Coalition intervention
93-666: Naval operations Air campaign Liberation of Kuwait Post-ceasefire Operation Samurra was an operation by the Iraqi Air Force (IQAF) during the Gulf War to decisively engage McDonnell Douglas F-15C Eagle fighters from the United States Air Force (USAF) using Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 interceptors, and break the "wall" of F-15s that the Coalition had established along Iraq's border with Iran . It demonstrated
186-464: A GAU-8 rotary cannon and infrared-imaging or optically guided AGM-65 Maverick missiles, USAF A-10 Thunderbolt IIs bombed and destroyed Iraqi armored forces, supporting the advance of U.S. ground troops. United States Marine Corps close air support AV-8B Harriers employed their 25mm rotary cannon, Mavericks, cluster munitions , and napalm against the Iraqi dug-in forces to pave the way forward for
279-413: A Baghdad airport, electric powerplants and factories making Iraqi military equipment were all destroyed by massive aerial and missile attacks from coalition forces. Five hours after the first attacks, Iraq's 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 Gulf War
372-490: A MiG kill. Despite this, they still managed to achieve radar lock up on both as-Sammarai and Awad, and each fired a missile at them. Both missed. Bigum fired a second missile at Awad, but Awad landed his aircraft before the missile arrived. Bigum fired again at as-Sammarai as he was on his final landing approach, but Bigum lost the radar lock as as-Sammarai landed and the missile impacted the ground about 10 ft (3 m) from as-Sammarai's left wingtip. Bigum and Broome egressed
465-583: A development that made it safer to go on operations, many crews got in as many trips as they could before the Germans found a counter-countermeasure. Although the metal strips puzzled the German civilians at first, German scientists knew exactly what they were– Düppel —but had refrained from using it for the same reasons as Lindemann had pointed out to the British. For over a year the curious situation arose where both sides of
558-603: A falling F-15 on January 30. Later Iraqi government documents claim two F-15s recorded as being shot down in this engagement. However, USAF claim that there is no record of an F-15 being shot down on January 30 in the area west of Baghdad. Operation Samurra was the last offensive operation of the Iraqi Air Force during the Gulf War. By mid-February all IQAF activity had effectively ceased as the Coalition completed their dominance over
651-674: A false target, both pilots were directed to Dietz and Hehemann by Iraqi air traffic control. The two flights immediately engaged one another, with Hehemann firing two missiles, one of which was a dud. At the same time, as-Sammarai achieved radar lock on Hehemann and fired an R-40 missile, which went ballistic after as-Sammarai was forced into evasive maneuvers to avoid Hehemann's missile. As-Sammarai's missile damaged Hehemann's left engine, but his F-15 remained flyable. Meanwhile, Dietz engaged Awad, attempting to fire several missiles at him. After Dietz's missiles failed to fire three times, Awad managed to get radar lock on Dietz's F-15, putting him onto
744-641: A formal agreement between Iraq and Iran, with some suggesting that the deal had been hastily drawn up, and initially only permitted sanctuary for Iraqi civilian and transport aircraft. Iran did not allow the Iraqi aircrews to be released until years later. Iran held on to the Iraqi aircraft for over 20 years, whose value was collectively estimated at $ 2.5 billion, as partial payment of the $ 900 billion in reparations but eventually returned 88 of them in 2014. However, many Iraqi planes remained in Iran, and several were destroyed by coalition forces. The third and largest phase of
837-489: A large radar cross section intended to blind or disrupt radar systems. Modern military forces use chaff to distract active radar homing missiles from their targets. Military aircraft and warships can be equipped with chaff dispensing systems for self-defense. During its midcourse phase , an intercontinental ballistic missile may release chaff along with its other penetration aids . Contemporary radar systems can distinguish chaff from legitimate targets by measuring
930-457: A notch of low sensitivity to frequencies associated with low velocity. The effect is likely to be momentary against modern radar systems but can be prolonged by the use of Chill and Jaff as described below. One of the important qualities of chaff is that it is lightweight, allowing large amounts to be carried. As a result, after release it quickly loses any forward speed it had from the aircraft or rocket launcher, and then begins to fall slowly to
1023-443: A raid on the night of 7/8 October 1943. In raids in 1943 and the "mini-blitz" of Operation Steinbock between February and May 1944, Düppel allowed German bombers again to attempt operations over London . Although theoretically effective, the small number of bombers, notably in relation to the large RAF night-fighter force, doomed the effort from the start. The British fighters were able to go aloft in large numbers and often found
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#17328524878261116-444: A small number of transport aircraft, with South Korea, Kuwait, Italy and Japan also paying for the cost of 200 airlift flights into Saudi Arabia. Additionally, Germany , Belgium and Italy each sent a squadron of fighters as part of their NATO obligation to protect Turkey , although these aircraft were strictly defensive and did not take part in the campaign against Iraq. In terms of quantity and quality, Coalition airpower
