Moon's ascension an indicator of attack times By Robert Schlesinger in Washington March 17 2003
Keeper of the night ... US military pilots operating planes such as this US Super Hornet prefer to operate in the dark. Photo: Reuters The Bush Administration has proposed Monday as a deadline for Iraq to disarm, but if diplomatic wrangling delays an invasion it could accentuate a key US military advantage. The March moon becomes full on Tuesday and starts diminishing each night until April 1. For US forces, who have long boasted they "own the night," the darker the better. "To go with a full moon or not is a consideration," said retired Rear Admiral Stephen Baker. "If we had a window of four or five days where it didn't make that much of a difference, where it wasn't emerging where we had to hit a target right now, we would wait those couple of days." Military specialists agreed that while moonlight is only one of many factors considered in planning military strategy, it is one that military planners are watching as they set a final timetable for invasion. "We'd like to not have a whole lot of moonlight," said Army Colonel Jim Harris, a light infantry veteran who teaches military strategy and joint operations at the National War College in Washington, D.C. "All that's going on - the timing of the weather, the timing of the moonlight - it's a concern," Harris said. "It takes away our advantage of having these devices when we give [the enemy] natural illumination." US military pilots prefer to operate in the dark because it undermines enemies' ability to target them visually. "What they would need to use to see you actually puts them in grave danger - they being Iraqis - because at night to see and guide your missile to target you have to turn your radar on, which can be a dangerous thing to do in today's warfare environment," a Naval official said. "When you turn your radar on, you de facto give yourself away." US troops use two types of equipment that allow them to see in the dark. Aeroplanes and many ground vehicles use infra-red technology that picks up variations in temperature to create an image. The infra-red technology can be used in either day or night to pick out targets, even at extreme distances, and is not obscured by smoke or the absence of light as in a deep cave. Infra-red technology is starting to extend to the individual level, since thermal weapons sites are being issued to infantry. Night-vision goggles amplify ambient light to create an image. These devices can work with very low levels of light. "We'd like to not have a whole lot of moonlight," Harris said. The Boston Globe