Cas Cultural Issues

Regarding CAS training, cultural issues make a clear difference about how to integrate air and land domain. The Army’s relationship to air power is far different from that of the Marine Corps. The Marines train their ground and air units to fight as a combined arms team. Their airmen see their sole mission as assuring the survival and success of Marines on the ground. Their forward air controllers (FACs) are all Marine pilots, who may also be assigned to ground units. In contrast, the Army has no counterpart to the Marine air-ground task force. Air Force A-10 pilots, like Marine airmen, consider their sole mission to be assuring the survival and success of Army troops on the ground, but other Air Force pilots may regard air support to ground
This will put a greater emphasis on the use of simulators. Since aircrews are expected to conduct a myriad of tasks that are both internal and external to the aircraft while, at the same time, conducting a CAS mission, it is inevitable that training approach will rely on the existence of several part-task trainers. The detailed integration will rely on clear and effective communication between the pilots and JTACs. The importance of being able to communicate quickly and clearly on the battlefield is critical. The reason that the communications and procedures outlined in doctrinal publications are consistent with joint publications is to ensure that all players on the battlefield have a common language with repeatable and predictable procedures. The increased effectiveness in communication leads to an increased effectiveness on the battlefield. It is also commonly understood among the participants of CAS operations that if the players do not adhere to this common language and predictable procedures, the situation may lead to confusion and result in enemy getting away or worse yet, incidents of