1209-418: A small pyrotechnic charge. Chaff countermeasures come in two main types: continuous wave (CW) chaff, used against radar-guided missiles that operate on a continuous frequency, and pulsed chaff, used against missiles that operate on a pulsed frequency. There is not a lot of research on the public health and environmental effects of chaff. A U.S. Department of Defense-sponsored 1998 research review stated that
1302-620: A statement noting that the missile had malfunctioned but admitted that the Royal Air Force had made an error. An estimated 407 Iraqi aircraft were either destroyed or flown to Iran and permanently impounded there. During Desert Storm, 36 aircraft were shot down in aerial combat. Three helicopters and 2 fighters were shot down during the invasion of Kuwait on 2 August 1990. Kuwait claims to have shot down as many as 37 Iraqi aircraft. These claims have not been confirmed. In addition, 68 fixed wing aircraft and 13 helicopters were destroyed while on
1395-457: A successful operation the night before whereupon they intercepted several USAF EF-111 Ravens that were jamming Iraqi radars. Subsequently, Iraqi anti-aircraft gunners were able to wreak havoc on a now unprotected sortie of F-15E Strike Eagle fighters. The plan involved having two MiG-25 aircraft from different directions vectored onto an isolated group of F-15s. If the F-15s tried to attack one of
1488-450: A third of Iraqi pilots were deemed to meet the standards of Western pilots, and almost all of them lacked aggressiveness and were overly dependent on ground control to direct them to targets. In addition, the air force suffered from spare parts shortages and maintenance shortfalls, and a majority of their equipment like the MiG-21 were outdated and of dubious combat value. Only 170 aircraft like
1581-421: A typical diameter of 1 mil , or 0.025 mm, and a typical length of 0.3 inches (7.6 mm) to over 2 inches (51 mm). Newer "superfine" chaff has a typical diameter of 0.7 mils (0.018 mm). The chaff is carried in tubular cartridges, which remain attached to the aircraft, each typically containing around 3 to 5 million chaff fibres. The chaff is ejected from the cartridge by a plastic piston driven by
1674-469: A virtual "wall" of F-15 Eagles, F-14 Tomcats, and F-16 Fighting Falcons on the Iraq–Iran border (called MIGCAP), thereby stopping the exodus of fleeing Iraqi fighters. In response, the Iraqi Air Force launched Operation Samurra in an attempt to break the blockade imposed on them. The resulting air battle would be the last offensive action of the war for the Iraqi Air Force. It was unclear if there had been
1767-422: Is sometimes called the "computer war", due to the advanced computer-guided weapons and munitions used in the air campaign, which included precision-guided munitions and cruise missiles , even though these were very much in the minority when compared with "dumb bombs" used. Cluster munitions and BLU-82 "Daisy Cutters" were also used. Iraq responded by launching eight Iraqi modified Scud missiles into Israel
1860-622: The Battle of Iwo Jima , Giman-shi was successfully used prior to a Kamikaze attack on the USS ; Saratoga . British warships in the Falklands War (1982) made heavy use of chaff. During this war, British Sea Harrier aircraft lacked their conventional chaff-dispensing mechanism. Therefore, Royal Navy engineers designed an improvised delivery system of welding rods , split pins and string, which allowed six packets of chaff to be stored in
1953-529: The Doppler effect ; chaff quickly loses speed after leaving an aircraft, and the resulting shift in wavelength of the radar return can be measured. To counter this, a chaff cloud can be illuminated by the defending vehicle with a doppler-corrected frequency. This is known as JAFF (jammer plus chaff) or CHILL (chaff-illuminated). The idea of using chaff developed independently in the United Kingdom , Germany ,
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#17328524878262046-723: The Iraqis attempted to mount a strike against the major Saudi oil refinery, Ras Tanura. Two Mirage F1 fighters laden with incendiary bombs and two MiG-23s (acting as fighter cover) took off from bases in Iraq. They were spotted by US AWACs, and two Royal Saudi Air Force F-15s were sent to intercept. When the Saudis appeared the Iraqi MiGs turned tail, but the Mirages pressed on. Captain Iyad Al-Shamrani, one of
2139-615: The Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award for his work. In the Pacific Theatre , Navy Lieutenant Commander Sudo Hajime invented a Japanese version called Giman-shi , or "deceiving paper". It was first used with some success in mid 1943, during night battles over the Solomon Islands . Competing demands for the scarce aluminum necessary for its manufacture limited its use. On February 21, 1945, during
2232-503: The United States and Japan . In 1937, British researcher Gerald Touch, while working with Robert Watson-Watt on radar, suggested that lengths of wire suspended from balloons or parachutes might overwhelm a radar system with false echoes and R. V. Jones had suggested that pieces of metal foil falling through the air might do the same. In early 1942, Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) researcher Joan Curran investigated
