back
Air campaign
Main air campaign starts
EF-111 Raven - No Allied Aircraft was lost to a radar-guided missile
during Desert Storm while an EF-111 was on station.A day after the
deadline set in Resolution, the coalition launched a massive air campaign
codenamed Operation Desert Storm with more than 1,000 sorties launching
per day. It all began on January 17, 1991, when eight U.S. AH-64 Apache
helicopters, and two Pavelow helicopters destroyed Iraqi radar sites near
the Iraqi-Saudi Arabian border at 2:38 A.M. Baghdad time, which could have
warned Iraq of an upcoming attack. At 2:43 A.M. two EF-111 Ravens with
terrain following radar led 22 F-15E Strike Eagles against H-2 and H-3 -
airfields in Western Iraq. Minutes later one of the EF-111 crews – Captain
James Denton and Captain Brent Brandon – killed an Iraqi Dassault Mirage
F-1, when their low altitude maneuvering led the F-1 into the ground. 'As
I lie in my tent after performing an all night radar surveillance
operation, I remember being annoyed by the percussion of earth shattering
bomb explosions.
At 3 A.M., ten U.S. F-117 Nighthawk Stealth Fighters under the protection
of a three-ship formation of EF-111s bombed Baghdad, the capital, killing
many civilians.
Within hours of the start of the coalition air campaign, a P-3 Orion
called “Outlaw Hunter” developed by the Navy’s Space & Naval Warfare
Systems Command. It was testing a highly specialized OTH-T (over the
horizon targeting system package) detected a large number of Iraqi patrol
boats and naval vessels attempting to make a run from Basra and Um Qasar
to Iranian waters. “Outlaw Hunter” vectored in strike elements which
attacked the flotilla near Bubiyan Island destroying 11 vessels and
damaging scores more.
Concurrently, US Navy BGM-109 Tomahawk Cruise Missiles struck targets in
Baghdad, and other coalition aircraft struck targets throughout Iraq. The
civilian death toll continued to climb as the attack continued for hours.
Government buildings, TV stations, Iraqi Air Force fields and presidential
palaces were destroyed. Five hours after the first attacks, Baghdad state
radio broadcast a voice identified as Saddam Hussein declaring that “The
great duel, the mother of all battles has begun. The dawn of victory nears
as this great showdown begins.”
The Persian Gulf War is sometimes called the “computer war” because of the
advanced weapons used in the air campaign which included precision-guided
munitions (or “smart bombs”) and cruise missiles, although these were very
much in the minority when compared with "dumb bombs". Cluster munitions and
BLU-82 “Daisy Cutters” were also used. Iraq responded by launching eight
Iraqi modified Scud missiles into Israel the next day. These missile
attacks on Israel were to continue throughout the six weeks of the war.
The first priority for Coalition forces was destruction of the Iraqi air
force and anti-aircraft facilities. This was quickly achieved, and for the
duration of the war, Coalition aircraft would operate largely
unchallenged. Despite Iraq’s better-than-expected anti-aircraft
capabilities, only one coalition aircraft, an FA-18 flown by LCDR Scott
Speicher, was lost, on the opening day of the war. EA-6Bs, EF-111 radar
jammers and F-117A stealth planes were heavily used in this phase to elude
Iraq’s extensive SAM systems and anti-aircraft weapons; once these were
destroyed, other types of aircraft could be used with near-impunity. The
sorties were launched mostly from Saudi Arabia and the six Coalition
aircraft carrier battle groups (CVBG) in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea.
Persian Gulf CVBGs included USS Midway (CV 41), USS John F. Kennedy
(CV-67) and USS Ranger (CV-61). USS America (CV-66), USS Theodore
Roosevelt (CVN-71), and USS Saratoga (CV-60) operated from the Red Sea
(USS America transitioned to the Persian Gulf midway through the air war).
The next coalition targets were command and communication facilities.
Saddam Hussein had closely micromanaged the Iraqi forces in the Iran-Iraq
War and initiative at the lower levels was discouraged. Coalition planners
hoped Iraqi resistance would quickly collapse if deprived of command and
control.
USAF A-10A Thunderbolt-II ground attack plane over circles of irrigated
crops during Desert Storm.
