COMPUTER-AGE WARFARE FOILS TERRORISTS' GETAWAY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000807470028-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 12, 2012
• Sequence Number: 28
• Publication Date: October 12, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807470028-9
ARTICLE,
ON PAGE
a-~
WASHINGTON POST
12 October 1985
Computer-Age Warfare
Foils Terrorists' Getaway
By George C. Wilson
Washington Pat Staff Writer
The United States employed
computer-age warfare to combat
old-fashioned piracy in the force-
down of the Egyptian 737 passen-
ger plane carrying the four terror-
ists who hijacked the Italian cruise
ship Achille Lauro, defense officials
said yesterday.
The Air Force, Navy and Nation-
al Security Agency were deeply
involved in the hunt for the plane,
sources said, as an antiterrorist
team of Army commandos and Navy
Seals stood by on the Marine as-
sault ship Iwo Jima in the Mediter-
ranean.
The NSA eavesdropping net in-
cluded an Air Force C 135 transport
tailored for electronic warfare and
code-named Burning Wind, officials
said. It circled in the sky off Egypt
to eavesdrop on air and ground
communications, sources said, as
part of a broad intelligence-gather-
ing effort to learn when the 737
would leave a military airport out-
side of Cairo and where it would go.
The Navy, too, deployed elec-
tronic eavesdropping planes in the
region, sources said, including the
A3 Skywarrior, known as the Whale
because of its size, to try to record
every message between Egypt and
the airborne .737. Whale aircraft
cover a large area of the Mediter-
ranean by hopscotching between
carriers like the USS Saratoga,
which was in the area, and land
bases in Spain and Sicily.
Once these and other electronic
platforms learned the planned take-
off time and probable destination of
the 737, sources said, Adm. William
J. Crowe Jr., chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, recommended to
President Reagan that an intercept
be attempted.
According to the Defense De-
partment, Reagan indicated at 1:30
p.m. Washington time Friday that
he liked the idea of an intercept and
force-down. Anticipating final pres-
idential approval of the plan, Crowe
recommended that the Saratoga put
its planes in the air. They were
launched at about 2:15 p.m. Wash-
ington time.
At this time, the Saratoga broke
out of its North Atlantic Treaty Or-
ganization formation in the Ioniai:
Sea and reversed course to be near
the intercept point. The United
States had !earned that the 737
would take off at 4:15 p.m., which
gave the carrier and its planes al-
most two hours to get ready for the
intercept.
The Saratoga, officials said, had
been on alert-with bombers and
fighters armed and ready for take-
off-since shortly after the Achille
Lauro was hijacked on Monday. An
intercept force of two E2C
Hawkeye command-and-control
planes, seven F14A Tomcat swing-
wing fighters and four KA6D tanker
planes for aerial refueling were
launched into the night, according
to the Pentagon.
Through electronic and human
intelligence, the Saratoga's air con-
trollers, sitting in the carrier's
semi-dark command center, knew
not only in what general direction
to send the planes to cross the
737's path but even the number
painted on the jet airliner's side.
The battle group commander in-
side the Saratoga ordered the
planes to wait in ambush as the Sar-
atoga reversed course.
The F14 fighters, gulping fuel as
they waited for the 737, refueled
from the KA6Ds several times, al-
ways a tricky maneuver at night
since it involves spearing a bounc-
ing fuel nozzle that trails behind the
tanker. The E2Cs, propeller planes
that burn far less fuel than fighters,
were able to stay up without refu-
eling.
One of the two E2Cs acted as the
airborne command post, telling the
fighter pilots what direction and
altitude were needed to intercept
the transport.
The E2C Hawkeye is packed with
electronic gadgetry, including a ra-
dar that can see in all directions,
including down, for more than 200
miles. The plane also has a comput-
er that tells three operators in the
back the course to fly to intercept
each green dot displayed on the big
radar scopes.
Operators only have to touch the
dot on their radar scope with a spe-
cial pencil to learn what the
Hawkeye's computerized brain has
stored about objects invisible to hu-
man Byes.
The E2C commander, defense
sources said, directed the F14s to
one dot after another before finding
the quarry, the 737. The F14s in-
tercepted and inspected at least
three planes, including a military
transport, before finding the 737
and forcing it to land at Sigonella in
Sicily, according to the Pentagon.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807470028-9