2325-608: The United States , the coalition flew over 100,000 sorties , dropping 88,500 tons of bombs, widely destroying military and civilian infrastructure. The air campaign was commanded by United States Air Force (USAF) Lieutenant General Chuck Horner , who briefly served as Commander-in-Chief—Forward of U.S. Central Command while General Norman Schwarzkopf was still in the United States . The British air commanders were Air Chief Marshal Andrew Wilson (to 17 November 1990) and Air Vice-Marshal Bill Wratten (from 17 November). The air campaign had largely finished by 23 February 1991 with
2418-529: The Vietnam War —protected by 65% of Iraq's SAMs and over half of its AAA pieces. Though impressive on paper, the Iraqi Air Force's primary role was to act as a regional deterrent , with a secondary role of supporting the Iraqi Army , rather than attempt to gain air superiority in any conflict. Basic training was rigid, inflexible, and left pilots with extremely poor situational awareness . Additional training
2511-475: The airbrake well and be deployed in flight. It was often referred to as the " Heath Robinson chaff modification", due to its complexity. Although chaff produces large amounts of scattered reflections potentially clogging a radar display it is easily filtered by virtue of it moving relatively slowly through the sky. Radar can make use of the doppler effect to distinguish between chaff and target aircraft which are fast moving. The doppler effect only occurs for
2604-420: The Coalition had been expecting them to flee to Jordan , a nation friendly to Iraq, rather than Iran, a long-time enemy. As the purpose of the war was to destroy Iraq militarily, the coalition had placed aircraft over western Iraq to try to stop any 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
2697-441: The Coalition was deficient was in tactical reconnaissance . Aircraft specializing in reconnaissance were reportedly given low priority due to lack of space and the belief that strategic platforms could take over their role, a belief which would prove misplaced. Efforts to compensate for this deficiency included using regular fighter aircraft in the reconnaissance role and RQ-2 Pioneer unmanned aerial vehicles . Deployed mainly by
2790-446: The Coalition. Consequently, Coalition sorties began targeting aircraft hangars and shelters to destroy the Iraqi Air Force on the ground. Between 17 and 27 January, 117 Iraqi aircraft were destroyed on the ground. Saddam ordered his air force to evacuate their aircraft to neighbouring Iran temporarily, to be used in future sorties (Iran instead interned the aircraft). Flying in flights of four, Iraqi military aircraft retreated east across
2883-487: The F1 to crash into the ground. At 3:00 AM, ten USAF F-117 Nighthawk stealth attack aircraft, under the protection of a three-ship formation of EF-111s, bombed Baghdad , the capital. The striking force came under fire from 3,000 anti-aircraft guns on the ground. Within hours of the start of the coalition air campaign, a P-3 Orion called Outlaw Hunter developed by the U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command , which
Samurra Air Battle - Misplaced Pages Continue
2976-562: The German bombers in spite of Düppel . The Germans obtained better results during the air raid on Bari in Italy, on 2 December 1943, when Allied radars were deceived by the use of Düppel . Following the British discovery of it in 1942 by Joan Curran, chaff in the United States was co-invented by astronomer Fred Whipple and Navy engineer Merwyn Bly. Whipple proposed the idea to the Air Force he
3069-571: The Germans, the Luftwaffe would quickly copy it and could launch a new Blitz . This caused concern in RAF Fighter Command and Anti-Aircraft Command , who managed to suppress the use of Window until July 1943. It was felt that the new generation of centimetric radars available to Fighter Command would cope with Luftwaffe retaliation. Examination of the Würzburg radar equipment brought back to
3162-538: The IADS was centralized to a fault. Although each IOC was datalinked to their respective SOC and in turn back to the ADOC, the defense sectors couldn't share information between each other. If a SOC was knocked out of action the attached air defense weapons lost all ability to coordinate their response; its respective SAM batteries would be forced to rely on their own radar systems while most AAA lacked any radar guidance. A day after
3255-523: The Iraqi military. BBC correspondent Jeremy Bowen , who was one of the first television reporters on the scene, was given access to the shelter and claimed that he did not find any evidence of it being used by the Iraqi military. His claims were later contradicted by Iraqi general Wafiq al-Samarrai , who claimed that the shelter was used by the Iraqi Intelligence Service , and that Saddam Hussein had personally made visits to it. The day after
3348-718: The Iraqi–Saudi Arabian border which could have warned Iraq of an upcoming attack. At 2:43 A.M. two USAF EF-111 Ravens with terrain following radar led 22 USAF F-15E Strike Eagles against assaults on airfields in Western Iraq. Minutes later, one of the EF-111 crews—Captain James Denton and Captain Brent Brandon —were unofficially credited with the destruction of an Iraqi Dassault Mirage F1 when their low altitude maneuvering led
