USAF Chief Urges Development of Tech to Fix Targets in Low-Intensity Conflicts

The US military can easily kill targets in war zones but needs better technology to identify them in low-intensity environments, US Air Force Director of Strategic Plans, Major General Peter Gersten, said in remarks at a defense conference in Washington, DC.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — According to Gersten, in low intensity conflicts it is "easy to kill, but harder to find and fix targets." The Air Force, he claimed, needs to develop new technologies and communications systems to find and fix, or acquire targets.

"Having flown in Operation Inherent Resolve, we have been using exquisite weapons like the Small Diameter Bomb and Joint Direct Attack Munitions — and their use creates an expensive mismatch,” Gersten added. "We are using those expensive weapons against berms and barriers, and that is something we don’t want to do."

With the US airstrikes in Mosul, Iraq, allegedly leading to civilian casualties, Gersten stressed the US military’s process for limiting casualties.

"Look, we are using the most advanced precision weapons because we recognize the need to avoid civilian casualties and we take that seriously,” Gersten noted.

Earlier on Tuesday, coalition commander Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend said in a briefing that the anti-IS coalition likely played a part in high civilian casualties caused by a recent strike in the Iraqi city of Mosul.