As a arty observer I was expected to be able to do all that back in the 1980s, plus naval gunfire, and write up company and battalion fire plans.   Cerrtifications were not forthcoming, but we were expected to able to do it on a moments notice.  If anyone complained about the load the old Viet Nam vets reminded us that the grunt officers (Lts) had to take all that on routinely.  Well, usually they were out of naval gunfire range.  With the FAC seldom being anywhere near the company or platoon and the arty observer often already a casualty the load for fire support control routinely fell on any surviving rifle platoon commander.  More than a few of my isntructors or mentors described how he found himself as a 2d Lt controling the fire support for a battalion size battle simply because he was the only officer with eyes on the targets and a radio.  One of these guys a had a medal for it.  Another said they did it so often it was considered normal.  One Lt Col described trying to simultaneously control both arty and air strikes when only in country a week and less than two months from the Infantry Officers Course.  Medevacing both the company CO & XO was the worst moment of his life.

The reality of the battlefield seems to always make miltary theory and doctrine a tiny bit superflous and silly.

I understand where your coming fr/.  But what they're planning is a little different they whats been done previously.

 

Previously, ArtyOffs and 0861(Fire Supportman) were trained to call in airstrikes but unless it was a FAC/AO or JTAC authorizing the strike, the pilots were only authorized to drop ordinance in extremis situations, as in your under fire etc.

 

The plan is to ceritify all Combat Arms Officers as JTACs. 

 

To better explain there's an exerpt fr/ an article on ANGLICO and the CO of 2nd ANGLICO gives some detail.

 

Marine Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company

By SUE A. LACKEY, Associate Editor

 

 

 

 

..........Given this compressed battlespace, with the additional complication of a resident civilian population, ANGLICO?s JTAC expertise is even more vital to U.S. and coalition forces. Their call sign, ?Lightning,? assures pilots and gunners that the soldier calling in the fire is qualified, mitigating the chance of friendly fire.

?When you?re talking about a digital battlefield, the preponderance of our fire right now is being delivered by airplanes. Under the rules we?ve set up, you can?t deliver ordnance unless you?re a JTAC,? said Lt. Col. Scott Campbell, commanding officer of 2nd ANGLICO, based at Camp LeJeune, N.C. ?A rifle company likely has no ability to deliver air. That company commander and those lieutenants know how to do it, but if an F-16 — an Air Force airplane — shows up, the pilot will not drop the ordnance unless it?s in extremis, and then he?s going to ask for your initials and he?s going to try and protect himself because of what?s happened with fratricide.?

Campbell, a Force Reconnaissance veteran, is acutely aware of the intense training his Marines will have to undergo in advance of the challenge of urban warfare, where JTACs may have to talk pilots onto structural targets in crowded cities. Laser target indicators are not visible in the glaring sunlight of Iraq, and obscure targets may be not be visible to pilots coming in at 10,000 feet.

?These young ANGLICO Marines are dropping 500-pound bombs within 300 meters of friendlies in Iraq,? he said. ?We bring the capability that, day or night, we?re going to get a bomb onto the target, and we?re going to do it safely.

?The pilot needs to know where you?re at, they need to know where the enemy is at, they need to know what direction to come in on. It?s not an exact science, and the JTAC has to have the experience to make damn sure that pilot?s nose is pointed in the right direction, or he won?t let him drop that ordnance. At night, when the planes don?t have their lights on and you?re using a set of [night vision goggles] and trying to talk the guy onto a target with an infrared pointer, we?re counting on that JTAC?s ability to look into the sky at an airplane moving pretty fast, in the dark, and ascertain the geometry of the battlefield.

?It?s our job to paint that pilot a picture,? Campbell added, ?to give him a feel for how intense the combat is, how close the enemy is in relation to the friendlies; make that pilot comfortable with the decision. When a pilot hears the call sign Lightning, he should smile, and say, ?OK, this guy knows what he?s doing; this guy?s a pro.??

Much of the small unit tactics and JTAC qualifications are in line with the Marine Corps? vision of Distributed Operations, and the concept of leveraged firepower. While the Corps plans to greatly increase the number of JTACs available within conventional battalions, ANGLICO?s intensive training and specific mission will remain. Campbell sees the organization inevitably pushed toward the Special Operations arena in support of current tactics in Iraq, but wants to guard against diluting the mission.

Basically they plan on giving them not just the training to be able to do it "if they have to in extremis", but the expertise and certification which gives them the authority to do it whenever.

 

They eyeball X-HVT enter a building or travelling in on whatever road they now have the authority, expertise, and certification to call in the strike.