3441-554: The Kuwaiti theater of operations (KTO). Iraq also possessed a large number of anti-aircraft artillery (AAA), with 972 AAA sites, 2,404 fixed AA guns and 6,100 mobile AA guns. Providing complete coverage of Iraqi airspace were 478 early warning radars, 75 high-frequency radars, and 154 acquisition radars. Much of this equipment was combined into an integrated air defense system (IADS) overseen by Kari, an automated C computer system developed by Iraq and built by French contractors in
3534-598: The Kuwaitis lost 1. During the invasion of Kuwait on 2 August 1990, the Kuwaiti Air Force lost 12 fixed-wing aircraft, which were destroyed on the ground, and 8 helicopters, 6 of which were shot down and 2 of which were destroyed while on the ground. Chaff (countermeasure) Chaff , originally called Window or Düppel , is a radar countermeasure involving the dispersal of thin strips of aluminium , metallized glass fiber , or plastic . Dispersed chaff produces
3627-548: The MiG-29 and Mirage F1 were considered comparable to Coalition aircraft, with the MiG-29 being downgraded export models. Likewise, Kari itself had a number of deficiencies of which Coalition air forces would take advantage. The system was primarily oriented towards defending against much smaller attacks from Iraq's most likely enemies— Iran , Syria and Israel —and focused on point defense rather than area defense. This meant there were significant gaps in its coverage, particularly on
3720-455: The MiGs, the other would be in a flanking position which would enable it to down the F-15s more easily. Iraq didn't evacuate their MiG-25 "Foxbats" in order to retain them for this mission. Monitoring Coalition AWACS and F-15 radio frequencies, Iraqi forces waited for the proper situation to begin the operation. Finally on January 30, an Iraqi intelligence unit intercepted communications that one of
3813-632: The Red Sea (USS America later transitioned to the Persian Gulf midway through the air war). Wild Weasels were very effective; unlike the North Vietnamese, Iraqi SAM operators did not turn radar off until just before launch. Antiaircraft defenses, including shoulder-launched ground-to-air missiles, were surprisingly ineffective against coalition aircraft and the coalition suffered only 75 aircraft losses in over 100,000 sorties, though only 42 of these were
Samurra Air Battle - Misplaced Pages Continue
3906-592: The Saudi pilots, maneuvered his jet behind the Mirages and shot down both aircraft. A few days later the Iraqis made their last true air offensive of the war, unsuccessfully attempting to shoot down F-15s patrolling the Iranian border. After this episode, the Iraqis made no more air efforts of their own, sending most of their jets to Iran in hopes that they might someday get their air force back. The first priority for Coalition forces
3999-598: The TRE, A. P. Rowe , code-named the device "Window". In Germany, similar research had led to the development of Düppel . The German code name came from the estate where the first German tests with chaff took place, circa 1942. Once the British had passed the idea to the US via the Tizard Mission , Fred Whipple developed a system for dispensing strips for the USAAF , but it is not known if this
4092-560: The U.S. Marines breaching Iraqi President Saddam Hussein 's defenses. The U.S. Army AH-64 Apache and AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters fired laser-guided AGM-114 Hellfire and TOW missiles which were guided to tanks by ground observers or by scout helicopters, such as the OH-58D Kiowa . The Coalition air fleet also made use of the E-3A Airborne Warning and Control Systems and of a fleet of B-52 Stratofortress bombers. On
4185-872: The U.S. Marines, the RQ-2 was sufficient for certain missions but lacking in many respects compared to dedicated aircraft. At the time of the Gulf War the Iraqi Air Force (IQAF) was the sixth largest in the world, consisting of over 750 fixed-wing combat aircraft operating out of 24 primary airfields, with 13 active dispersal fields and 19 additional dispersal fields. Iraq had also constructed 594 hardened aircraft shelters to house nearly its entire air force, protecting them from attack. Iraq similarly possessed an impressive amount of air defenses. Its inventory included 16,000 surface-to-air missiles total, both radar and infrared guided , with over 3,600 of these major missile systems. Up to 154 SAM sites and 18 SAM support facilities were located in Iraq, with another 20 or 21 sites in
4278-572: The UK during Operation Biting (February 1942) and subsequent reconnaissance revealed to the British that all German radars were operating in no more than three frequency ranges, making them prone to jamming . Arthur Travers "Bomber" Harris , Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of RAF Bomber Command , finally got approval to use Window as part of Operation Gomorrah , the week long bombing campaign against Hamburg . The first aircrew trained to use Window were in 76 Squadron . Twenty-four crews were briefed on how to drop
4371-608: The United States) were supplemented with five commercial satellites to provide the vast majority of communication within the theater of operations. Combined they had a total transmission rate of 200 million bits per second, or equivalent to 39,000 simultaneous telephone calls. A range of other satellites provided additional intelligence-gathering services, including the Defense Support Program , Landsat program , SPOT , and six meteorological satellites . One area where
