing for 6 years with over 1200 hours of flying time in UL trikes.

The cost of a typical UL in the USA is $20,000 +. There are no reliable UL's anywhere in the world that can be purchased new for less than $5,000.

The wings make the difference in UL capability. For Example, A slow wing (30 mph) is easier to fly but less stable in rough air. A fast wing (75 mph) is harder to fly but more stable in rough air. And this is just the tip of the iceberg with regard to wing information.

Also, Few, if any, can learn to fly even rudimentally, with less than 10 hours of training. Most require between 20-30 hours of training to navigate, and land in mulitple situations. And it really requires a hundred hours + to be an accomplished pilot.

You do not need a pilots license ( a driver's license will do) to fly in the USA, but the industry is self regulated and no-one can fly without an endorsement from a qualified UL flight instructor.

The accident rate for those who have trained themselves are in the 68 percentile.

Further, GA pilots are not qualified to train UL pilots. The flying dynamics are significantly diiferent

The weight that can be carried is very limited. Depending again on what wing.

It is true that you can fly low and at night with night vision.

But in order to fly low enough not to be detected by radar and be confused for ground traffic, you will be flying at an altitude where it is very easy to be flying into power lines, telephone lines, towers and any number of objects that are virtually impossible to see in time to react in a UL airplane. There is not enough mass and inertia to fly through wires as it might be with a large fast plane and consequently you will crash and burn.

In the funding scenario above...I can only speculate that if the numbers are off regarding the ULs by as much as they are, the rest of the numbers are equally bogus.

For $30K you would be able to buy two modest ULs with a nice wing.

Forget about options including instrumentation, or a BRS (Ballistic Parachute Recovery System $2.5K) which might be kind of handy if you don't want to die if your wing gets hit by an RPG before completing a mission. You just pull the pin ....you and what's left of your airplane float to safety.

Forget about Electric start, which comes in handy if you need to shut the engine down for a quiet flight time (you are still flying a hang glider in a UL trike)and then later want to start back up and fly away without getting out of the trike to pull start it.

Forget about muffler silencers, intake silencers or oil injection.

Forget about helmets and intercoms (2-place trainer's) and all the other typical accessories.

It might be nice to know something about the mechanics of these sweet little machines....while most ULS are powered by Rotax engines and they run on auto fuel, It has to be high quality auto fuel rated at 89 Octane or higher for reliable service. The engine is a 2-stroke so you must have high quality 2-stroke oil to mix in with the gas. Further, air filters and spark plugs and so many more items it would take a manual to list must be understood.

Lastly, just setting up a wing or taking it down for transport....if done incorrectly can ruin the wing for safe and true flight.

I would say that if you want to die in a holy war as a martyr you have a better than 50/50 chance of dying long before you ever got to the mission phase if you acted on the information disclosed above.

By the way...I would think that when you die a martyr get to Islam heaven and are rewarded with those (what is it?.... 52) virgins...don't you think that on about your 14th virgin in...you might want to trade in a couple virgins for a PRO....?

Soup!

[John Robb]

Thanks for the info Don,

Ultralights have been used by Palestinian terrorist groups to enter Israel in the past. So this isn't just pure speculation. As you state, the $30 k number I cite for two ultralights is a good number. The real value of this to me isn't conventional attack from the platform. It is maneuver and herfing. The ability to quickly maneuver between multiple substations for example. I concur with you that flying isn't like driving a car, it requires substantial training (I give two months for training, it could be more).

I personally have over 1,000 hours of low level NVG night flight. With the proper prior prep (visually scouting the flight path) it is possible to fly extremely low along roads/rivers.

Perhaps you object to me calling this easy, and I will concede you the point (and as a result, I will make revisions to the brief).

[meme]

Here's about terrorism:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/analysis_watson_012703_hamas.html

[dennis]

NVGs just got a lot cheaper...SWAT magazine just reviewed digital monoculars it says are equivalent to Gen-4, costing about $250.

[bobsyouruncle]

Your ideas do have merit. But like all ideas and theories, the real trouble is doing. Most of the neg remarks are about that very simple fact. At any rate it was the military that commisioned the first UL's to include a very novel design developed by goodyear. I kid you not, it was inflatable. The Inflat-a-plane when deflated had the formfactor of a wheelbarrow. The original intent was to meet a search and rescue requirement that arose in the 50's. Certain folks in high places realized that deep strikes into the eastern bloc by TAC fighters and SAC bombers would result in a number of planes being shot down. All of those pilots would be hard to replace in time to sustain the effort and win the war (a lesson learned in WWII.) The pilots at least would have to be recovered. The resulting plan was to airdrop a small aircraft with a miniscule formfactor. The downed pilot would then take the necissary steps to prepare the contraption for flight. He would then fly low and slow to a suitable location for a STOL transport with sufficient range to make the pick up. The total result was the developement of the c-123 and later the c-130 STOL and mid-air refuelable transports and a number of UL's, gyrocopters and of course the afformentioned inflataplane. In the end the Ultralight part of the equation was abandoned in favor of the Fulton Recovery System (as seen in "The Green Berets.") This was a more robust system capable of recovering even those without pilot training (to include spec ops operatives dropped deep behind enemy lines to plant man portable nukes and commit other devious deeds.) Further, the recovery aircraft would not need to land. The downed pilot would not have to assemble an aircraft while evading capture or be exposed to the danger of a take-off from a less than desirable location. Nor would he have to navigate unfamiliar territory to make a risky landing for rendevous.

As for using UL's in an offensive role they would have little impact. For an example, look to WWI. Those aircraft were essentially UL's. They were only useful for aerial observation, and the mere harrassment of ground forces. Even the fighters were barely capable of destroying other lawnmower-powered box-kites, Which incidentally would more often kill the pilot regardless of enemy action. They had little or no impact on the outcome of the war. As for the clandestine transport of bodies, It would take too many craft to do the job without being detected and or dealt with.

HERF weapons are another weak link. OK I'll admit, the whole Y2K thing could be a scary thought, but in practice no big deal. Grunts don't need electricity, and most military orgs are pretty selfsuficient and resourceful. The only thing you could do would be to scare a few civilians and force them to adapt for the length of time it would take to recover. Look at WWII Germany and Japan. They took a major pounding and still kept on. In short, there is a reason most countries buy big airplanes. Little planes can do little dammage.

I suggest a more thorough study of what the cold war camps came up with back in the day. The threat of WMD's being infiltrated and deployed is nothing new. But it seems that some in high places forgot, let thier guard down and let thier expertise retire early or find alternate employment. Now we get to relearn everything without the luxury of self-paced study.

[KFRtoad]

Interesting thread, I thought I should chime in as my company C-LVL ( http://www.c-lvl.com ) is working on a modified ultralight autogyro for Military/Law Enforcement work : the TOAD Tactical Oarganic Airborne Demonstrator.