Pentagon ready to fill request for more attack helicopters

Cohen to pilots: 'We will prevail'

Defense Secretary William Cohen told CNN that a decision on when to use the Apaches would be up to NATO's supreme commander, U.S. Gen. Wesley Clark.

"He will make that judgment as to when they can get there, when they should be used," Cohen said Thursday at Aviano Air Base in Italy.

He visited the air base, from which hundreds of missions have been launched over Yugoslavia, along with a bipartisan congressional delegation.

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"We will prevail," Cohen told American pilots. "It's going to be difficult. It's going to be hard. But we will persevere. The reason is because of you," he said, standing beside an F-16 fighter in a hangar.

Air war to get 'lower, more personal'

To intensify NATO's attack against Yugoslav ground and armored forces, Clark said Wednesday he wants more American and allied warplanes -- which currently number about 600.

He has indicated he may ask for more A-10 warplanes and refueling aircraft, a defense official told The Associated Press. The A-10, like the Apache helicopter, is designed to attack troops and tanks on the ground.

Pentagon officials said during Thursday's briefing that they had not yet been notified of Clark's request.

"But I'd like to remind everybody again that the secretary of defense and the chairman (of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) have said that when those requests come and (are) needed, they will support it," Wald said.

The demand for the helicopters signals an increased emphasis on targeting military personnel.

"The campaign is really going to start to get much lower and much more personal," Cohen told CNN.

Going "closer to the ground" also means higher risk from Yugoslavia's surface-to-air defenses, Cohen said. But, he added, "We believe we have adequate suppression capabilities."

President Bill Clinton insisted Thursday that with the amount of air power being employed over Yugoslavia, NATO ground troops won't be necessary to get the job done in Kosovo.

"I believe the present strategy can work, if we can keep the allies with it," Clinton said.

U.S. officials said allied solidarity has been threatened, in part, by a series of gestures from Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, such as the unilateral cease-fire announced for the Orthodox Easter holiday.

"I think he is trying a number of tactics to end the bombing," Rear Adm. Thomas Wilson, the chief of intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said. "There is a real sense of falseness to these tactics."

Drone may have been shot down

On Wednesday, an unmanned U.S. Army reconnaissance aircraft went down in Kosovo, the second NATO aircraft loss since airstrikes began March 24.

The first occurred March 27 when an F-117A stealth fighter- bomber went down outside Belgrade after it apparently was struck by a missile, although it's still under investigation. The pilot was rescued.

The twin-engine, unmanned aircraft, known as a Hunter, is used as a surveillance aid that can transmit real-time video images to battlefield commanders.

It is smaller and less sophisticated than the Predator, the other U.S. unmanned surveillance aircraft flying over Yugoslavia.

The Pentagon is investigating the cause of the crash of the $300,000 to $350,000 drone. A defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press it appeared the Hunter was shot down.

Correspondents Aram Roston, David Ensor, Bill Hemmer and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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