4464-456: The aerial tanker and had been monitoring the air battle. Pilots Lt. Col. Randy Bigum and 1st Lt. Lynn Broome decided to direct their F-15s in an attempt to intercept the two MiG-25s. However, a high altitude crosswind forced them over Baghdad, which was the most heavily defended airspace in Iraq. The two were subsequently locked-on by Iraqi gunners. Bigum would later admit he didn't notice the drift because he and his wing-man were determined to score
4557-438: The air campaign ostensibly targeted military targets throughout Iraq and Kuwait: Scud missile launchers, weapons research facilities, and naval forces. About one-third of the Coalition airpower was devoted to attacking Scuds, some of which were on trucks and therefore difficult to locate. Some U.S. and British special forces teams had been covertly inserted into western Iraq to aid in the search and destruction of Scuds. However,
4650-447: The aircraft to reflect a signal off the chaff cloud that has the proper frequency to match that of the aircraft. This makes it impossible to use Doppler shift alone to filter out the chaff signal. In practice, the signal is deliberately noisy in order to present multiple false targets. In essence, the JAFF technique is a low-cost offboard decoy, moving the jammers from the launcher platform to
4743-463: The appropriate weapon system to engage them. The SOC could automatically target for SA-2 and SA-3 SAM systems in their sector, which meant the SAMs did not have to turn on their own radar and reveal their position, or an IOC could direct local interceptors to engage the targets. Baghdad itself was one of the most heavily defended cities in the world—more heavily defended several times over than Hanoi during
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#17328524878264836-483: The area before they could be shot down by surface-to-air missiles , which were still targeting them. AF.Mil shows LtC Randy Bigum as commander 53rd Tactical Fighter Squadron Bitburg Germany during this time frame. deployed to Al Kharj The Iraqi Air Force first credited as-Sammarai with a possible victory which was later upgraded to confirmed after a Bedouin smuggler discovered wreckage of an F-15 just inside Saudi Arabia, very close to where Iraqi radars had lost track of
4929-769: The beginning of the coalition ground offensive into Kuwait . The initial strikes were carried out by AGM-86 ALCM cruise missiles launched by B-52 Stratofortress bombers, Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from U.S. Navy warships situated in the Persian Gulf , by F-117 Nighthawk stealth attack aircraft with an armament of laser-guided smart bombs , and by F-4G Wild Weasel aircraft as well as F/A-18 Hornet aircraft armed with HARM anti-radar missiles. These first attacks allowed F-14 Tomcat , F-15 Eagle , F-16 Fighting Falcon , and F/A-18 Hornet combat aircraft to gain air superiority over Iraq and then continue to drop television-guided and laser-guided bombs . Armed with
5022-581: The bombing of the shelter, a Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter jet fired two laser-guided missiles which were aimed at a bridge in Fallujah which was used as part of an Iraqi military supply line. The missiles malfunctioned and struck Fallujah's largest marketplace (which was situated in a residential area), killing between 50 and 150 non-combatants and wounding many more. After news of the mistake became public, an RAF spokesman, Group Captain David Henderson issued
5115-413: The bundles of aluminised -paper strips (treated-paper was used to minimise the weight and to maximise the time that the strips would remain in the air, prolonging the effect), one every minute through the flare chute, using a stopwatch to time them. The results proved spectacular. The radar-guided master searchlights wandered aimlessly across the sky. The anti-aircraft guns fired randomly or not at all and
5208-543: The capture of a Junkers Ju 88R-1 night fighter by the British in May 1943 equipped with it) useless, blinding radar-guided guns and spotlights dependent on the ground-based radar. Oberst Hajo Herrmann developed Wilde Sau (Wild Boar) to cope with the lack of accurate ground guidance and led to the formation of three new fighter wings to use the tactic, numbered JG 300 , JG 301 and JG 302. Ground operators would radio-direct single-seat fighters and night fighters to areas where
5301-443: The component of velocity parallel to the radar beam. To overcome this in use large amounts of chaff are deployed and then the aircraft will turn so that it moves predominantly perpendicular to the radar source. It may also rotate to minimize its cross section exposed to the radar beam. This leads to aircraft being more difficult to separate from the effectively stationary chaff and is known as "notching" as radar typically incorporate
5394-657: The concentrations of chaff were greatest (which would indicate the source of the chaff) for the fighter pilots to see targets, often against the illumination from fires and searchlights below. A few of the single-seat fighters had the FuG 350 Naxos device to detect H2S radar (the first airborne, ground scanning radar system) emissions from the bombers. Six weeks after the Hamburg raid, the Luftwaffe used Düppel in 80 cm × 1.9 cm (31.50 in × 0.75 in) lengths during