Iraq's air force escapes to Iran
F-14 Tomcats from the Red Sea and Persian Gulf await their turn refuelling
from a KC-10A over Iraq during Desert Storm while conducting BONGCAP
mission to stop fleeing Iraqi fighters.The first week of the air war saw a
few Iraqi sorties; but these did little damage, and 38 Iraqi MiGs were
shot down by Coalition planes. Soon after, the Iraqi Air Force began
fleeing to Iran, with 115 to 140 aircraft flown to Iran. The mass
exodus of Iraqi aircraft to Iran took coalition forces by surprise as the
Coalition had been expecting the aircraft to flee to Jordan, a nation
friendly to Iraq rather than Iran, Iraq's long-time enemy. The Coalition
had placed aircraft over Western Iraq to try and stop such a retreat into
Jordan. This meant they were unable to react before most of the Iraqi
aircraft had made it "safely" to Iranian airbases. The coalition
eventually established a virtual "wall" of F-14 Tomcat fighters on the
Iraq border with Iran (called MIGCAP) thereby stopping the exodus of
fleeing Iraqi fighters. Iran has never returned the aircraft to Iraq and
did not release the aircrews home until years later.
The Iraqi Navy also attempted to escape to Iran, but only one damaged Osa
class missile boat managed to get through.
Infrastructure bombing
The third and largest phase of the air campaign ostensibly targeted
military targets throughout Iraq and Kuwait: Scud missile launchers,
weapons of mass destruction sites, weapons research facilities and naval
forces. About one-third of the Coalition airpower was devoted to attacking
Scuds, which were on trucks and therefore difficult to locate. In
addition, it targeted facilities which were used for civilians:
electricity production facilities, telecommunications equipment, port
facilities, oil refineries and distribution, railroads and bridges.
Electrical power facilities were destroyed across the country. At the end
of the war, electricity production was at four percent of its pre-war
levels. Bombs destroyed the utility of all major dams, most major pumping
stations and many sewage treatment plants, turning Iraq from one of the
most advanced Arab countries into one of the most backward. Some US and
British special forces teams had been covertly inserted into western Iraq
to aid in the search and destruction of Scuds. However, the lack of
adequate terrain for concealment hindered their operations, and many of
them were killed or captured.
The Iraqi targets were located by aerial
photography and were referenced to the GPS coordinates of the US Embassy
in Baghdad, which were determined by a USAF officer in August 1990: he
arrived at the airport carrying a briefcase with a GPS receiver in it,
then an embassy car took him to the embassy. He walked to the embassy
courtyard, opened the briefcase, took one GPS reading, and put the machine
back in the case. Then he returned to the US gave the GPS receiver to the
appropriate intelligence agency in Langley, Virginia, where the position
of the US Embassy was officially determined. This position served as the
origin for a coordinate system used to designate targets in Baghdad.
Jordan's neutrality in the war prompted US fighter jets to bomb highways
connecting Iraq and Jordan, causing civilian casualties and crippling
infrastructure on both sides.
Hits on civilian facilities
The Iraqi government reported the high rate of Iraqi civilian casualties
to gain support throughout the Muslim world. The US claim the Iraqi
government fabricated numerous attacks on Iraqi holy sites in order to
rally the Muslim community. One such instance had Iraqi’s reporting that
coalition forces attacked the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala. The final
number of Iraqi civilians killed was 2,278, while 5,965 were reported
wounded. Almost all of these casualties were from US bombing and
missile raids.
On February 13, 1991, two laser-guided "smart bombs" destroyed the
Amiriyah blockhouse, which was a civilian air shelter, killing hundreds of
civilians. US officials claimed that the blockhouse was also a military
communications center, a claim validated by Iraqi military leaders after
the war. The White House claims, in a report titled
Apparatus of Lies: Crafting Tragedy, that US intelligence sources reported
the blockhouse was being used for military command purposes. In his
book, Saddam's Bomb maker, the former director of Iraq’s nuclear weapon
program, who defected to the west, supports the theory that the facility
was used for both purposes, as does Iraqi general Georges Sada, who was in
charge of POWs taken during combat. Other sources dispute these claims.
next
American Civil War
World War 1 Page's
World War 2 Page's
Cold War Page's
Korean War Page's Vietnam War Page's
Gulf War Page's
Afghanistan War Page's |
1
2
3
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
1
2
3
4
5
1 2
3
1
2
3
4
5
6
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
1
2
3 4
5 6
7
8
1
2 3 |
Home |
|
|