5487-456: The conflict knew how to use chaff to jam the other side's radar but had refrained from doing so for fear of their opponent replying in kind. Window rendered the ground-controlled Himmelbett (canopy bed) fighters of the Kammhuber Line unable to track their targets in the night sky and rendered the early UHF-band B/C and C-1 versions of the airborne intercept Lichtenstein radar (following
5580-500: The country, routed through Baghdad airspace due to its heavy air defenses. To counter this, the USAF established a "wall" of F-15s along the Iranian border to shoot down any aircraft attempting to flee. In order to facilitate the retreat of its air force, Iraq sought to shoot down these patrolling F-15s. Planning for Operation Samurra had begun as early as 18 January, when the IQAF was bolstered by
5673-738: The course of the campaign, followed by the United States Navy with over 400 aircraft and the United States Marine Corps with approximately 240. Collectively, the other Coalition partners accounted for over 600 aircraft. Saudi Arabia , Kuwait, Bahrain , Qatar , and the United Arab Emirates all contributed air forces to the campaign, as did the United Kingdom ( Operation Granby ), France ( Opération Daguet ), Canada ( Operation Friction ) and Italy ( Operazione Locusta ). South Korea , Argentina and New Zealand provided
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#17328524878265766-527: The deadline set in United Nations Security Council Resolution 678 , the coalition launched a massive air campaign, which began the general offensive codenamed Operation Desert Storm with more than 1,000 sorties launching per day. It began on 17 January 1991, at 2:38 AM, Baghdad time, when Task Force Normandy (eight US Army AH-64 Apache helicopters led by four US Air Force MH-53 Pave Low helicopters) destroyed Iraqi radar sites near
5859-690: The decoy, and using the chaff as a reflector to provide angular separation. While foil chaff is still used by certain aircraft, such as the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bomber, this type is no longer manufactured. The chaff used by aircraft such as the Fairchild-Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II , McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle , General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon , and McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet consists of aluminium-coated glass fibres. These fibre " dipoles " are designed to remain airborne for as long as possible, having
5952-410: The defensive. Dietz attempted to disengage, heading east. Hehemann, still engaged with as-Sammarai, fired another missile, and then found himself under lock-on by the now unoccupied Awad. Hehemann avoided Awad's missile with the use of chaff and flares . As-Sammarai and Awad then disengaged to the west in full afterburner, back towards Tammuz Air Base . At the same time, "Xerex 31" was returning from
6045-517: The end of the war, electricity production was at four percent of its pre-war levels. Nearly all Iraqi dams , most major pumping stations, and many sewage treatment plants, whether via deliberate bombing or lack of electricity, were rendered non-functional. Telecommunications equipment, port facilities, oil refineries and distribution, railroads and bridges were also destroyed as a result of Coalition bombing efforts. Iraqi targets were located by aerial photography and GPS coordinates. According to
6138-469: The end of the war, the estimated number of Iraqi civilians killed was 2,278 killed and 5,965 wounded. On 13 February 1991, a United States Air Force (USAF) warplane fired two laser-guided missiles at an air raid shelter in the Al-A'amiriya neighborhood of Baghdad, killing at least 408 civilians sheltering there. U.S. officials subsequently claimed that the shelter also served as a communications center for
6231-646: The eve of Operation Desert Storm, the Coalition of the Gulf War numbered 2,430 fixed-wing aircraft in the Kuwaiti Theater of Operations (KTO), almost three-fourths of which belonged to the United States Armed Forces . When the ground assault began on 24 February, that number had increased to over 2,780. Representing a relatively high tooth-to-tail ratio , approximately 60 percent of Coalition aircraft were "shooters" or combat aircraft . The United States Air Force deployed over 1,300 aircraft during
6324-422: The ground, and 137 aircraft were flown to Iran and never returned. The Coalition lost a total of 75 aircraft—52 fixed-wing aircraft and 23 helicopters–during Desert Storm, with 39 fixed-wing aircraft and 5 helicopters lost in combat. One coalition fighter was lost in air-air combat, a U.S. Navy F/A-18 piloted by Scott Speicher . Other Iraqi air to air claims surfaced over the years, all were disputed. One B-52G
6417-469: The ground. From the viewpoint of an enemy radar, the chaff quickly decays to zero relative velocity. Modern radars use the Doppler effect to measure the line-of-sight velocity of objects, and can thus distinguish chaff from an aircraft, which continues to move at high speed. This allows the radar to filter out the chaff from its display. To counteract this filtering, the JAFF or CHILL technique has been developed. This uses an additional jammer broadcaster on
6510-511: The idea and came up with a scheme for dumping packets of aluminium strips from aircraft to generate a cloud of false echoes. An early idea was to use sheets the size of a notebook page; these would be printed so they would also serve as propaganda leaflets . It was found that the most effective version was strips of black paper backed with aluminium foil , exactly 27 cm × 2 cm (10.63 in × 0.79 in) and packed into bundles each weighing 1 pound (0.45 kg). The head of
6603-448: The lack of adequate terrain for concealment hindered their operations, and some of them were killed or captured such as occurred with the widely publicised Bravo Two Zero patrol of the SAS . Coalition bombing raids destroyed Iraqi civilian infrastructure. 11 of Iraq's 20 major power stations and 119 substations were totally destroyed, while a further six major power stations were damaged. At
6696-616: The last true offensive operation of the IQAF before grounding their air assets in an attempt to preserve them for future use. Through careful planning and coordination, two MiG-25 jets successfully caught two USAF F-15 fighters, of the 53rd Tactical Fighter Squadron out of Al Kharj Air Base , off guard and engaged them in a dogfight. By January 19, 1991 it had become apparent to Iraqi leadership that they could not engage Coalition air forces openly. President of Iraq Saddam Hussein had ordered most of his air assets to be conserved inside of bunkers in an attempt to save them for future use against
6789-536: The next day. These missile attacks on Israel were to continue throughout the six weeks of the war. On the first night of the war, two F/A-18s from the carrier USS Saratoga were flying outside of Baghdad when two Iraqi MiG-25s engaged them. In the beyond-visual-range (BVR) kill, an Iraqi MiG-25 piloted by Zuhair Dawood fired an R-40RD missile, shooting down an American F/A-18C Hornet and killing its pilot, Lieutenant Commander Scott Speicher . In an effort to demonstrate their own air offensive capability, on 24 January
6882-405: The night fighters, their radar displays swamped with false echoes, utterly failed to find the bomber stream. For over a week, Allied attacks devastated a vast area of Hamburg, resulting in more than 40,000 civilian deaths, with the loss of only 12 out of the 791 bombers on the first night. Squadrons quickly had special chutes fitted to their bombers to make chaff deployment even easier. Seeing this as
6975-519: The non-fiction book, Armored Cav by Tom Clancy, in August 1990, a USAF senior officer arrived at Baghdad International Airport carrying a briefcase with a GPS receiver inside. After being taken to the U.S. embassy he took a single GPS reading in the courtyard of the complex. Upon return to the U.S. the coordinates were used as the basis for designating targets in Baghdad. Coalition forces bombed highways across
7068-410: The orientation from Saudi Arabia straight to Baghdad, and attacking aircraft would be able to approach their target from multiple directions. Like its aircraft, much of Iraq's ground air defenses were also outdated: SA-2 and SA-3 systems were nearing the end of their operational lifespan and their countermeasures were well-known at this point, while its other SAM systems were not much younger. Furthermore,
7161-479: The patrols, "Xerex 31" was approaching "bingo fuel" which necessitated an hour and a half round trip to an aerial tanker . This left just two F-15 jets, "Xerex 33" piloted by USAF Capt. Thomas Dietz, and another by 1st Lt. Robert Hehemann, in the area. Recognizing the opportunity, two MiG-25s were scrambled from two separate air bases. Capt. Mahmoud Awad took off from Qadessiya Air Base , while Capt. Mohammed Jassi as-Sammarai took off from Tammuz Air Base. After engaging
7254-478: The region, thereby damaging road infrastructure and killing or injuring numerous civilians, many of whom were foreign nationals evacuating Iraq and Kuwait. The U.S. government claimed Iraqi officials fabricated numerous attacks on Iraqi holy sites in order to rally the Muslim world to support Iraq during the conflict, pointing to Iraq's claim that Coalition forces had attacked the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala . At
7347-536: The result of Iraqi action. The other 33 were lost to accidents. In particular, RAF and US Navy aircraft which flew at low altitudes to avoid radar were particularly vulnerable, though this changed when the aircrews were ordered to fly above the AAA. 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 lower levels
7440-563: The six Coalition aircraft carrier battle groups ( CVBG ) in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea . During the initial 24 hours 2,775 sorties were flown, including seven B-52s which flew a 35-hour nonstop 14,000-mile round-trip from Barksdale Air Force Base and launched 35 AGM-86 CALCM cruise missiles against eight Iraqi targets. The carrier battle groups operating in the Persian Gulf included those of USS Midway , USS Theodore Roosevelt , while those of USS Ranger , USS America , USS John F. Kennedy , and USS Saratoga operated from
7533-478: The skies, and not a single offensive sortie was even attempted during the ground phase of the war. Most of the MiG-25's in Iraq's arsenal survived the war, and went on to serve until the 2003 invasion of Iraq when they were buried, by which time they remained in various states of airworthiness. Dietz and Hehemann would go on to be the highest scoring fighter pilots of the Gulf War , with three air-to-air kills apiece by
7626-498: The wake of Operation Opera (Kari in turn is the French spelling of Iraq backwards). Kari tied the entire IADS to a single location, the national Air Defense Operations Center (ADOC) located in an underground bunker in Baghdad , and in turn divided the country into four defense sectors each overseen by a Sector Operations Center (SOC) located at H-3 , Kirkuk , Taji and Talil ; a fifth SOC
7719-548: The war's end. Bigum and Broome finished the war with no kills. Gulf War air campaign Coalition victory Coalition intervention Naval operations Air campaign Liberation of Kuwait Post-ceasefire Operation Desert Storm , the combat phase of the Gulf War , began with an extensive aerial bombing campaign by the air forces of the coalition against targets in Iraq and Iraqi-occupied Kuwait from 17 January 1991 to 23 February 1991. Spearheaded by
7812-463: Was added at Ali Al Salem to cover the recently conquered Kuwait. Each SOC oversaw the local airspace and commanded anywhere from two to five Intercept Operations Centers (IOCs) per sector. The IOCs were located in bunkers constructed at Iraqi Air Force bases and tied into local radar systems, whose information they could pass on to their SOC and thence on to Baghdad. In this way a SOC was capable of simultaneously tracking 120 aircraft and selecting for
7905-545: Was an airborne jammer targeted at the German Freya radars, while Carpet targeted the gun-laying Würzburg radar . Ignorance about the extent of knowledge of the principle in the opposing air force led planners to judge that it was too dangerous to use, since the opponent could duplicate it. The British government's leading scientific adviser, Professor Lindemann , pointed out that if the Royal Air Force (RAF) used it against
7998-440: Was discouraged. Coalition planners hoped that Iraqi resistance would quickly collapse if deprived of command and control. The first week of the air war saw a few Iraqi sorties, but these did little damage, and 36 Iraqi fighter aircraft were shot down by Coalition planes. Soon after, the Iraqi Air Force began fleeing to Iran, with 115 to 140 aircraft flown there. This mass exodus of Iraqi aircraft took coalition forces by surprise as
8091-461: Was ever used. The systems used the same concept of small aluminium strips (or wires) cut to a half of the target radar's wavelength. When hit by the radar, such lengths of metal resonate and re-radiate the signal. Opposing defences would find it almost impossible to distinguish the aircraft from the echoes caused by the chaff. Other radar-confusing techniques included airborne jamming devices codenamed Mandrel, Piperack, Jostle and Carpet . Mandrel
8184-570: Was lost while returning to its operating base on Diego Garcia, when it suffered a catastrophic electrical failure and crashed into the Indian Ocean killing 3 of the 6 crew members on board. The rest of the Coalition losses came from anti-aircraft fire. The Americans lost 28 fixed-wing aircraft and 15 helicopters; the British lost 7 fixed-wing aircraft; the Saudi Arabians lost 2; the Italians lost 1; and
8277-521: Was provided by the Soviet Union, with Mirage pilots attending courses in France. Soviet trainers generally passed everyone but assessed less than half of the IQAF students would have been accepted into Soviet fighter units. French training (which the Iraqis considered decidedly superior to Soviet) resulted in an 80% failure rate; nevertheless those who failed were qualified to fly upon return to Iraq. In all,
8370-434: Was superior to its Iraqi counterpart. This was particularly the case in special capabilities which the Iraqis simply lacked, including aerial refueling , airborne command and control , electronic warfare , precision munitions and stealth aircraft . Such capabilities were primarily (if not exclusively) provided for by the United States. In space, sixteen military communications satellites (fourteen of which belonged to
8463-644: Was testing a highly specialised over-the-horizon radar , detected a large number of Iraqi patrol boats and naval vessels attempting to make a run from Basra and Umm Qasr to Iranian waters. Outlaw Hunter vectored in strike elements, which attacked the Iraqi naval flotilla near Bubiyan Island , destroying eleven vessels and damaging scores more. Concurrently, U.S. Navy BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles struck targets in Baghdad, and other coalition aircraft struck targets throughout Iraq. Government buildings, TV stations, airfields, presidential palaces, military installations, communication lines, supply bases, oil refineries,
8556-578: Was the destruction of Iraqi command and control bunkers, Scud missile launch pads and storage areas, telecommunications and radio facilities, and airfields . The attack began with a wave of deep-penetrating aircraft – F-111s , F-15Es , Tornado GR1s , F-16s , A-6s , A-7Es , and F-117s , complemented by F-15C , F-14s and Air Defense Tornados . 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. The sorties were launched mostly from Saudi Arabia and
8649-403: Was working with at the time. Early tests failed as the foil strips stuck together and fell as clumps to little or no effect. Bly solved this by designing a cartridge that forced the strips to rub against it as they were expelled, gaining an electrostatic charge . Since the strips all had a similar charge they repelled each other, enabling the full countermeasure effect. After the war, Bly received
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